RAMPA:
Signaling New Latin American Art Initiatives
Arizona State University Art Museum
March 5 through August 20, 2005
Oscar Oiwa, Neve Negra (Black Snow),
2003, oil on canvas, 89 _ x 174 _ inches (detail). Collection of the Arizona
State University Art Museum
Dates: March 5 – August 20, 2005 in Lower Level South gallery
Opening Reception:
Saturday, March 5, 7-9 p.m.
RAMPA: Signaling New Latin American Art Initiatives
Latin American art entered the Arizona State University Art Museum among its
earliest acquisitions. The Latin American collection is comprised of over
800 works. Plans are now developing to expand the collection to include work
by artists of the Southern Cone. A seminal part of the Museum’s collection
for over a half century, Latin American art’s vitality and its relevance
to our geographic location and to contemporary themes of globalization make
it an engaging focus and a dynamic strategy to the advancement of the Museum.
In March 2005, the ASU Art Museum will showcase works from the Latin American collection, complemented by works on loan from Arizona collectors and beyond. The project reflects the ongoing commitment of the ASU Art Museum to present new and challenging work, and to create exhibitions that engage the audience in new ways, bringing the museum toward “social embeddedness,” a University priority. Its emphasis on Latin American artists reflects the University commitment to Pan-American initiatives and the expansion of the museum exhibition, education, and collecting programs to works of art from that region.
The exhibited works will be as diverse in content, in materials used, historically, and in artists’ geographic origins as the countries referenced when referring to Latin America. Those nationalistic boundaries continue to be blurred as evidenced by the work produced by artists responding to personal, economic, social, and political issues of the human condition.
The Museum’s expanded Latin American initiatives in educational and exhibition programming and in collecting are signaled by the inclusion of works by Brazilian artists, which is a result of the first patron and curatorial research trip to Brazil in October 2004. A second trip is scheduled for September 2005. Latin American art entered the Arizona State University Art Museum among its earliest acquisitions. A seminal part of the Museum’s collection for over a half century, Latin American art is more relevant than ever in the Southwest and the context of globalization.
Latin America continues to produce lively work of excellent quality. This exhibition presents works diverse in content and the geographic origins of the artists within Latin America. No single theme or stylistic tendency unifies them other than a certain vitality and freshness.
Artists in the Exhibition and Lenders:
The exhibition includes work from the Museum’s permanent collection,
including recent acquisitions of works by Brazilians Efrain Almeida, Tiago
Carneiro da Cunha, and Oscar Oiwa and by Cuban artists José Emilio
Fuentes, Aimée Garcia, and Carlos Montes de Oca. Collectors both from
this region and internationally have generously lent twentieth century and
contemporary works by Carlos Alfonzo, Belkis Ayón, Ricardo Basbaum,
José Bechara, Magdalena Campos Pons, Los Carpinteros, Franklin Cassaro,
Enrique Chagoya, Martín Chambi, Flor Garduño, Luis Gonzales
Palma, Felix Gonzales-Torres, Jarbas Lopes, Jorge Macchi, Raul Mourão,
Lucio Muniain, Rivane Neuenschwander, Rosana Palazyan, Miguel Rio Branco,
Fernando Rodríguez, David Alfaro Siquieros, Valeska Soares, José
A. Toirac, Tunga, Pedro Vizcaino, and Nahum Zenil. Collectors lending works
include Rea Bennett and Jim Kaufman, Sandy and Steve Davis, Diane and Bruce
Halle, Linda Hirshman and David Forkosh, Laurie and George Jackson, Stéphane
Janssen, Sara and David Lieberman, Fran and Steve Magee, Gail and Steve Rineberg,
Donna and Howard Stone, Neil and Monique de los Rios Urban, Abby Whitenack,
Judy and Sid Zuber, and anonymous lenders.
ASU Art Museum Presentation
Organized by the Arizona State University Art Museum and made possible in
part by Peter Shikany/PS Studios, Lisa Sette/Lisa Sette Gallery, Fran and
Steve Magee, the Museum’s Advisory Board of Directors, and Friends of
the ASU Art Museum. In kind support provided by Ben Franklin Press, Marilou
George, Tatiana Hensley, and Interlingua Language School, with invaluable
support and assistance from Marilyn and Brad Brados, Arizona’s Brazilian
Consul.
Duration
Rampa: Signaling New Latin American Art Initiatives (March 5 through
August 20, 2005) is open at the ASU Art Museum: Tuesday from 10am –
9pm, and Wednesday through Saturday from 10am to 5pm.
Support
Organized by the Arizona State University Art Museum and made possible in
part by Peter Shikany/PS Studios, Lisa Sette/Lisa Sette Gallery, Fran and
Steve Magee, and Friends of the ASU Art Museum. In kind support provided by
Interlingua, Tatiana Hensley, and Marilou George.
Special thanks to staff members affiliated with the following organizations for their generosity and assistance: ASU President Michael Crow's Office of Pan American Initiatives; A Gentil Carioca and L.U.R.I.X.S. Gallery in Rio de Janeiro; Thomas Cohn Gallery, Museum of Contemporary Art at the University of São Paulo, and Fortes Vilaça Gallery in São Paulo; and to Masterpiece International, Ltd. Fine Art Shipping, El Segundo, CA.
2004-05 and 2005-06 curatorial research and development is made possible in part through in-kind sponsorship support from TAM Brazilian Airlines.
ASU Art Museum Exhibitions
Selected past exhibitions at the ASU Art Museum include:
Contemporary Art from Cuba: Irony and Survival
on the Utopian Island
Codex Mendez: Prints by Leopoldo Mendez (1902-1969)
Cops and Robbers: Drawings by Lucio Muniain
LANDSCAPE IN THE FIREPLACE: Paintings by Pedro
Alvarez
Cuban Art from the Permanent Collection
Mexican Folk Art in Context Selections
from the Vanesian Collection
More information: John Spiak, spiak@asu.edu.
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