- History of Art and Architecture, Brazilian Art, Brazilian History, Video Art, Conceptual Art, Global Art History, and 19 moreContemporary Latin American Art, São Paulo (Brazil), Rio de Janeiro, Latin American Studies, Latin America, Latinoamerica, Latin American Art, Pop Art, Geometric abstraction, 20th century Argentina, 20th Century Mexico, 20th Century Chile, Art History, Arte Colombiano, Peruvian Painting 20th Century, Latin America (esp. Bolivia and Peru), Bolivian studies, Cuban Studies, and Colombian Artedit
- Paulina Pardo Gaviria specializes in the history of modern and contemporary art of the Americas. Her scholarship exam... morePaulina Pardo Gaviria specializes in the history of modern and contemporary art of the Americas. Her scholarship examines how networks of artists, critics, and curators facilitated the emergence of experimental art and opened space for discourses of dissent against Brazil’s military dictatorship (1964–1985). She is currently Assistant Professor of Art History in the School of Art at California State University, Long Beach.
Paulina’s current book project is the first substantial study of the work of Letícia Parente, a chemistry professor who developed an artistic practice through the use of video and other media. Examining the introduction of experimental artistic and curatorial strategies beginning in the 1970s, her book demonstrates how the specifics of Parente’s political and artistic context provoked her to position her work at the intersection of advocacy for women’s rights, scientific paradigms, and newly-available image reproduction technologies.
In 2016, Paulina recreated Parente’s installation "Medida" (Measurement, 1976) as co-curator of the exhibition "Data (after)Lives: The Persistence of Encoded Identity" for the University of Pittsburgh Art Gallery. Paulina's previous work focused on U.S. filmmaker Paul Sharits’s experimental flicker films, and on the distribution of modern art in Colombia through the periodical publication "Mito" (Bogotá,1955-1962).edit
This article examines Preparação II (Preparation II, 1976) and Tarefa I (Task I, 1982), two works of video art produced by Brazilian artist Letícia Parente during the last phases of Brazil's military dictatorship (1964-85). The actions... more
This article examines Preparação II (Preparation II, 1976) and Tarefa I (Task I, 1982), two works of video art produced by Brazilian artist Letícia Parente during the last phases of Brazil's military dictatorship (1964-85). The actions recorded in these two videos directly respond to political and social transitions experienced in Brazil in the early 1980s: those implemented by the military government as a way to retain soft control of individual bodies, and those enacted by civilians as empowering manifestations of political participation for social change. This article argues that the
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Entre 1955 y 1962, el escritor colombiano Jorge Gaitán Durán (1924-1962), en compañía de algunos colegas, publicó Mito: Revista bimestral de cultura, una revista literaria con un marcado corte político que pretendía crear vínculos entre... more
Entre 1955 y 1962, el escritor colombiano Jorge Gaitán Durán (1924-1962), en compañía de algunos colegas, publicó Mito: Revista bimestral de cultura, una revista literaria con un marcado corte político que pretendía crear vínculos entre Bogotá y diferentes regiones colombianas de donde provenían sus directores y entre Bogotá y el extranjero. Aún hoy, Mito es recordada por su formato pequeño y la impresión a dos tintas (rojo y negro) de su carátula. Sin embargo, alejándose de su característica austeridad visual, en tres de los cuarenta y dos números que se publicaron de la revista, la carátula de Mito estuvo ilustrada por tres de los mayores exponentes del arte moderno colombiano: Eduardo Ramírez Villamizar (1922–2004), Alejandro Obregón (1920– 1992) y Guillermo Wiedemann (1905–1969). La inclusión de estas ilustraciones de Ramírez Villamizar, Obregón y Wiedemann supone una ruptura con la regularidad visual y la línea editorial de la revista. En este ensayo presento una reconstrucción histórica del medio artístico bogotano que dio pie al arte moderno en Colombia y argumento que la inclusión en primera plana de las obras de tres reconocidos artistas de la época corresponde a los vínculos personales entre estos artistas y los directores de Mito, y a su común origen de diferentes regiones del país.
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This brief essay presents the exhibition Data (after)Lives, which was held in the University Art Gallery at the University of Pittsburgh from September 8 to October 14, 2016. This show was the culmination of a year's work between the... more
This brief essay presents the exhibition Data (after)Lives, which was held in the University Art Gallery at the University of Pittsburgh from September 8 to October 14, 2016. This show was the culmination of a year's work between the Department of History of Art and Architecture (HAA) and several outside collaborators. It was produced within the Constellations model of research and teaching that is fundamental to the workings of the HAA department as well as to the Visual Media Workshop, the digital humanities lab directed by Alison Langmead (https://haa.pitt.edu/visual-media-workshop), the lead curator of Data (after)Lives. This essay gathers together a few texts produced for the exhibition and presents the experience of working on the show, which was produced by an exceptional group of people, all of whom brought fantastic insight and energy to the project. The online exhibition of Data (after)Lives: The Persistence of Encoded Identity is currently on view at the University Art Gallery website
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In recent years, the Latino population has increased rapidly in areas of the United States with traditionally low concentrations of Latinos. Latinos often live scattered within these emerging communities, forced to navigate social... more
In recent years, the Latino population has increased rapidly in areas of the United States with traditionally low concentrations of Latinos. Latinos often live scattered within these emerging communities, forced to navigate social isolation and social services not tailored to serve their cultural and linguistic needs. Latinos' invisibility in Pittsburgh, PA, manifests in the absence of records of the Latino presence in the city's museums and public archives. OjO Latino, a community-engaged project, sought to advance the inclusion of the Latino community in Pittsburgh through Photovoice. This participatory expression methodology enables individuals to share their stories with the larger public through self-made photographs and narratives. The intentional organization of the project as a group activity facilitated the transfer of power over the project to participants, creating solidarity and cultivating trust. During four meetings, participants took part in a short photography training, discussed their photographs addressing the meaning of being Latino in Pittsburgh, and selected thirty-four photographs for exhibition, organizing them in four themes: Work, Customs, Family, and Landscape. OjO Latino held one exhibit in a community venue and another at the University of Pittsburgh. In addition, the photographs are available in an electronic public repository. OjO Latino served a dual purpose of expanding the visibility of Latinos and educating the larger non-Latino community in Pittsburgh. The OjO Latino team got closer to the ways Latino immigrants see and experience the city. Their gaze challenged our own views and experiences and also spoke to the salience of nostalgia and social networks in their lives. The open discussion of what it means to be Latino in an emerging community in the United States, the opportunity to produce a visual account of it, and the public acknowledgement of the presence of this diverse population promote ethnic identity and solidarity, which have the potential to foster social and mental health and carry an important political message within a strong anti-immigrant climate.
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Exhibition Review– Exhibition schedule: Video Art in Latin America, LAXART, September 7–December 17, 2017. Exhibition schedule: Xerografia: Copyart in Brazil, 1970-1990, Robert and Karen Hoehn Family Galleries, University of San Diego,... more
Exhibition Review–
Exhibition schedule: Video Art in Latin America, LAXART, September 7–December 17, 2017.
Exhibition schedule: Xerografia: Copyart in Brazil, 1970-1990, Robert and Karen Hoehn Family Galleries, University of San Diego, September 15–December 16, 2017.
Exhibition schedule: Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960-1985, Hammer Museum, University of California Los Angeles, September 15–December 31, 2017; Brooklyn Museum, April 13–July 22, 2018; Pinacoteca de São Paulo, August 18–November 19, 2018.
Exhibition schedule: Video Art in Latin America, LAXART, September 7–December 17, 2017.
Exhibition schedule: Xerografia: Copyart in Brazil, 1970-1990, Robert and Karen Hoehn Family Galleries, University of San Diego, September 15–December 16, 2017.
Exhibition schedule: Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960-1985, Hammer Museum, University of California Los Angeles, September 15–December 31, 2017; Brooklyn Museum, April 13–July 22, 2018; Pinacoteca de São Paulo, August 18–November 19, 2018.
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The black-and-white video In, created by Brazilian artist Letícia Parente in 1975, reveals a complex artistic practice. Widely distributed in recent years and now in MoMA’s collection, the two-minute video depicts Parente entering a... more
The black-and-white video In, created by Brazilian artist Letícia Parente in 1975, reveals a complex artistic practice. Widely distributed in recent years and now in MoMA’s collection, the two-minute video depicts Parente entering a closet and hanging up her sweater without first removing it from her body. This essay demonstrates how In is an artistic response to the social and political oppression experienced by women living under a patriarchal dictatorship.