Transgresoras: Mail Art and Messages, 1960s–2020s

Fall reception: Saturday, October 11, 6–8pm
Curatorial tour: Saturday, October 11, 5pm

Transgresoras: Mail Art and Messages, 1960s–2020s surveys artworks made and exchanged by Latinx and Latin American women artists from the 1960s to the present. As a mode of artistic production that relied on the postal service for the circulation and exchange of artworks, Mail Art allowed artists in repressive societies to evade strict censorship measures, providing platforms for circulating their work and for political protest. Latinx and Latin American women artists have used the postal system to transgress a varied set of restrictive systems, ranging from gender expectations to authoritarian regimes.

Transgresoras presents historic works—including visual poetry, drawings, prints, performance, video, and photography—in dialogue with the work of a younger generation of artists who employ facets of correspondence in their work. This intergenerational approach brings to the fore overlooked historical precedents to restore a lineage of artistic production that has been little known in ensuing decades, enhancing our perspective on central issues of today’s media and political landscape.

The exhibition is organized around constellations addressing broad thematic groupings such as state control of communications media, censorship, and authoritarian violence; gender constructions and feminist ideals; migration, interconnectedness, and community at a distance; state bureaucracies and the legacies of colonialism; and decolonial approaches to ecology.

Artist list

Valentina Alvarado Matos, Venezuela
Carmen Argote, U.S.
Anna Banana, Canada
Marilyn Boror Bor, Guatemala
CADA–Colectivo Acciones de Arte (Raúl Zurita, Fernando Balcells, Diamela Eltit, Lotty Rosenfeld, and Juan Castillo), Chile
Johanna Calle, Colombia
Josely Carvalho, Brazil/U.S., with Sabra Moore, U.S.
Carolina Caycedo, Colombia/U.S.
Vera Chaves Barcellos, Brazil
Beatriz Cortez, El Salvador/U.S.
Marilá Dardot, Brazil, with Fabio Morais, Brazil
Lenora de Barros, Brazil
Giana De Dier, Panama
Sandra de la Loza, U.S., with Eduardo Molinari, Argentina
Claudia del Rio, Argentina
Mirtha Dermisache, Argentina
Virginia Errázuriz, Chile
Magdalena Fernández, Venezuela
Regina José Galindo, Guatemala
Anna Bella Geiger, Brazil
Gabriela Golder, Argentina
Astrid González, Colombia
Graciela Gutiérrez Marx, Argentina
Jonathan Harker, Panama
Voluspa Jarpa, Chile
Suzanne Lacy, U.S.
Karin Lambrecht, Brazil/U.K., with Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt, East Germany
Magali Lara, Mexico
Gilda Mantilla, Peru
Mónica Mayer, Mexico
Marta Minujín, Argentina
NADA Art (Irma Pérez and Victor Pérez), U.S.
Liliana Porter, Argentina/U.S. (with Luis Camnitzer, Uruguay/U.S., and José Guillermo
Castillo, Venezuela/U.S., as New York Graphic Workshop)
Anésia Pacheco e Chaves, Brazil
Yani Pecanins, Mexico
Amalia Pica, Argentina
Polvo de la Gallina Negra (Mónica Mayer and Maris Bustamante), Mexico
Gala Porras-Kim, Colombia/U.S.
Liliana Porter, Argentina
Sandy Rodriguez, U.S.
Martha Rosler, U.S.
S.C. Mero, U.S.
Neide Sá, Brazil
Graciela Sacco, Argentina
Vera Salamanca, Brazil
Teddy Sandoval, U.S.
Mira Schendel, Brazil
Regina Silveira, Brazil
Thereza Simões, Brazil
Clarissa Tossin, Brazil/U.S.
Unknown artist, feminist workshop, Chile
Patssi Valdez/ASCO, U.S.
Arleene Correa Valencia, Mexico/U.S.
Regina Vater, Brazil
Cecilia Vicuña, Chile/U.S.
Araceli Zúñiga, Mexico, with César Espinosa, Mexico

Transgresoras: Mail Art and Messages, 1960s–2020s is co-organized with the Getty Research Institute, and co-curated by Zanna Gilbert, Senior Research Specialist, Getty Research Institute, and Elena Shtromberg, Professor of Art History, University of Utah. Curatorial coordination at UCR ARTS by Kathryn Poindexter-Akers, Head of Exhibitions, and Joanna Szupinska, Senior Curator. The exhibition was made possible with lead support from the Terra Foundation for American Art. Generous support was provided by the Getty Research Institute Council, Art Bridges, and Betty Duker. University of Utah provided additional research funds. Programs at UCR ARTS are supported by the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (CHASS), and by the City of Riverside.

Image: Graciela Sacco, Urban Intervention No. 2, from the series “Bocanada,” 1993 ©Graciela Sacco Estate