New York Diary: Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960–1985 at Brooklyn Museum

Gloria Camiruaga (Chile 1941-2006 Chile). Popsicles 1982-84. Video, colour, sound: 6:00 min

Gloria Camiruaga (Chile 1941-2006 Chile). Popsicles 1982-84. Video, colour, sound: 6:00 min

 

Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960–1985 at Brooklyn Museum is an important exhibition about contributions to contemporary art of Latin American and Latina women artists during a period of conceptual and aesthetic experimentation.

The exhibition features 123 artists from 15 countries, the complete list of artists can be found here, and focuses on their use of the female body for political and social critique and artistic expression.

The exhibition is on until 22 July 2018 and I strongly suggest you visit, and take your daughters, sisters, nieces to this. (Note: This exhibition contains mature content.)

The artists pioneer radical forms and explore a female sensibility with overt or, more often, covert links to feminist activism. Many works were realized under harsh political and social conditions, some due to U.S. interventions in Central and South America, that were complicated or compounded by the artists’ experiences as women.

The artworks on view range from painting and sculpture to photography, video, performance, and other new mediums.

Included are emblematic figures such as Lygia Pape, Ana Mendieta, and Marta Minujín, alongside lesser‐known names such as Cuban‐born abstract painter Zilia Sánchez; Colombian sculptor Feliza Bursztyn; Peruvian composer, choreographer, and activist Victoria Santa Cruz; and Argentine mixed‐media artist Margarita Paksa.

The Brooklyn presentation also includes Nuyorican portraits by photographer Sophie Rivera, as well as work from Chicana graphic arts pioneer Ester Hernández, Cuban filmmaker Sara Gómez, and Afro-Latina activist and artist Marta Moreno Vega. 

Watch these two videos about the exhibition. Note: The videos and exhibition contains mature content.