TORONTO.- Memory and history collide in Recuerdo: Latin American Photography at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), opening May 2, 2025. A deep exploration of the AGO’s photography collection, Recuerdo presents over 100 works that capture diverse dimensions of Latin America, as seen through the lens of foundational Latin American image-makers, artists based in the diaspora, and Canadian photographers who have deeply engaged with the region. Ranging from self-portraits, landscapes, architectural studies, and searing political reportage, the exhibition marks the debut of recently acquired and previously unseen works.

Curated by Marina Dumont-Gauthier, AGO Curatorial Assistant, Photography, the exhibition stems from her exploration of the AGO photography collection. 'My starting point was the question does Latin American refer to works done in Latin America, by Latin American makers, about Latin America, or all of the above?' asks Dumont-Gauthier. “In the word Recuerdo—a Spanish word that can mean both ‘memory’ and ‘I remember’— I found a helpful frame, a reminder that these works reflect people, places and memories simultaneously past and present, and are both ‘of’ and ‘from’ what we call Latin America. The exhibition, is a unique reflection of Toronto’s own proximity to and connections with Latin America and expands our understanding of the region’s relationship with the medium.”

On view in the Edmond G. Odette Family Gallery and Robert & Cheryl McEwen Gallery on Level 1, the exhibition opens with a rich exploration of Mexico’s landscape and culture. Highlighting black-and-white photographs by Lola Álvarez Bravo, this section delves into the country’s visual narratives from the 1920s to the 1990s, through works by Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Flor Garduño, Tina Modotti, and Canadian artists Robert Boudreau, Reva Brooks, and Michel Lambeth.

Affirming the department’s commitment to collecting artists in depth, the exhibition includes an installation of more than thirty images by Mexican photographer Graciela Iturbide (b. 1942). A former apprentice to Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Iturbide gained renown for her photography of Indigenous communities across Mexico in the 1970s. The works on view span the length of her prolific career and include several important bodies of work, such as her photographs of the Seris people, an Indigenous community living in the Sonora Desert; the Zapotecs in Juchitán de Zaragoza, Oaxaca; a selection of self-portraits; and images from her time in India. The AGO is home to Canada’s largest public collection of Iturbide’s work in Canada. This connection dates to 1988, when her work was shown in Canada as part of the Canada/Mexico Exchange. Archival material from this exchange is featured, shedding light on this significant chapter in the relationship between Toronto and Mexico.

Demonstrating the role photography played in shaping both local and global perceptions of the region, the exhibition highlights various conflicts from the 1970s and 1990s. Michael Mitchell and Larry Towell’s coverage of guerrilla warfare in Central America, are presented alongside Italian press photos of protests against Augusto Pinochet’s coup in Chile and anonymous photographs documenting the return of exiled president Juan Perón to Argentina. This section also includes loans from The Image Centre’s Black Star Collection. Complementing this historical focus, Barbara Astman’s recent Dancing with Che series offers a striking contemporary reflection on what endures from these revolutionary decades: what is remembered, how, and why.

The exhibition concludes with evocative chromogenic prints by Chilean-born, Canadian artist Rafael Goldchain. After moving to Toronto in the 1970s and earning his BA in Photographic Studies from Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson Polytechnical Institute) in 1980, Goldchain travelled extensively throughout Mexico and Central America, producing two of his most significant bodies of work: Nostalgia for an Unknown Land (1986–1987) and Inventories (1986–1990).