Folding: Line, Space & Body

 Latin American Women Artists Working Around Abstraction

Aimé Iglesias Lukin

Folding is the action through which a line turns into a figure, a plane becomes tridimensional, and a painting becomes an object. And beyond all these actions, we see how representation becomes presentation.

Since the historical avant-garde, the quest for an art that transcended the representation of reality has led artists to create abstract art and to focus on the material objecthood of a painting or sculpture. This exhibition presents the work of Latin American women artists from the 1950s through the present day, showing the different ways in which they worked with abstraction and geometry to explore the space of the artwork and that of the spectator, as mediated by the body.

Latin American abstraction has gained recognition worldwide in the last decade. Exhibitions like “Inverted Utopias,” curated by Mari Carmen Ramírez and Héctor Olea in 2004 and “The Geometry of Hope,” curated by Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro in 2007, presented the diverse abstract movements that developed in the Post War Latin American metropolis, from Joaquín Torres García and Escuela del Sur in Montevideo, to Arte Concreto Invención and Madí in Buenos Aires, the Ruptura group in São Paulo and the work of Alejandro Otero and Jesús Rafael Soto in Caracas.

In all of these avant-garde scenes, women artists gained—not without struggle—a place of recognition and a social circle in which they could develop their profession with relative tolerance. Still, except a few exceptions like Gego, Lygia Clark and Lygia Pape, it is mostly male artists we see represented in museums and art history books. This exhibition does not intend to resolve that problem, which is of a much larger scale, but aims to present some of their production and to explore the formal and creative connections among this diverse group of artists from the continent. This show also chooses to escape the historical understanding of abstraction, which is referred to here not as the Post-war movement but more broadly as a creative strategy that has continued through the decades. In this way, Judith Lauand’s planimetric work of 1960 can be seen alongside the contemporary pyramidal sculptures of Marta Chilindrón, and the use of the grid in 1950s and 1960s abstraction can be observed in Anna Bella Geiger’s video Passagens II from 1974 or in Emilia Azcarate’s Sudoku series from 2009.

The earliest-made piece in the show is that of Uruguayan artist María Freire, who co-founded in 1952 the group Arte No-Figurativo along with her husband José Pedro Costigliolo, Antonio Llorens and other artists. Works like Composición vertical (1956), show her interest in orthogonal compositions and planar superimpositions, which along with her use of line demonstrate her interest not simply in abstraction and space but more specifically in dynamism. In a similar spirit, but resulting in a very different work, Judith Lauand’s Concrete 178 (1960) presents a flat geometric composition, in monochrome grays, that through a careful use of lines and planes suggests a volumetric and angular surface. Known as the “Dama do concretismo,” Lauand was the only female member of Brazil’s Grupo Ruptura, and created unique works through a very personal use of geometry, mathematics and space.

In contrast, Mercedes Pardo’s acrylic painting Untitled (c. 1975) explores space recession not through line but using color fields. The Venezuelan artist, who was a pioneer of abstract art in Venezuela along with her husband Alejandro Otero, focused on a sensorial use of color in abstract compositions to achieve the autonomy of painting. Along with Pardo, the other representative of geometric abstraction from Venezuela in this exhibition is Margot Römer, whose triptych from the series Plomos Despojados (1995) uses the panel subdivisions to present three variations of a rectangular structure by alternating the color distribution. A similar emphasis in color is seen in Acrylic No. 7, painted in 1978 by Colombian artist Fanny Sanín, who creates a complex arrangement of intersecting rectangles of different purple hues. This simple alteration of tone in one color still allows Sanín to create a rich composition of receding planes that suggests rhythmic movement and dynamism. Indeed, movement is directly incorporated in Essai de Couleur Animée, a film made by Ana Sacerdote in between 1959 and 1965 in which she interposes geometric chromatic compositions, animating their shapes.

The case of Regina Aprijaskis exemplifies the difficulties of being a woman artist and of combining work and personal life. The Peruvian artist was developing a fruitful career and became interested in abstraction in the 1950s and 1960s after two trips to New York, but abandoned painting in 1970 following the coup d’état in Peru two years earlier, to work alongside her husband in his factory. Her 1996 acrylic painting Negro, rojo y blanco demonstrates how her interest in geometric abstraction stayed intact after a 26-year hiatus, at the same time the choice of the Peruvian flag’s colors seems to speak directly about her country’s political and social struggles.

Other works in the show leave color aside and refer to the white monochrome also with the means of exploring geometry and space.  That is the case of Ana Mercedes Hoyos’ 1970s series Atmósferas, where subtle variations of white hues suggest surfaces on the canvas. Similarly, Anna Maria Maiolino’s Light Image (1971) depends on a simple square embossing on paper to invoke the tradition of the monochrome. The square is also the theme of Gego’s Dibujo sin papel 79/14, made in 1979. Famous for her Reticuláreas, or net sculptures, in this work the Venezuelan artist uses wire and metal to frame a piece of the wall, allowing the shadow to become part of the work, continuing the integration of work and exhibition space that allowed her work to spatially affect the spectator.

The relationship between the gallery space and the visitor’s body became a main topic of interest for artists in the late 1960s, notably within Minimalism and among Western artists, but similar creative inquiries were being made in Latin America. Argentinean artist Noemí Escandell created sculptural projects such as Rectangles and Squares and Volumes, Bodies and Displacements, both from 1966, in which basic geometric shapes are combined in odd dispositions to affect the tridimensional perception of the object. In Venezuela, Antonieta Sosa was doing similar work with pieces like Stable-Unstable (1967/2014), which put into question geometry and the laws of gravity while simultaneously presenting organically aesthetic objects.

The body would later be presented directly, rather than invoked, in the work of artists such as Liliana Porter and Yeni & Nan. The Argentine is represented with her 1973 work Untitled (Line), in which her finger is photographed as interrupting a line, one that transcends the frame of the work onto the real space of the wall. In the Polaroid series Cuerpo y línea (1977), the Venezuelan duo Yeni & Nan position their bodies along the geometric designs of a tennis court, evolving the linear and geometric tradition of their home country to include performance and body art.

The urban space is also the canvas chosen by Brazilian conceptual artist Anna Bella Geiger, whose video Passagens II (1974) shows her body creating diagonal trajectories in the grid-like formation of the steps of a stairway. In a similar approach, Lotty Rosenfeld’s ongoing series Geometría de la línea, begun in 1979, intervenes the infinite number of broken white lines that divide a road with intersecting, transversal lines, in a formal but also powerfully political performance associated to her participation in the CADA group protesting the dictatorship in Chile. The relationship between geometry and power is explicit in Marta Minujín’s The Obelisk Lying Down (1978). The work, created for the first Latin American Biennial in São Pablo, presents the geometrical structure of the famous monumental form lying down, allowing spectators to walk through it in a democratizing and desacralizing gesture.

In the exhibition we also encounter more expressive uses of abstraction, where experimentation with materials led to more free-flowing forms. This is the case of Mirtha Dermisache’s graphisms from the 1970s, where the lines drawn by the Argentine artist sinuously move to create abstract texts. The abstract sculpture Untitled (1981) by Colombian artist Feliza Brusztyn, who in 1967 created the famous series of motorized sculptures Las histéricas, also combines dissonant materials into visually striking, amorphous objects. Trinidanian artist Valerie Brathwaite opts for anti-geometric shapes in her Soft Bodies, a series initiated in 2011, where the hanging and floor fabric sculptures play fluidly between the borders of figuration and abstraction.

After all these decades, geometry is still very much present in the work of younger artists. Sometimes the continuity takes place by claiming geometric abstraction directly, like Mercedes Elena González’s series September 1955 (2014), which re-conceptualizes the cover of the inaugural issue of the art and architecture magazine Integral to reevaluate the legacy of modernism in Venezuela. Others adapt geometric abstraction into new formats, like the wood piece Untitled (Free Construction No. 1) (2005) by Diana de Solares. In the case of Elizabeth Jobim’s Wall (2015), geometric shapes invade the wall and floor, overlapping each other and creating optical layers. Emilia Azcárate’s Untitled (Sudoku), from 2009 takes the grid of that game as influence and codifies numbers into colors, allowing her to create a meditative abstraction that juxtaposes the game’s problem with its solution. Formally opposite to this grid but equally colorful is Adriana Santiago’s Untitled from the series Maracaibo (2015), which combines pompoms into a frame in a playful and appealing tactile composition. The work of Marta Chilindrón retakes the tradition of dynamic planes and shapes of Gego and Lygia Clark but includes color as a key part of her manipulable works such as 27 Triangles (2011). Finally, Mariela Scafati goes back to the original questions of abstract painting in her works Tu nombre completo and Nueve minutos exactos, both from 2015, which literally –through bondage ropes— and conceptually –by transforming them into objects— tense the possibilities of what a painting can be: not a representation but an object, a body itself.

These interactions between the artwork, its surrounding spaces and the bodies that interact with it are present through the sixty years in which these artworks were created. The formal explorations initiated by the historical avant-gardes have not, as proven by the younger generation, exhausted themselves. This group of women artists from Latin America offer a wide range of answers to these questions, all personal but also collective. The line and the plane not only folded but became the body, expanding the shape of art above and beyond.

Artist Biographies:

Regina Aprijaskis (born Bordeaux, Peruvian, 1921-2013) began her training in the arts under the tutelage of Camilo Blas at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes in Lima, Peru, where she learned techniques of realism and figuration. Her trips to New York City in the 1950s and 60s introduced her to abstract expressionist painting and allowed her to study with Theodoros Stamos at the Art Students League. Aprijaskis had her first solo exhibition at the Instituto de Arte Contemporáneo in Lima in 1968, however when the military dictatorship was instated that same year Aprijaskis stopped painting in order to work with her husband in a factory and would not return to painting for another 27 years. In 1995 Aprijaskis’ work was presented at the Sala Luis Miró Quesada Garland in the Centro Cultural in Miraflores. She would continue making and exhibiting work until her death.

Emilia Azcárate (Caracas, 1964) studied Fine Arts at the Central Saint Martins School of Art in London in the eighties. She participated in La Llama International Artists Workshop in Venezuela and in the CCA7 artist-in-residency program in Trinidad. She won the first National Prize for Visual Arts Arturo Michelena in 1999 and in 2006 she was awarded the Cisneros Fontanals Foundation Grant Program (CIFO). Azcárate has had individual exhibitions in Distrito 4 Gallery, Madrid; Faría+Fabregas Gallery and Periférico Caracas, Caracas; Casa de America, Madrid; Caribbean Contemporary Arts 7, Port of Spain; Alejandro Otero Museum and Sala Mendoza, Caracas. She has also participated in numerous group exhibitions and biennials, in institutions such as the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana; Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria; Americas Society, New York; Museo de Arte Moderno Cuenca, Ecuador; São Paulo Biennale; Prague Biennale and the Havana Biennial. Her work is represented in various collections including the Sayago and Pardon Collection, Los Angeles; Cisneros Fontanals (CIFO) Collection, Miami; Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, New York; Museo Alejandro Otero, Caracas; Banco Mercantil Collection, Caracas; Berezdivin Collection, Puerto Rico; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Caracas; Banesco Foundation Collection, Caracas; Bank of Spain Collection and Coca Cola Foundation, Madrid. She lives and works in Madrid.

Valerie Brathwaite (Trinidad and Tobago, 1940) studied at The Royal College of Art and at L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Paris. First and foremost a sculptor, she also works with printing and drawing. She creates forms of organic abstraction, using simple sculptural volumes and sinuous lines, resembling the flora and fauna of the Caribbean. In 1969 she moved to Venezuela, and since has shown her work in Goldign in Periférico Caracas, Caracas (2008); Savino Inc. Miami (2009); Art Society of Trinidad and Tobago Building Port of Spain (2010); Galería G7, Cento de Arte los Galpones, Caracas (2011); Development Bank in Latin America: CAF Gallery, Caracas (2012) Oficina #1, Centro de los Galpones (2014). Her work is in the collections of The Museum of Contemporary Art, The Museum of Fine Art, The National Art Gallery, The Alejandro Otero Museum, all in Caracas.  In the beginning of this year she was part of a group show at Henrique Faria, New York, Drawings from South America II Chapter: Venezuela.

Feliza Bursztyn (Bogotá, Colombia 1933- Paris, France 1982) studied painting in the Art Students League in New York City and sculpture at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris. Bursztyn is known for redefining sculpture in Colombia. Around 1960, she began working with her iconic chatarras, or junk sculptures, where she welded scraps of metal and rusty steal. Bursztyn participated in the XVII National Salon (1965), wining first price for Sculptures, and in the Bienal de Medellín (1972). Other than the chatarras some famous works are, Histéricas (1967); Ciudad Blanca (2009); Las Camas (1974); La Última Cena (1976); Baila Mecánica (1979). Her studio was a meeting point for intellectuals such as Marta Traba, Gabriel García Márquez and Alejandro Obregón. In 1981, due to political conflicts in Colombia, she exiled herself to México and again in 1982 to Paris, where she suffered a heart attack January 8, 1982. After her death she left many of her works to the Colombian Ministry of Culture and the National Museum of Colombia.

Marta Chilindrón (b. 1951 Buenos Aires, 1951 - Lives in New York City since 1969) came to the United States to study at the State University of New York in Old Westbury. Later on she spent two summers in the Camnitzer-Porter Studio in Valdovatto, Italy, were she decided to pursue a life in the arts. Later on she studied with Julio Alpuy, who had been trained by Joaquín Torres García, where she came across geometric abstraction. In the 1990s she began experimenting with furniture forms, altering their shape and construction. From here emerged her collapsible sculptures, which can be opened and flattened alternating between flat, abstract and three-dimensional. In 2000 she began working with transparent and color acrylics, making the color of her sculptures manipulable as well. Her work forms part of collections such as Jack S. Blanton Museum, Austin, Texas; Cisnero Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami, Florida; El Museo del Barrio, New York, New York. She has done recent solo exhibitions at the Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, California (2013) and NYU’s Institute of Fine Art (2014). She has also participated in group shows including Asterismos: Nuevas Visiones de la Abstracción Geometrica en el Sur, Museo de Arte de las Americas, Washington, D.C. (2014); LA to LA, Selections from Sayago & Pardon Collection, LA Art Core, Los Angeles (2012); Fokus Lodz Biennale 2010, Lodz, Poland (2010); The Sites of Latin America Abstraction, MOLAA, Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, CA (2009) and CIFO (Cisneros Fontanals Foundation), Miami, FL (2006).

Mirtha Dermisache (Buenos Aires, 1940-2013) studied visual arts at the Manuel Belgrano and Prilidiano Pueyrredón National Schools of Fine Arts, respectively. In 1967 she finished her first 500-page book, afterwards continuing with the development of her graphisms, which continues to this day. Her works were published between 1970 and 1978 by the Center for Art and Communication, led by Jorge Glusberg. In the 70s her graphisms were published by Marc Dachy and Guy Schraenen in Antwerp and were also published in the magazines Flash art, Doc(k)s, Kontext, Ephemera and Ax. Additionally, Ulises Carrión exhibited her works in the gallery Other Books and So (Amsterdam), and Roberto Altmann did the same in the Malmö Konsthall (Sweden). During this same time, she created the Workshop of Creative Actions in Buenos Aires. Starting in 2004, and together with Florent Fajole, she carried out a series of publishing devices that explore the dimensions of the installation and the printing process, highlighting different conceptual aspects of publications in the same spatial reality. Her first solo show in Buenos Aires was in the gallery The Edge. Later, she exhibited her work at the MACBA (Barcelona) and the Center Pompidou (Paris). Her work has been acquired by institutions such as Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires; Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona; Museo de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.

Diana de Solares (Ciudad de Guatemala, 1952) studied architecture in the University of San Carlos de Guatemala, and later economy in Universidad Francisco Marroquín. She also studied independently with Juan de Dios González and Daniel Schafer. In 1996 she won the Glifo de Oro prize at the X Bienal de Arte Paiz, Ciudad de Guatemala, Guatemala. She also received a Rockefeller Grant, Bellagio, Italy. Her works comprise mainly of sculptures, where she intends to make “provisional drawings in space.” She works mainly with objects, images, and materials found in domestic or industrial environments. Recent solo shows include The Corrections, The 9.99 Gallery, Guatemala City, Guatemala (2014); Proyect Room- PRESENTS 2: Alma Ruiz presents Diana de Solares, Josee Bienvenue Gallery, New York City (2014) En Tránsito, Sol del Río Arte Contemporánea, Guatemala (2013); and Prótesis, Piegatto Arte, Guatemala (2013). Recent group shows include Dirty Geometry, Mana Contemporary, Miami (2014); Length x Width x Height, The 9.99 Gallery, Guatemala (2014); Y… ¿entonces?, The 9.99 Gallery, Guatemala (2013); and Existir en un estado de peligrosa distracción, Bienal de Arte Paiz, Guatemala (2010). Her work can be found in the collections of Teófilo Cohen (Mexico), Anabella y Fernanda Paiz (Guatemala), and Rina Carvajal (USA). She currently lives and works in Guatemala City.

Noemí Escandell (Santa Fe, Argentina, 1942) graduated from the Universidad Nacional de Rosario in 1964. Escandell founded Grupo de Arte de Vanguardia de Rosario and then in 1968 was cofounder of “Tucumán Arde”, which brought together artists from Rosario and Buenos Aires. In personal protest she refrained from exhibiting work during the military dictatorship and instead focused on teaching, joining the faculty at the Universidad Nacional de Rosario.

She has exhibited internationally in Argentina, Brazil, Sweden and the United States. She participated in the First Biennial of Mercosur (1987) and has most recently been featured in exhibitions at the Museo Castagnino+Macro (Rosario, 2013) and The Jewish Museum (New York, 2014). Her works were acquired by the Museo Castagnino+Macro and the Museo de la Memoria de Rosario. The artist lives and works in Rosario.

María Freire (Montevideo, 1917) trained at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Montevideo from 1938 to 1943, studying under José Cuneo and Severino Pose and at the Universidad del Trabajo under Antonio Pose. In the early 1950s, after meeting her future husband, the artist José Pedro Costigliolo, her work became influenced by European non-figurative art, such as Art Concret group, Georges Vantongerloo, and Max Bill. In 1952 she co-founded the Arte No-Figurativo group with Costigliolo in Montevideo, and exhibited with them in 1952 and 1953. Freire exhibited regularly in the National Salons from 1953 to 1972.  In 1953 Freire and Costigliolo were invited to the 2nd São Paulo Biennial, where they came into contact with Brazil's enthusiasm for geometric abstraction. In 1957 Freire and Costigliolo won the “Gallinal” travel grant which they used to live and study in Paris and Amsterdam, and to travel throughout Europe until 1960, meeting many of the historical pioneers of abstract art, including Antoine Pevsner and Georges Vantongerloo. She was invited again to the São Paulo Biennial in 1957 and the XXXIII Venice Biennale in 1966. Freire taught drawing in an Architecture Prep School and wrote art criticism for the journal Acción from 1962 to 1973. In 2000, she began to produce large-scale public sculpture in Uruguay. Freire lives and works in Montevideo.

Gego (Gertrud Goldschmidt) (Venezuelan, born in Germany 1912-1994) studied architecture at the Technische Hochschule, where she was pupil of Paul Bonatz. In 1939 she traveled to Venezuela where she solidified her career as a sculptor, draughtswoman and engraver as a professor at the school of architecture of the Central University. Later on in 1952, she adopted Venezuelan nationality. Her most popular works were produced during the 1960’s and 1970’s during the height of Geometric Abstraction and Kinetic art. A piece that combined her creative disciplines as an architect and sculptor was her 10-m tower design of aluminum and steel tubes for the headquarters of the Banco Industrial de Venezuela in Caracas (1962). Her later works explore the form of the web, using pieces of aluminum and steel to create interweaving nets. Titled, Reticuláreas, the webs would fill the entire gallery space. Again this work demonstrates Gego’s background in architecture and design through her manipulation of line and space. In 1980, she was awarded the Premio Nacional de Artes Plásticas in Venezuela. After her death, museums and galleries such as, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; The Drawing Center in New York; and the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, have organized solo shows in celebration of her work.

Anna Bella Geiger (Rio de Janeiro, 1933) studied Linguistics and Anglo-Germanic Language and Literature in Brazil, Sociology and Art History at NYU, and at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Geiger has taken part in numerous group exhibitions such as Espai de Lectura 1: Brasil at MACBA, Barcelona in 2009; Modern Women Single Channel at MoMA PS1, New York in 2011; and Video Vintáge at the Centre Pompidou, Paris in 2012. She represented Brazil in the XXXIX Venice Biennale in 1980. Geiger has had major solo exhibitions such as On a Certain Piece of Land at Red Gate Gallery, Beijing in 2005 and Projects: Videos XXI at MoMA in 1978. Geiger received the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1982 and her work is part of important collections such as MACBA in Barcelona, The Getty in Los Angeles, Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and MoMA in New York.

Mercedes Elena González (Caracas, Venezuela, 1952) studied art at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts from 1976-1980. Her work has been featured in solo exhibitions at Pelikan, Faría + Fábregas Galería, Caracas (2009); Obra Recente, Galería Valu Oria, São Paulo (2008); Bichus Invasion, Signature Art Gallery, Miami (2006); Entretejimientos, Sala Alternativa, Caracas (2001); Ascención, the Venezuelan Center Gallery, New York City (1996); and Dibujos, La Librería, Sala Mendoza, Caracas (1982 and 1977), among others. She has participated in group shows such as Ciudad Volátil, Centro Cultural Chacao, Caracas (2011); Figuración-Fabulación, Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas (2004); Muestra 2, Sala Alternativa, Mexico City (2003); La mujer venezolana en las artes, Wang Fu Gallery, Beijing and Festival Internacional de La Pinturee, Cagnes-sur-Mer, France (1995); Salón Nacional de Jóvenes Artistas, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Sofía Imber, Caracas (1981). González has won numerous awards for her work, including the Premio Armando Reverón, from Salón Michelena, Valencia (2002); the Gran Premio Salón Nacional de Arte Aragua, Maracay (2001); and the Bolsa de Trabajo Consejo Nacional de la Cultura (CONAC), Caracas (1976). Her work is included in both private and public collections internationally. She lives and works in Caracas.

Ana Mercedes Hoyos (Bogotá, 1942) studied visual arts in the Universidad de los Andes with professors Luciano Jaramillo, Marta Traba and Armando Villegas. She began exhibiting her work in 1966. She was awarded first place in the XXVII Salón Nacional de Artistas de Colombia for her series Ventanas (1974). From here on her work evolved in an abstract direction with her series Atmósferas (1978). In 1987 she began working with national themes. Some of these works include Bodegones de Palenque and the Papagayos series. She is also known for her sculpture works and installations. Some of these works include Las flores de luto, homenaje a Marta Traba(1983), Campo de girasoles (1984), Girasol (1984). She has done a great number of solo exhibitions such as at El Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá and Ana Mercedes Hoyos: Un decenio 1970-1980 at Centro Colombo Americano de Bogotá (1981). Her work is part of the permanent collections of El Museo de Arte Moderno Bogotá, Colombia; Colección de Arte Ibercaja, Zaragoza, Spain; Museo de Arte Moderno de Ciudad de México; Nassau County Museum of Art, New York.  

Elizabeth Jobim (Rio de Janeiro, 1957) is a drawer painter and printmaker who studied with Anna Bella Geiger, Aluíso Carvão, and Eduardo Sued at the Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro. She also studied visual communication at the Pontificia Universidade Católica do Río de Janeiro. From 1988 to 1989, she took specialization courses in History of Brazilian Art and Architecture. From 1990 to 1992, she completed a master’s degree in Fine Arts at the School of Visual Arts in New York. Since 1994 she has lectured in drawing and painting at the Escola de Artes Visuals do Parque Lage in Rio de Janeiro and has been exhibiting her work since the 1980’s. Important solo shows are Desenhos e Pinturas (1998), Aberturas (2006) and Blocos (2013). As to group shows she has participated in Como vai você, Geraçao 80? (1984), 13 Femmes de Rio (1988), Arte Contemporânea Brasileria (2001), Arte e Patrimônio (2008) and Art in Brazil (2011). Her work is in collections such as MAM Rio de Janeiro, Pinacoteca de São Paulo and Dulcec and João Carlos Figueiredo Ferraz-Ribeirão Preto, among others.

Judith Lauand (Pontal, Brazil; 1922) dedicated her life to painting in 1940, when she began her studies in Escola e Belas Artes in Araraquara, Sao Pãulo. Her early works demonstrate an expressionist influence. In 1952 she moved to São Paulo to study engraving with Livio Abramo. She dedicated herself to abstraction in 1953 and began to work with concrete art in 1954. In 1955 she was invited by Waldemar Cordeiro to participate in the Grupo Ruptura, who aimed to break away from the prevalent naturalist approach to painting. She participated in the Exposição Nacional de Arte Concreta in the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo in 1956 and in 1958 won the Leirner de Arte Contemporáneo Award. In 1963, she exhibited at the opening of NT Gallery - New Trends in São Paulo, with Hermelindo Fiaminghi and Luiz Sacilotto. In 1996 a retrospective was organized focusing on her works of the 1950’s. In October of 2014 Driscoll Babcock Galleries also featured a retrospective, Judith Lauand: Brazilian Modernist, 1950s-2000s.   

Ana Maria Maiolino (Brazil, 1942) was born in Italy in 1942 of Italian father and Equadorian mother. In 1954 she moved to Venezuela where she studied in Escuela Nacional Cristóbal Rojas “Pure Art” course. In 1960 she moved again to Brazil. In Rio de Janeiro she attended painting and woodcut free courses at the Escola Nacional De Bellas Artes. Here she met artists Antonio Dias and Rubens Gerchman and they introduced her to the “New Figuration” movement in Brazil. She participated in the 1967 exhibition, Nova Objetividade Brasileira, at the Museu de Arte Moderna. In the same year she also had her first solo exhibition in Brazil at Goeldi gallery, showing her woodcuts. In 1968 she became a Brazilian citizen and traveled to New York. In 1971 Pratt University granted her a scholarship to attend the International Graphic Center Workshop atelier. In 1989 the Brazilian Association of Art Critics granted the Mario Pedrosa Prize (which named the best show of the year), to her exhibition at the Pequeña Galería. Her first retrospective in Brazil was held in 2005 at the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo. Recently in 2010, the retrospective Ana Maria Maiolino opened at the Antoni Tàpies Foundation, Barcelona. Her other major solo exhibitions include Continuum at Camden Arts Centre, London (2010); Order and Subjectivity, Pharos Center for Contemporary Art, Nicosia, Cyprus (2007); Territories of Immanence, Miami Art Center (2006). In the recent years her work has gained international recognition at dOCUMENTA 13, Kassel, Germany (2012); the Sydney Biennale, Sydney Australia (2008) and numerous editions of the São Paulo Biennale.

Marta Minujín (Buenos Aires) orchestrated her first happening, La Destrucción in 1963. In 1966 she followed up with Simultaneidad en Simultaneidad, which was part of the greater event of the Three Countries Happening, with Allan Kaprow (New York) and Wolf Vostell (Berlin). She also created ephemeral works with the help of mass participation. These include Carlos Gardel de Fuego (1981), El Partenón de Libros (1983), and La Torre de Babel con libros de todo el mundo (2011). She has also worked throughout her career fashioning psychedelic frames, mattresses, performances, windows, etc., which have been featured in institutions and galleries worldwide. Her works are featured in international public collections, such as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York), Art Museum of the Americas (Washington D.C.), Olympic Park (Seoul), the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, MALBA (Buenos Aires), Museum of Modern Art (New York), Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris) and private collections in France, Italy, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, the United States and Canada. Minujín lives and works in Buenos Aires.

Mercedes Pardo (Caracas, 1921-2005) is recognized as one of the most important abstract artist in Venezuela. She studied in the Escuela de Artes Plásticas. Early in her career she experimented with diverse techniques in painting, watercolor, glasswork, and collage. She is known for her theater set designs and her abundant production of graphic art. In 1951 she married fellow artist Alejandro Otero. In 1952 she exhibited her abstract works in the Espacio Lumière de la Galería Suzanna Michel in Paris, together with Otero, Jesus Soto, Luis Guevara Moreno, Carmelo Arden Quinn, Rubén Núñez, Jack Youngerman and Kosnit Kloss. After, she returned to Venezuela and participated in the Exposición internacional de arte abstracto at Galería Cuatro Muros, Caracas. In 1962 she participated in the XXXI Bienal de Venecia with her work Huellas. During that time participated in shows such as 34 estampadores latinoamericanos, Mueso de Bellas Artes, Caracas (1971) and Panorama de la Pintura Venezolana, La Habana (1975). In 1978 she was awarded the Premio Nacional de Artes Plásticas. In 1979 the Galería de Arte Nacional organized a retrospective with works from 1952 to 1978 and she participates in the exposition Arte constructivo venezolano 1945-1965: génesis y desarrollo. In 1991 she presented her most important exhibition, Moradas de Color, again at the Galería de Arte Nacional in Caracas. Her last years were spent living and working in San Antonio de los Altos, Venezuela.  

Liliana Porter (Buenos Aires, 1941) studied in the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City as a teenager. She returned to Buenos Aires and continued her studies in the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires. In 1964 she moved to New York City where she co-founded the New York Graphic Workshop with Luis Camnitzer and José Guillermo Castillo. In 1974 she went to work as a teaching instructor at the Studio Camnitzer in Lucca, Italy. She has cited Luis Felipe Noe, Giorgio Morandi, Roy Lichenstein, Arte Povera, and Guerrilla Girls as main influences in her work. Her work has been featured in the collections on the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, Museum of Modern Art New York, Tate Modern, Whiney Museum of American Art, Boston Museum of Fine Art, Smithsonian Institution, Museo de Bellas Artes Chile, El Museo del Barrio New York, Museo de arte Moderno de Bogotá and many more.

Margot Römer (Caracas, 1938-2005) began her art studies with Armando Lira in the Lucio Rivas Workshop (1963-1964). She also studied at the Escuela Cristóbal Rojas (1963-1971), el Centro Gráfico del Inciba (1969-1972) and in the Luisa Palacios Workshop (1973-1974). In 1974 she began to incorporate diverse materials into her painting practice such as doors and sinks. Her return to painting was characterized by her series of “urinarios,” with a multicolor and silk like quality. In 1978 she began working with nationalist themes with her “banderas”. In 1980, she transitioned to painting organic subjects and conch shells.  She has done many solo shows such as Segundo Balance, Centro de Arte de Maracaibo Lía Bermúdez (1997); Recent Work, Consulado de Venezuela, New York (1990); La estrella es la estrella, MBA, (1987); Códigos, Galería El Museo, Bogotá (1993); Dibujos, Galeria Monte Ávilo, Bogotá (1974); and Nueva Figuración, Galería Banap, Caracas (1972). She has also been awarded many prizes, among them are the Premio Especial, II Bienal de Artes Gráficas, Museo Cruz-Diez (2000); Mención Honorífica, II Salón Nacional de Jóvenes Artistas (1977); and the Premio Andrés Pérez Mujica, (1976). Her work can be found in collections like Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York; CAMLB, Caracas; Colección Cisneros, Caracas; Museo de Arte Moderno, Bogotá; Palacio de Miraflores, Caracas.

Lotty Rosenfeld (Santiago de Chile, 1943) studied at the Escuela de Artes Aplicadas at the Universidad de Chile from 1967 to 1969. While her early artistic activity revolved around printmaking, in 1979 she joined the Colectivo Acciones de Arte (CADA) and began working on interventions in public spaces. Along with CADA her work is associated with what is known as the Escena de Avanzada. Her work has consisted primarily of interventions in urban spaces in different parts of Chile and abroad. Since then she has used art actions and video as her preferred formats and techniques of expression. She has received awards and grants for her work, including the Special Jury Prize at the First Tokyo International Video Biennial (1985); Fundación Andes Grant (1993); the Altazor prize for printmaking and drawing and the PAOA Award at the 13th Viña del Mar International Film Festival for the short film ¿Quién viene con Nelson Torres? (both 2001); and a Ford Foundation grant and another Altazor prize for the work Moción de Orden (2003). In 2007 she participated in Documenta, Kassel, and was distinguished by Chile’s National Council for the Arts and Culture as Visual Artist of the Year. Her work may be found in important collections around the world including Museo Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Spain, and the Tate Gallery in London. Rosenfeld lives and works in Chile.

Ana Sacerdote (Born Rome, Argentinean, 1925) received her artistic training at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes Prilidiano Pueyrredon in Buenos Aires where she studied under the renowned Lino Enea Spilimbergo. In 1956 she became the editor of Arte Nuevo magazine together with other prominent artists Carmelo Arden Quinn and Martin Blaszko. That same year she won a grant from the French government to study in Paris. There she met Victor Vasarely and a number of other leading abstract artists. Her marriage in 1957 to a multinational business executive gave her the opportunity to travel with him all over the world, but prevented her from focusing fully on developing her career. Though she had continued to paint, in the 1970s Sacerdote became interested in video art and in 1974 she began to study computer science. From that point she has experimented with moving forms and computer-generated images. She exhibited her computer-generated drawings at Galería Lagard, Buenos Aires (1979); Galería Arthea, Buenos Aires (1984); and Alianza Francesa - Centro Fortabat, Buenos Aires (2000). In 2012 she exhibited a selection of her paintings at Pinta Art Fair in London in 2012. She lives in Buenos Aires.

Fanny Sanín (Bogotá, 1938) studied fine arts at the University of the Andes in Bogotá from 1956-60 and went on to do graduate work in printmaking and art history at the University of Illinois, Urbana from 1962-63. She has exhibited internationally, her solo shows include: Fanny Sanín Drawings and Studies 1960 to Now, Frederico Seve Gallery, New York (2012); Fanny Sanín, La Struttura Cromatica, Instituto Italo-LatinoAmericano, Rome, Italy (2007); Fanny Sanín, National Arts Club, New York (2003); Fanny Sanín, Antioquia Museum, Medellín, Colombia (1997); a retrospective exhibition, Museum of Modern Art, Bogotá, Colombia (1987); Fanny Sanín, Museum of Modern Art, Mexico City (1979); and Fanny Sanín, Museum of Fine Arts, Caracas, Venezuela (1967); among others. She has participated in group shows at institutions that include the Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City, Mexico and Museo Nacional, Bogotá, Colombia (2014); the Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C. and the Museo del Barrio, New York (2013); Henrique Faria, New York (2009); the Museum of art of the Americas, Washington D.C. (2003 and 1992); the II Havana Biennial, Havana (1986); and the Museum of Modern Art and Museum of Contemporary Art, Bogotá, Colombia (1977); among many others. Her work has been acquired by public and private collections worldwide. The artist lives and works in New York City.

Adriana Santiago (Caracas, 1968) has studied Fine Arts at the Parson School of Design in Paris (1988), photography and photojournalism at the Roberto Matta Studio (2001-2002); and an individualized degree at the Gallatin School, New York University (2002-2004). She has done residencies at Bjof, Formation, Paris (1994). the Boucheron Atelier also in Paris (1996). Her work has been featured in group shows, including Sugar Free, Sala Mendoza, Caracas and The Penguin Room, New York (2002) and SmART, Miami Dade College, Florida (2010). The artist currently lives and works in Ironside, Miami.

Mariela Scafati (Olivos, Argentina, 1973) received degrees in graphic design and visual arts from the Escuela Superior de Artes Visuales Lino Enea Spilimbergo in Bahía Blanca, Argentina in 1992 and 1995, respectively. Her solo exhibitions include Pinturas donde estoy (1998-2013), Centro Cultural Recoleta, and Ni verdaderas ni falsas, Instituto de Investigaciones Gino Germani, both Buenos Aires (2013); Windows, galería Daniel Abate, Buenos Aires (2011); ¡Teléfono!, Centro Cultural Borges, Buenos Aires (2009); Scafati, un cuadro, Belleza y felicidad, Buenos Aires (2005); and SHOW ME YOUR PINK, galería Bis, Rosario (2001), among others. She has received many prizes and fellowships for her work, such as Premio Petrobras, ArteBA, Buenos Aires (2012); Premio Institucional Fondo Nacional de las Artes,  LXVI Salón Nacional de Rosario, Argentina (2012);  Beca Centro de Investigaciones Artísticas, Buenos Aires (2010-2011); Beca Nacional, Artes Plásticas, Fondo Nacional de las Artes, Argentina (2006); Artist’s residency at Centre de Art Contemporain 19, Montbeliard, France (2003); and the Guillermo Kuitca Grant for Young Artists, Buenos Aires (1997 and 1999), and others. Her works have been acquired by public and private institutions, which include the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Bahía Blanca, Argentina; the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Salta, Argentina; Sayago & Pardon, California, USA. The artist lives and works in Buenos Aires.

Antonieta Sosa (New York, 1940) began her studies of the arts in the late ’50s by simultaneously studying ballet and auditing at the Escuela de Artes Plásticas Cristóbal Rojas in Caracas. She then studied psychology at the Universidad Central de Venezuela in the early ’60s, and, in 1966, graduated from UCLA’s Department of Visual Arts. In the early ’70s she returned Caracas, where she was a founding member of the group Contradanza. From then on, she continued investigating performance and corporeal expression. She has been exhibited at  the Gobernación del Distrito Federal, Venezuela; Galería de Arte Nacional, Venezuela; Museo de Bellas Artes, Venezuela; Fundación Antoni Tàpies, Spain; Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil; La Biennale di Venezia, Italy; and the Jewish Museum, New York. In 2000 she received the Premio Nacional de Artes Plásticas in Caracas. Her work has been acquired by both private and public collections, including CIFO, Miami. The artist lives and works in Caracas.

Yeni & Nan (Jennifer Hackshaw and María Luisa González; Caracas, 1948 and 1956) first met at the Cristóbal Rojas art school in Caracas during the 1970s. In 1977, they started to work together as Yeni & Nan, moved to London, England in order to study art, and later moved to Cannes, France to study photography. The pair returned to Caracas in 1979 to study film. Yeni and Nan worked together from 1977 to 1986 when they decided to separate in order to pursue individual art careers. While working together, they participated in numerous acclaimed exhibitions, including “20 Contemporary Venezuelan Artists” at the CAYC Buenos Aires, Argentina (1979); the Salon Arturo Michelena in Valencia, Venezuela (1979); various performances at the National Art Gallery of Caracas (1979, 1980, 1982, 1983); the Sao Paulo Biennial (1981); “Colloquium on Non-objective Art” at the Museum of Modern Art, Medellín, Venezuela (1981); and the “Biennial of Young Artists of Paris” at the Museum of Modern Art, Paris, France (1982). At the third National Salon of Young Artists in 1985, the duo won first prize. Yeni Hackshaw now lives and works in Salamanca, Spain, while Nan González has remained in Caracas, where she still works. Each artist has continued to develop her own artistic style and creative practice.