LATIN AMERICA + THE CARIBBEAN
Each region within Latin America and the Caribbean has its unique history, identity, struggles, and cultural markers. The selection contained here, highlights the diversity of approaches, techniques, and interpretations of the multilayered histories that characterize Latin American and Caribbean cultures. Showing a multitude of perspectives and experiences, these artists, contemporary as well as earlier ones, provide points of entry for exploration and critical engagement with issues of memory, identity, popular culture, history, politics, immigration, and belonging, among others. The RMA collection contains examples of works by Latin American and Caribbean artists in different media, incorporating artists who address personal, regional, and universal issues from a critical point of view. Considered in dialogue with artists of other backgrounds and experiences, these works contribute to a more nuanced understanding of a multiplicity of topics.
Gonzalo Fuenmayor (Colombian, b. 1977)
Colombian artist Gonzalo Fuenmayor explores the influence of Latino culture in the United States through ironic charcoal drawings. Here he merges a well-known North American logo with a written reference to Latin America to explore issues of transnationalism and multiculturalism. Appropriating the logo from 20th Century Fox, Fuenmayor emphasizes the growing impact of Latino culture in American popular culture. Through skillful manipulation of charcoal, he creates the illusion of a black and white movie screen.
Accession Number: 2013.34.140
Title: God Bless Latin America
Date: 2013
Medium: Charcoal drawing
Rights: Image courtesy of the artist and Dot Fiftyone Gallery, Miami
KEYWORDS
film industry; representation; underrepresentation; Hollywood; popular culture; identity; Latin America.
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Francisco Zúñiga (Mexican, b. Costa Rica 1912-1998)
A small family sits at the table in a modest interior settinginthisworkbyCostaRicanborn,Mexicanartist Francisco Zúñiga. Renowned for his sculptures of indigenous women, Zúñiga’s figural representations are characterized by an emphasis on volume and form. In this image, the father and the young child look beyond their space while the mother fixes her gaze downward on the plate in front of her. The quiet scene captures the dignity of work and the importance of family, two constant themes in the artist’s work.
Accession Number: 2015.7
Title: La Comida
Date: 1980
Medium: Lithograph
Rights: Public domain
KEYWORDS
labor; identity; family; heritage; food; gender; Latin America.
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Carolina Caycedo (Colombian, b. England, 1978)
Caycedo investigates environmental justice, particularly those related to the privatization of natural resources and the politics of water. This work is part of the series Cosmotarrayas – a combination of “cosmo” and “atarraya,” Spanish for “cast net.” It consists of handmade fishing nets she bought from friends and markets in Girardot, Colombia. She then painted and arranged them in the various shapes in which the fishermen and women cast them, embodying individuals and their experiences.
Accession Number: 2019.2.18
Title: Karagabi
Date: 2019
Medium: Two artisanal hand-painted fishing nets, lead weights, steel rod and rope
Rights: © Caroline Caycedo
KEYWORDS
environment; nature; sculpture; resources; water; fishing; Latin America.
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Firelei Báez (Dominican, b. 1981)
Báez’s work addresses the history and construction of identity in diasporic societies. She mixes traditional painting techniques with decommissioned documents from libraries and archives. Here two silhouetted figures adorned with Rococo-style patterns appear over the plan of the Bayou St. John Bridge in New Orleans. A site tied to the flooding and aftermath of Hurricane Katrina functions as the backdrop for the physical struggle and invites reflection on the effects of colonialism and its legacies.
Accession Number: 2019.2.6
Title: An Open Horizon (or the stillness of a wound)
Date: 2019
Medium: Acrylic and oil on archival printed canvas
Rights: © Firelei Báez. Image courtesy of the artist and James Cohan, New York. Photo: Jackie Furtado
KEYWORDS
colonialism; Caribbean; Hurricane Katrina; historical documents; urban development; Latin America.
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Antonio Martorell (Puerto Rican, b. 1939)
This work articulates a response to the Puerto Rican government’s unwillingness to acknowledge the true number of fatalities that resulted from their lack of response and management after the devastation caused by Hurricane María. The silhouette of the island is formed by the obituaries of some of the almost 4,000 deceased. To the question ¿Quéslaque? a slang phrase that asks whassup?, the response is Es que la… a reference to the word esquela, or obituary.
Accession Number: 2019.9
Title: ¿Quéslaque? Es que la…
Date: 2018
Medium: Acrylic, collage and calligraphy on felt
Rights: Image courtesy of the artist
KEYWORDS
Caribbean; Hurricane María; politics; colonialism; identity; obituaries; Latin America.
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Sandra Ramos (Cuban, b. 1969)
In this video animation piece, Ramos depicts the pioneer girl—a semi-autobiographical character frequently present in her work –in several narrative vignettes trying to escape an aquarium-like glass enclosure placed around the island of Cuba. The piece emphasizes the decades of isolation the island has endured as a result of the economic embargo and the rupture in diplomatic relations with the US.
Accession Number: 2014.01.2
Title: Aquarium
Date: 2013
Medium: 3D video animation
Rights: Image courtesy of the artist
KEYWORDS
politics; Caribbean; identity; memory; barriers; migration; exile; Latin America.
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ADDITIONAL WORKS
Nathan Budoff, Cosmic Love, 2017
Frances Gallardo, Javier, 2021
María Magdalena Campos Pons, A Prayer for Obama, 2008-2014
José Figueroa, Olga, De la serie Exilio, 1967
Marina Rheingantz, Zebra, 2017
Alfredo Jaar, A Logo for America, 1987/2014
