FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 27, 2011
Media Contact:
Susan Golden
562.216.4117
sgolden@molaa.org
2012 EXHIBITION SCHEDULE
MUSEUM OF LATIN AMERICAN ART (MOLAA)
PERMANENT COLLECTION: Anywhere Better Than This Place: Selections from MOLAA’s Permanent Collection
January 12 – July 1, 2012
Curated by Selene Preciado
This selection of works from MOLAA’s Permanent Collection will explore memory and desire in relation to a real
or imagined space and place. The pieces by Félix González-Torres titled Nowhere Better Than This Place, and
Somewhere Better Than This Place, 1989-90, serve as an introduction to this idea, giving the exhibition its title.
González-Torres’ prints are statements of longing for a place that existed in the past, is ceasing to exist, is about to
exist, or never existed. Anywhere Better Than This Place includes works on paper, photography, sculpture,
installations and videos about spaces or landscapes that could trigger a memory or challenge the imagination.
PROJECT ROOM: Marco Maggi
no idea
January 21 – April 29, 2012
Curated by Selene Preciado
Reflecting his interest in architecture, anthropology, mapping, and language, Marco Maggi is best known for his
use of everyday and industrial materials such as Plexiglas, acrylic, aluminum foil, paper and cardboard, on which
he inscribes a vocabulary that evokes concepts that range from pre-Columbian cultures to early twentieth-century
Russian Constructivism. As the artist states, his “drawings resemble writing in a language [we] cannot read,”
referring to the modern concept that a drawing reflects thought process.
Maggi’s Project Room will consist of various works including architectural plans of great architects such as Frank
Lloyd Wright and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in acrylic boxes, with titles referencing the media mogul and founder
of CNN Robert Edward “Ted” Turner—the cuts on the plans as a pun on “media cuts” and “breaking news,” and
the term “turner” used as a synonym of turning and covering. A floor piece comprised of a grid of reams of a total
of 128,000 sheets of paper, topped with yellow pieces of paper with cuts and creases will be the central
installation of the Project Room. This grid of paper reams will be a sort of city that rises from the floor, defying the
two-dimensionality of architectural plans, creating a place with different rules about the notion of time and scale.
TEMPORARY GALLERY A
Esteban Lisa: Playing with Lines and Colors
February 26 – May 27, 2012
Curated by Barbara Bloemink and Jorge Virgili
This retrospective exhibition of the Argentinean/Spanish artist Esteban Lisa marks the first time his extraordinary
abstract works have been shown in a museum in the United States. It is rare to "rediscover" an important
modernist artist, particularly one whose work is as fully realized through five decades of painting. Although small,
his works are subtly beautiful, from the restrained gradations of abstract form and color of the 1930s paintings, to
the surprisingly vivid explosions of color marks across the pages from the 1950s to 1970s. Little is known about
Lisa’s life or artistic development since he matured largely in isolation, never exhibiting his work during his
lifetime, perhaps a result of being surrounded by Argentinean artists and collectors with a preference for
figurative work. Instead, through extensive reading and study, Lisa explored the ideas and theories of abstraction,
mysticism, and cosmology that were being investigated by contemporary European artists. It is clear from his
work, his teaching, and his writing, that Lisa was among the avant-garde modernist artists who saw abstraction as
a sign of impending global change. This exhibition is organized by the Museum of Latin American Art in
association with the Fundación Esteban Lisa in Buenos Aires.
TEMPORARY GALLERY B
Magdalena Fernández - 2iPM009
February 26 – May 27, 2012
In collaboration with The Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum, Florida
Curated by Julia P. Herzberg
This exhibition features an installation by artist Magdalena Fernández. Her work has been associated, not without
reason, to one of the most important Venezuelan artistic traditions: that of optical and geometric abstraction.
Some of Fernández's seminal works seem to contain beautiful echoes of work by the precedent setting artists
Jesús Soto, Gego and Alejandro Otero. Although she is determined to work within the traditions founded by these
artists, she also wants to push the boundaries of those traditions by transforming them , sometimes subtly,
sometimes drastically in her own artistic oeuvre. Light and movement are fundamental aspects of Fernández's
work. In some of her pieces, it is light which draws the geometric shapes and projects volumes that are neither
static nor clearly delimitated. In some of her videos, the sharpness and definition of the geometric shapes is
dissolved by the inner movement of those same lines, which transforms them into delicate, living, organic
threads.
THE COLLABORATIVE: A PROJECT OF THE ARTS COUNCIL FOR LONG BEACH AND THE MUSEUM OF LATIN
AMERICAN ART
Danger!
April 28 – July 20, 2012
Co-curated by Idurre Alonso and Selene Preciado
The exhibition will present works of art that explore the idea of danger, showcasing the work of three artists
including Mely Barragán, Miguel Fernández, and Daniel Ruanova,.
PROJECT ROOM: Regina José Galindo
May 10 – September 9, 2012
Curated by Idurre Alonso
Regina Galindo is one of the leading female artists working in performance today. Galindo uses her body to create
powerful visual metaphors that criticize different aspects of society. Since the nineties, Galindo’s work has
addressed social and political issues in the Americas. She draws attention to these issues by inflicting or mimicking
direct, physical violence on her body and often places herself and the viewer into difficult psychological situations,
recalling the political and poetic gestures of emblematic female performance artists such as Ana Mendieta. This
exhibition will be comprised of documentation objects, including photographs and videos, of the most significant
performances by Regina Galindo. The opening events will include performances specifically created for MOLAA by
the artist.
TEMPORARY GALLERIES
Play with Me: Interactive Installations (working title)
June 17 – August 19, 2012
Co-curated by Cecilia Fajardo-Hill, Idurre Alonso, Selene Preciado.
This exhibition will feature 10 large scale installations by artists interested in the interaction and the relationship
between the object and the viewer. Artists being considered for inclusion in the exhibition are: Franklin Cassaro
(Brazil), Cubo (Mexico/US), Dream Addictive (Mexico), Darío Escobar (Guatemala), Federico Herrero (Costa Rica),
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer (Mexico), Antonio Manuel (Brazil), Ernesto Neto (Brazil), Pedro Reyes (Mexico), and Sofía
Táboas (Mexico).
PERMANENT COLLECTION
Tell me a Tall Story
July 19, 2012 – December 30, 2012
Curated by Idurre Alonso
In this new permanent collection exhibition, an emerging artist will be invited to propose a story line or plot,
developed through the relationship between the different works of art and then create the visual structure that
will tie the works of art together.
TEMPORARY GALLERY A
Lola Álvarez Bravo: La fotografía de una época
September 23, 2012 – January 27, 2013
Organized by Museo Estudio Diego Rivera, Mexico
Curated by Adriana Zavala and Rachael Arauz, and James Oles (consulting curator)
Lola Álvarez Bravo (1903-1993) was one of Mexico’s most prolific photographers, with a career that spanned
nearly fifty years and combined commercial practice and teaching with more personal artistic concerns. She has
been the subject of several exhibitions and publications in both Mexico and the U.S. since the 1990s, but she
remains historically overshadowed by her famous husband, Manuel Álvarez Bravo, and their contemporaries
Edward Weston and Tina Modotti. Given her obvious importance, we still have much to learn about Lola’s
contributions to the development of modern Mexican photography. This will be the first exhibition of the artist
organized in Mexico City since the 1992 show Lola Álvarez Bravo: fotografías selectas 1934-1985 at the Centro
Cultural/Arte Contemporáneo.
Soon after her death, a significant part of Lola’s archive, including negatives, documents, and over 100 prints, was
acquired by the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona, from her son Manuel Álvarez Bravo Martínez.
However, a previously unknown portion of Lola’s archive remained in Mexico and is now in the possession of the
Rendón family. This recently discovered group of photographs, negatives, and archival material includes not only a
significant body of work by Lola, much of it unpublished, but also over twenty vintage prints by Manuel and a
group of images by Lola’s students at the Academy of San Carlos, including Mariana Yampolsky and Raúl Conde.
TEMPORARY GALLERY B
Sociales: Débora Arango, fragmentos de Nación
September 23, 2012 – January 27, 2013
Organized by Museo de Arte de Medellín, Colombia
Curated by Oscar Roldán
Although a product of a traditional, affluent family from the Antioquia province of Colombia, Débora Arango
produced work that pushed the bounds of decorum, vividly touching on delicate and troubling subjects like
Colombia's political violence, poverty and brutality. In her work, she depicted a 1950s-era Colombian dictator,
Gen. Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, as a toad, and portrayed a military junta as five monkeys wrapped in Colombia's flag.
Arango always pushed boundaries. In a career that began nearly 80 years ago and lasted until late in life, she
produced a body of work that often depicted the hurdles and indignities she found in being a woman in a strict
Roman Catholic country.
THE COLLABORATIVE: A PROJECT OF THE ARTS COUNCIL FOR LONG BEACH AND THE MUSEUM OF LATIN
AMERICAN ART / EMERGING CURATOR PROJECT
October 27, 2012 – January, 2013
Museum of Latin American Art, 628 Alamitos Ave., Long Beach, Calif. 90802
Hours: Sun., Wed., Fri. and Sat., 11:00am – 5:00pm, Thurs., 11:00am - 9:00pm
Admission: $9.00 General/ $6.00 Students (w/ID) and seniors (65+)
Members and children under 12 FREE
Info: (562) 437-1689 or www.molaa.org
About the Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA)
The Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA) was founded in 1996 in Long Beach, California and serves the greater Los
Angeles area. MOLAA is the only museum in the United States dedicated to modern and contemporary Latin American art.
Since its inception, MOLAA has doubled in size and continues to expand its permanent collection, ranging from works by
Tamayo and Matta to Cruz-Diez, Los Carpinteros and Tunga. With its physical expansion complete, MOLAA’s focus is on
strengthening its position as a multidisciplinary institution providing cross-cultural dialogue.