Alessandro Balteo-Yazbeck

Stories of Abstraction: Contemporary Latin American Art in the Global Context presents rarely seen artworks by some of Latin America’s most innovative contemporary artists to uncover how abstraction can be used to generate new narratives, insightful social commentary, and even political change.

Showcasing more than 40 recently acquired works of contemporary Latin American art alongside 30 works by American and European artists, Stories of Abstraction: Contemporary Latin American Art in the Global Context explores how the visual language of abstraction has generated profound insights into Latin American culture and politics and how Latin American artists have drawn on abstraction’s parallel history in the United States and Europe.

The exhibition includes contemporary Latin American artworks from Venezuela, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Colombia, Brazil, Honduras, and Guatemala by 25 of the most innovative artists working in Latin America in recent years and today, including seven women artists. These works were recently gifted to Phoenix Art Museum by Nicholas Pardon, cofounder of the former SPACE Collection—the largest collection of post-1990s abstract Latin American art in the United States.