Latin American Art / Arte Latinoamericano

Opens May 17, 2025–Ongoing
Charles Street, Level 2A

Latin American Art / Arte Latinoamericano (working title) presents over 200 artworks from the museum’s expansive collection of art from South, Central, and North America and the Caribbean in one contiguous space for the first time in the museum’s history. Encompassing works from 40 cultures, spanning more than four millennia, the beautifully reimagined North Court galleries—renovated for the first time in 40 years for this permanent exhibition—create a space for visitors to engage with the collection through bilingual materials.

The exhibition presents objects by geographic area and theme, diving deep into location, materials, and the natural world of the Americas. Visitors will encounter examples of ancient ceramic, earthenware, gold, paint, shell, silver, stone, textiles, and more. Collection highlights include dozens of gold and jade ornaments from Colombia and Central America; a large-scale Mexica (Aztec) statue of Macuilxochitl, patron god of music, dance, and gamblers; a colonial-era painting of Saint Rose of Lima; two Maya ceramic burial urns, colored with the special Maya blue colorant; and elaborately modeled Andean drinking vessels and ceramics ritually sprinkled with the red pigment cinnabar.

Latin American Art / Arte Latinoamericano is also an exceptional opportunity to see exciting recent acquisitions of contemporary art for the first time. Several acquisitions by living artists were made specifically for the exhibition, and include works by Jessy DeSantis, Melissa Foss, Eugenio Merino, Ana de Orbegoso, Uriarte Talavera, Pierre Valls, and Kukuli Velarde. These acquisitions explore key ideas such as migration, identity, and gender expression, and express visual and thematic resonances with art from the ancient Americas.

Video and audio interactives with contributions by community members and sensory stations with 3D-printed Maya glyphs and copal incense will also be featured.