The Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) is proud to present Diana Dowek: Uprising in the Mirror, an exhibition featuring more than twenty works by Argentine artist Diana Dowek (b. 1942). Spanning the years from 1967 to 1982, the show highlights a pivotal period in Dowek’s practice, during which she responded to the mass violence and trauma wrought by Argentina’s brutal military dictatorship in the context of the Cold War.
An empathetic ally to victims of state-sanctioned violence, Dowek painted stirring scenes of repression and resistance with cinematic precision, offering a timely reminder of how the past continues to haunt the political present. Paintings from her key early series such as Pinturas de la insurrección (1972–73), Paisajes (1975–82), and Retrovisores (1975) are presented alongside photographs, letters, and ephemera from the Diana Dowek archival collection in the ISLAA Library and Archives, positioning her within a global network of women catalyzing political activism through art.
In a 1998 letter to art critic Alfredo Andrés, on the occasion of the exhibition Figuración, Abstracción, Fusiones at Palais de Glace in Buenos Aires, Dowek writes, “I wish my contemporaries would find in my work a moment of their collective lives, even if identified with a tree that could not grow, with the grass that defies the fence… and when they look in the mirror they have the illusion that they are free.”
On view from April 26 to August 23, 2025, Diana Dowek: Uprising in the Mirror is curated by Bernardo Mosqueira, former chief curator, and Olivia Casa, curator and exhibition program manager; with assistance from Starasea Camara, curatorial and public engagement assistant. It is accompanied by an original booklet featuring essays by Josefina Barcia and Silvia Marrube, designed by Luiza Dale, ISLAA’s graphic designer in residence.
Selected WORKS
Autorretrato (Self-Portrait), 1982
Procedimiento (Procedure), 1974
Paisaje I (Landscape I), 1975
Paisaje cotidiano (Plato de carne), [Everyday Landscape (Meat Plate)], 1978
Selected documents
Photograph of the Día Internacional de la Mujer, (International Women’s Day) demonstration, Buenos Aires, 1979. Artists show support for the Madres de Plaza de Mayo, with Diana Dowek visible at far left. Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) Library and Archives
(b. 1942, Buenos Aires) is an Argentine artist and activist who has worked across painting and photography for over five decades. Known for her acrylic paintings that blend figuration and symbolism, Dowek depicts collective memories of violence and trauma, reflecting on the Argentine government’s use of extreme violence during the Dirty War (1976–83), when an estimated 30,000 citizens were tortured and killed. A lifelong human rights advocate, Dowek began her artistic training at the age of thirteen, enrolling at the Escuela de Bellas Artes Manuel Belgrano and later continuing her studies at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes Prilidiano Pueyrredón. After a brief stay in Italy, where she immersed herself in film studies and became interested in cinematic montage, she returned to Argentina and continued to paint.
Upon her return, Dowek’s advocacy took shape in paintings that critiqued political conflicts, such as the Argentine government’s role in the Vietnam War, first presented at Buenos Aires’s Galería Lirolay in 1968 and 1969. As extremist authoritarianism claimed the lives of thousands in the subsequent decade, including artists and activists, Dowek painted under the veil of metaphoric symbolism. Her works from this period include the series Retrovisores, Paisajes, and Alambrados, in which windows, mirrors, and other framing devices give way to painful scenes that mark moments of violence.
Throughout the late 1970s and early ’80s, motifs of chain-link fences began to appear in Dowek’s works, often torn open to reveal an additional barrier of containment. The viewer’s separation from the scene evoked militant suppression, while in other works, flesh and figures appeared ensnared in barbed wire, creating a sense of claustrophobia. As part of her efforts to raise awareness about the realities of her community, Dowek’s work was featured in the exhibitions at the Centro de Arte y Comunicación (CAYC) and the Museo Eduardo Sívori throughout the 1980s.
In the late 1980s and ’90s, Dowek expanded these suggestive motifs into torn canvases, whose fleshlike ruptures evoked unhealed wounds. Dowek has received numerous awards and grants, including the Premio a la Trayectoria en Pintura from the Fondo Nacional de las Artes (2013). A founding member of the Association of Visual Artists of the Argentine Republic (AVARA), she remains committed to human rights and the arts and continues to live in Buenos Aires.
Tue–Sat: 12–6 PM Sun–Mon: Closed
Tue–Sat: 12–6 PM Sun–Mon: Closed
