RAMPA: Signaling New Latin American Art Initiatives (Co-Curator)
Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, Arizona USA
March 5 – August 20, 2005
In March 2005, the ASU Art Museum showcased works from its Latin American collection, complemented by works on loan from Arizona collectors and beyond in order to signal a focus on work produced by artists living and working in Latin America and a collection focus expanded to include works by artists based in the Southern Cone. Latin American art’s vitality and its relevance to Arizona’s geographic location and to contemporary themes of globalization made it an engaging focus and a dynamic strategy to the advancement of the Museum. Significantly, the exhibition also signaled the inclusion of works by Brazilian artists, resulting from of the first patron and curatorial research trip to Brazil in October 2004 organized by Ted Decker. Decker planned two additional patron and curatorial trips in 2005 and in 2006. The exhibited works were as diverse in content, in materials used, historically, and in artists’ geographic origins as the countries referenced when referring to Latin America.
Decker was awarded an international cultural exchange grant linking the ASU Art Museum and the Museu da Arte Contemporânea at Universidade de São Paulo in 2006, and worked in Brazil for five weeks as a part of the exchange.
