The exhibition at the Museo del Barrio, in New York City, is presenting the work of 33 emerging and established artists. It includes figures who have never had a museum exhibition before, such as the 95-year-old Venezuelan clay artist Magdalena Suarez Frimkess
By Ana Vidal Egea
On the opening night of the second Latinx art triennial, New York’s Museo del Barrio welcomed 650 people over the course of four hours. This was a predictably high turnout, given that it’s one of the largest exhibitions of contemporary Latino art in the world. The first edition took place in 2021, in the midst of the pandemic.
The title of the triennial — Flow States — reflects the curatorial work carried out by María Elena Ortiz, Susanna Temkin and Rodrigo Moura to expand on the meaning of what’s considered “Latino,” going beyond a specific geography.
“[This exhibit considers] Latinx artists from an expansive perspective based on imperialist colonial history,” Ortiz notes. That’s why the exhibition also includes the work of Indigenous artists, such as Mario Martínez, as well as Filipinos, such as Norberto Roldán. The idea is to also show the complexity of the diaspora, by including artists whose mother tongue isn’t Spanish, but whose roots are Latino (as their names prove). This conceptualization reconnects various personal paths, which involve movement and can be very different from each other. Yet, what they have in common is the fact that, as metamorphosis takes place, individuals are exposed to vulnerability, exclusion and loss.
