The Harn Museum of Art at the University of Florida and University Galleries collaborated to organize the exhibition Plural Domains: Selected Works from the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation Collection. The exhibition aims to advance cultural understanding and educational dialogue among Latin American artists and global audiences. Plural Domains will span both venues, with works on view at the Harn Museum of Art from September 9, 2021 to April 24, 2022 and the University Galleries from September 11 to December 3, 2021.

Marcius Galan, 3 Secciones (3 Sections), 2011, Photographyby Coco Laso, Loan courtesy of the CIFO Collection
Marcius Galan, 3 Secciones (3 Sections), 2011, Photography by Coco Laso, Loan courtesy of the CIFO Collection

The Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (CIFO) is a non-profit organization founded in 2002 by Ella Fontanals-Cisneros to foster cultural exchange and enrichment of the arts. Plural Domains is comprised of 31 established, mid-career and emerging artists from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. It features works of art in multiple media, including painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, video and large-scale installation. Most of the works debuted at the Cuenca Biennial in Ecuador in 2018. This is the first time the works are presented in the United States.

“Since its inception, the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (CIFO) has shaped one of the most extensive and substantial programs of contemporary Latin American art,” said Jesús Fuenmayor, Curator of the exhibition and Program Director and Curator at University Galleries, School of Art + Art History, University of Florida. “From 2012 to 2015, in my previous role as Director and Curator of CIFO, I had the opportunity to become deeply familiar with the works. The art in the exhibition addresses the critical awareness of the political, social, economic and cultural conditionings of an ever more globalized and at the same time atomized world.”

All artists in the exhibition have been trained both in the academic fields of their countries and in leading international art schools. Many are immersed in a range of multidisciplinary or hybrid practices in which both traditional and innovative methods of art making come together. The artists also combine different fields of knowledge and ground their work in research, that is, they see art as an exercise in searching and a reflection upon the sociocultural environments in which they work. Examples include: a room that presents the illusion of glass planes and leads viewers to re-examine their role in relationship to space and what they perceive from a distance by Marcius Galan; ninety-eight cut paper sculptures addressing the accelerated speed at which we can now get information, while the timing of our capacity to understand information remains the same by Marco Maggi; and a mosaic featuring imagery from 20th-century Latin American pamphlets that form a visual map of oppression and revolutionary struggles juxtaposed with samples of geometric abstraction painting, by Claudia Martinez Garay.

Claudia Martínez Garay, Sub América, 2019, Photography by Adolfo Mena & Javier Pérez, Loan courtesy of the CIFO Collection
Claudia Martínez Garay, Sub América, 2019, Photography by Adolfo Mena & Javier Pérez, Loan courtesy of the CIFO Collection

“Our collaboration with University Galleries to present Plural Domains will raise awareness of the multidisciplinary practices of Latin American contemporary art and its conceptual diversity,” said Harn Museum of Art Director Lee Anne Chesterfield. “This exhibition provides an opportunity to pilot the Harn’s student ambassador program, in which UF students will become active participants in the interpretation of and engagement with Plural Domains.”

Plural Domains: Selected Works from the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation Collection is organized in collaboration between the Harn Museum of Art and the University Galleries of the University of Florida, in conjunction with the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (CIFO). Plural Domains is curated by Jesús Fuenmayor, Program Director and Curator at University Galleries with assistance from Macarena Deij Prado, UF PhD candidate in Art History. The presentation at the Harn was co-organized with Dulce Román, Chief Curator and Curator of Modern Art. All works are on loan courtesy of the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (CIFO).

This exhibition is made possible through generous support of presenting sponsor UF Office of the Provost. Additional support is provided by Fine, Farkash and Parlapiano P.A., Cal King, Cox Communications, Mercy and Manny Quiroga, Charles and June Allen and the Harn Program Endowment.

Admission to the Harn Museum of Art is free.

Programs

The Harn Museum of Art is offering a number of in-person, public programs providing an opportunity for visitors to
engage in conversation about the works on view. All programs are free and open to the public.

Museum Nights
Noche de Museo
Thursday, September 9, 6 – 9 p.m.
Visitors will discover art and culture from across Latin America through exhibitions, tours, activities and conversations. Macarena Deij Prado, UF PhD candidate in colonial art of the Americas will lead a gallery tour of Plural Domains at 7:30 pm. Y-Not-Theatre will perform with tabling by UF campus and community groups. This is an ongoing program made possible by the generous support of UF Student Government and the Office of the Provost. Additional support for this evening provided by UF Center for Latin American Studies.

Public Conversation
Saturday, October 2, 3 p.m.
Participants will join in a conversation on collecting and supporting dynamic artists from Latin America with Ella
Fontanals-Cisneros, Founder & Honorary President of the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (CIFO); Onye Ozuzu, Dean of the UF College of Fine Arts; and Jesús Fuenmayor, Exhibition Curator, Program Director and Visiting Curator at the University Galleries.

Gallery Tour
Saturday, October 23, 2 p.m.
Macarena Deij Prado, UF PhD candidate in colonial art of the Americas will lead a tour of the exhibition focusing on key themes and contemporary artists from throughout Latin American.

Artist Talk
Wednesday, October 27, 3 p.m.
Artist Glexis Novoa will speak about his work Specific Obstacles on view in the exhibition.

Harn Eminent Scholar Chair in Art History (HESCAH) Lecture
Thursday, November 4, 6 p.m.
“Residues and Relations: Thinking Identity at the Edge of Modernity” Dr. Monica Amor, Associate Professor at Maryland Institute College of Art, will discuss late modern artistic practices by artists from Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela whose works exceed dominant narratives of art history.

Curator Gallery Talk
Saturday, November 13, 3 p.m.
Jesús Fuenmayor, Curator of the exhibition and Program Director and Curator at the University Galleries, will speak about the work on view and highlight individual artists who address contemporary social, political and aesthetic concerns in their art.

Artist Panel: Plural Domains: Art in, of, from Latin America
Thursday, February 24, 6 – 8 p.m.
Artists featured in Plural Domains will participate in a live discussion about their work and of contemporary artistic practice more broadly. Panel moderated by José Falconi. Panel Participants include Amalia Pica, Alice Miceli, José Gabriel Fernández. This event is sponsored by the UF Center of Latin American Studies and HESCAH.

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