This is the first exhibition to explore the groundbreaking contributions to contemporary art of Latin American and Latina women artists during a period of extraordinary conceptual and aesthetic experimentation. Featuring 123 artists from 15 countries, Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960–1985 focuses on their use of the female body for political and social critique and artistic expression. (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.
View a PDF listing all of the artists included in the exhibition.
Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960–1985 is organized by the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, as part of Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, an initiative of the Getty with arts institutions across Southern California, and guest curated by Cecilia Fajardo-Hill and Andrea Giunta with Marcela Guerrero, former curatorial fellow, Hammer Museum. The Brooklyn presentation is organized by Catherine J. Morris, Sackler Senior Curator, and Carmen Hermo, Assistant Curator, Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Brooklyn Museum.
This exhibition is made possible through lead grants from the Getty Foundation. Major funding is provided by the Diane and Bruce Halle Foundation and Eugenio López Alonso. Generous support is provided by Marcy Carsey, Betty and Brack Duker, Susan Bay Nimoy, and Visionary Women. Leadership support for the Brooklyn Museum presentation is provided by the Ford Foundation. Major support is provided by Pedro J. Torres and Cecilia Picon, the Starry Night Fund, the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, Brooklyn Friends of Radical Women, and Bank of America. Additional support is provided by the Clarissa and Edgar Bronfman Jr. Foundation, Christina and Emmanuel Di Donna, Cristina Grajales Gallery, Dominique Lévy and Brett Gorvy, Susan Bay Nimoy, and the Mexican Cultural Institute.