TEMPE, ARIZONA.- 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.

The ASU Art Museum showcases 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.