International Center for the Arts of the Americas at MFAH

International Center for the Arts of the Americas at MFAH A digital archive and research center for Latin American and Latino art history at the MFAH.

This article, first published in the summer/fall 1992 issue of High Performance by Mexican-born, U.S.-based artist Guill...
08/21/2026

This article, first published in the summer/fall 1992 issue of High Performance by Mexican-born, U.S.-based artist Guillermo Gómez-Peña, parodies the social, political, and cultural structures of the United States. A commentary on an imagined new society called The New World (B)order, Gómez-Peña’s essay criticizes the rigid politics surrounding American borders (political and cultural), especially when it comes to its Mexican neighbors. Filled with neologisms, the article describes the new society’s nascent formation as former political and economical structures break apart.

Mexican-born performance artist, writer, and educator, Guillermo Gómez-Peña is currently the artistic director of La Pocha Nostra, an international collective of artists, curators, and intellectuals. This San Francisco-based artist is recognized world-wide for his innovations in performance art integrating the use of media (video, radio, photography) with cultural theory, journalism, and poetry to explore the boundaries of cultural identity of the Mexico-United States border.

Click on our bio to learn more on The New World (B)order

Record ID / Registro ID: 📌 1126694
Researchers / Investigadores: Misty Bradley

Emerging in the wake of the establishment of mass media in Europe and the United States in the 1960s, the video art move...
04/27/2026

Emerging in the wake of the establishment of mass media in Europe and the United States in the 1960s, the video art movement sought to explore alternative ways to use analog and digital electronic media to produce works of art. In Uruguay the genre emerged in the early 1980s where it was conceived as a kind of unscripted audiovisual story that was not intended as an audiovisual entertainment production. Video art works have created new narratives and new ways of seeing that have broken with conventional languages; these works are based on an entirely new perception of space and time and create interactive experiences that are very different from traditional forms. Video art is a form of artistic expression that synthesizes and articulates a range of expressive codes at an audiovisual level against a conceptual background.

Record ID / Registro ID 📌 1258411
Researchers / Investigadores: Marina Garcia, Gabriel Peluffo

The critic Samuel Cherson gives a historical account of the Bienal de San Juan del Grabado Latinoamericano y del Caribe ...
04/06/2026

The critic Samuel Cherson gives a historical account of the Bienal de San Juan del Grabado Latinoamericano y del Caribe [San Juan Biennial of Latin American and Caribbean Graphic Art]. He notes that the 7th Biennial (1986) opened 3 ½ years after the prior biennial (1983). The reason was the change in government after the 1984 elections and the resulting reforms carried out by the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña [Institute of Puerto Rican Culture]. In the writer’s opinion, the most noteworthy change was the participation of Cuba, a country that had been sidelined from the previous biennials; Cuba sent a delegation of 20 artists to the 7th Biennial. Meanwhile, a new administration in Puerto Rico opened the way for the return of the Puerto Rican artists who had refused to participate in the 5th and 6th biennials. The reason for their refusal had been to show their disagreement with the leadership of the ICP [Institute of Puerto Rican Culture], and they resumed participation at the 7th Biennial. Cherson concludes his article with a criticism of the conservative, experiment-averse nature of the biennial. He recommends that they broaden the rules to allow more experimental techniques.

Record ID / Registro ID: 📌852865
Researchers / Investigadores: Flavia Marichal Lugo

03/31/2026

Conversation | "Fridamania"

Sat. Apr. 04, 2026
2 PM - 3 PM

In conjunction with Frida: The Making of an Icon, art historian and curator Arden Decker sits down with artists Cristina Kahlo Alcalá, Danie Cansino, Enrique Chagoya, and Blanca Garduño. The discussion centers on the emergence of the “Fridamania” phenomenon in the 1980s and 1990s as well as the forces that catapulted Frida Kahlo to the status of pop culture icon.

Language interpretation services are provided for simultaneous translation through headset devices.

Plan Your Visit:
Included with Museum admission. Seating available on a first-come, first-served basis.
This program takes place in Brown Auditorium Theater in the Law Building.

© Nickolas Muray Photo Archives

Colombian critic María Elvira Iriarte’s research on early abstraction in Colombia makes use of primary sources; the text...
03/31/2026

Colombian critic María Elvira Iriarte’s research on early abstraction in Colombia makes use of primary sources; the text’s structure reveals the events, artists, and issues crucial to abstract art during the period discussed. Major changes took place in Colombia during these years (1955–60): the long-awaited resignation of General Rojas Pinilla, pursuant to which the most important newspapers, which had been shut down under his administration, reopened; and the Salón Nacional de Arte took place once again after having been cancelled in 1953, making it possible for Colombian art to gain widespread recognition outside the country.
This was a prolific period for the visual arts in Colombia not only in terms of production (much of it abstract), but also in terms of communication about art, with heated debates in 1958 and 1959. In Iriarte’s view, the crux of those debates was whether or not to accept new nonfigurative forms of expression.

Record ID / Registro ID: 📌1079798
Researchers / Investigadores: Erika Martínez Cuervo

03/24/2026

Frida: The Making of an Icon also takes a comprehensive look at the role of the extreme
commodification of Kahlo’s iconicity, a cultural phenomenon known as “Fridamania,” that emerged in full force in the early 1990s and has continued until today. – Mari Carmen Ramirez (Founding Director, ICAA, and Wortham Curator of Latin American Art, MFAH)

There are precious few visual artists who have risen to this level of global appeal and celebrity status. Vincent van Gogh, Andy Warhol, Salvador Dalí, and, more recently, Yayoi Kusama are among the exceptions, but none have been appropriated and commodified to the same extent as “Frida.” – Arden Decker (Associate Director, ICAA)

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Houston, TX

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Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

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