The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, presents Permission To Be Global/Prácticas Globales: Latin American Art from the Ella Fontanals-Cisneros Collection, featuring contemporary works by artists from across the Americas.
Drawn from the holdings of Ella Fontanals-Cisneros, founder and president of CIFO, the exhibition premiered during Art Basel Miami Beach and debuts at the MFA on March 19, 2014. Incorporating sculpture, painting, photography, video, installation and performance art from 1960 to the present, Permission To Be Global/Prácticas Globales features 46 artists from Central and South America and the Caribbean. Together their works explore what it means “to be global,” when free and equal cultural exchange is still limited by the power dynamics of globalization. After years of underrepresentation at home and abroad, many of these artists are now leading the discourse about contemporary art’s reach across international borders, while still reflecting social and political issues at home. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, presents this exhibition in collaboration with the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation. At the MFA, this exhibition and related programming was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Supporting sponsorship by Copa Airlines. With generous support from the Robert and Jane Burke Fund for Exhibitions and the Leigh and Stephen Braude Fund for Latin American Art. Media sponsor is El Planeta.
This is the MFA’s first-ever exhibition dedicated to contemporary Latin American art, showcasing many artists never before seen in New England. The exhibition features works from the Ella Fontanals-Cisneros Collection along with new performances by artists who are featured in her collection. Permission to be Global/Prácticas Globales is curated by the MFA’s Jen Mergel, Robert L. Beal, Enid L. Beal and Bruce A. Beal Senior Curator of Contemporary Art and Liz Munsell, Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art & MFA Programs, in consultation with Jesús Fuenmayor, Director and Chief Curator of CIFO. Featuring 60 works, the exhibition is on view in the Henry and Lois Foster Gallery at the MFA from March 19 through July 13, 2014.