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June Issue 2008
Weatherspoon Art Museum in Greensboro,
NC, Presents Contemporary Latin Works
The Weatherspoon Art Museum at the University of North Carolina - Greensboro, in Greensboro, NC, will serve this summer as the only North Carolina/mid-Atlantic venue for the nationally traveling exhibition, TRANSactions: Contemporary Latin American and Latino Art. The exhibition was originated by the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD), where it premiered, and was drawn from their renowned permanent collection. Interim venues have been the Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester and the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA. TRANSactions will be on view at the Weatherspoon Art Museum from June 20 through Sept. 28, 2008.
To date, no such major presentation of Latin American and Latino art has been seen in our state and, yet, the Latino population is one of its fastest growing sectors. The impact of this newly emerging group is significant to North Carolina's economy as well as to its cultural make-up. The Weatherspoon Art Museum is proud to sponsor the first major project to highlight and make available to the regional public the artistic contributions of contemporary Latin American and Latino art.
Located in a major gateway community to Central and South America that is also a twin city to Tijuana, Mexico, MCASD has made a priority of collecting art of both the immediate region and work by artists of the Americas; as a result, it has built one of the foremost collections of Latin American and Latino art in the country. TRANSactions will showcase key works and new commissions that demonstrate the diverse and hybrid nature of contemporary Latin American art. Highlighting artists who work across media and between disciplines, the exhibition shows connections and encounters between Latinos working within the United States and artists from Latin America. It is one of the few exhibitions to show Latino as well as Latin American artists together, examining the zones of convergence, tension, and expansion among the various paths taken by each artist. One of the goals of the exhibition is to celebrate the heterogeneous nature of contemporary Latin American and Latino art in order to dismantle preconceptions and promote new interpretations.
TRANSactions uses a map of Latin America that covers all of Central and South American as well as the Caribbean and the United States and thus reflects the diverse Latin population in our region. Like Latin American artists, who hail from varied countries and cultures, the Latino population of the US does not comprise one sole entity, but rather an amalgam of races, classes, and national heritages that elude any attempt at easy classification.
Approximately 50 works by 35 internationally recognized Latin American and Latino artists are included in the exhibition, which is accompanied by a 200 page full-color, bilingual catalogue with an essay and individual artist entries by Dr. Stephanie Hanor, exhibition curator at MCASD. MCASD has made a priority of collecting art of both its immediate region and works by artists of the Americas, including significant examples by Jose Bedia, Maria Fernanda Cardoso, Enrique Chagoya, Silvia Gruner, Alfredo Jaar, Vik Muniz, Gabriel Orozco, and Doris Salcedo. Bilingual didactic wall texts and labels will interpret the exhibition and the Weatherspoon will provide additional bilingual support for its public programs, website, and audio tours.
For further information check our NC Institutional
Gallery listings, call the gallery at 336/334-5770 or visit (www.weatherspoon.uncg.edu).
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