The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, highlights Latin American and Latino art collection this spring in the exhibition “Between Play and Grief”

HOUSTON—March 2019—The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, presents Between Play and Grief: Selections from the Latino American Collection, an exhibition featuring a survey of works from the MFAH collection of Modern and Contemporary Latin American and Latinx art. The exhibition will be on view from March 16 to September 8, 2019.

Timed to coincide with the Latino Art Now! Conference organized by the Inter-University Program for Latino Research at the University of Houston on April 4–6, 2019, and with presentations at more than 30 venues across the city, Between Play and Grief presents more than three dozen artworks acquired by the MFAH over the past 10 years. The selection spans six decades of artistic expression, from figures who were actively in dialogue with leading postwar artistic movements such as Nouveau Réalisme, Arte Povera, and Pop Art in the 1960s, to contemporary artists whose work speaks to their identities as both insiders and outsiders within an American experience. All of the artists in the exhibition rely on parody and dark wit to express social and political realities.

Cutting across spatial and temporal categories, the exhibition showcases an unexpected selection that brings together artists from different generations and locations from North and South America. The playfulness, however, belies a more somber tone, indirectly referencing or invoking collective suffering while creating a renewed awareness of the social and political realities it addresses. The work of the following artists is represented in Between Play and Grief: Antonio Berni, Juan Carlos Distéfano, Alberto Heredia, Luis Jiménez, Rómulo Macció, César Augusto Martínez, Amalia Mesa-Bains, Grupo Mondongo, Celia Alvárez Muñoz, Luis Felipe Noé, Marcos Raya, Vincent Valdez, and Jorge de la Vega.

PROGRAMMING HIGHLIGHTS FOR ADULTS
A full list of programs is available online; please visit mfah.org/calendar.

Women Transformed through Art and Opera
Thursday, April 18, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
The MFAH and Houston Grand Opera present an interactive recital that reimagines three heroines from Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni. Three singers will perform arias from the opera in the Museum’s galleries. Facilitated dialogue with participants will examine the treatment of female characters in Lorenzo da Ponte’s libretto for Don Giovanni and the representation of women in art, including Amalia Mesa-Bains’s piece Transparent Migrations (2002), ultimately exploring women’s empowerment in and through the arts. Free.

Art Encounter: Between Play and Grief
Thursday, June 13, from 6 to 8 p.m.
This drop-in style studio session guides participants in working with new and different materials, exploring techniques and works on view in the exhibition. Free.

Art + Lit: Poetry Between Play and Grief
Thursday, August 1, from 7 to 8:30 p.m.
The MFAH and Tintero Projects host five Houston poets and writers inspired by Between Play and Grief. Join in a “walkabout” reading, and experience the art in a new way: through the words of some of Houston’s most exciting writers. Free.

PROGRAMMING HIGHLIGHTS FOR FAMILIES

Our Youngest Artists | Inspired by Colors that Pop!
Friday, April 19, and Saturday, April 20, from 10:30 to 11:15 a.m., and 11:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. 
Babies and toddlers up to 35 months old, and their caregivers, are invited to discover and create. Guests are encouraged to make their own works of art using washable, nontoxic materials. The event concludes with a visit to the galleries to see the work of art that inspired the day’s program. $8 per child, $6 per child for MFAH members. Adults can attend for free with general admission.

Sunday Family Studio | Just Add Paint: Exploring Color and Collage
Sunday, May 5, from 1 to 2 p.m., and 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.
Families can enjoy time in the studio creating an art project together. Participants in this studio workshop use high-quality materials and tools to explore color and collage in the exhibition, giving families the opportunity to better understand the techniques artists use to make art. $8 per child, $6 per child for MFAH members. Adults can attend for free with general admission.

Sunday Family Studio | The Art of Everyday Life: Exploring Assemblage
Sunday, May 19, from 1 to 2 p.m., and 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.
Families can enjoy time in the studio creating an art project together. Participants in this studio workshop use high-quality materials and tools to learn about assemblage in Between Play and Grief, giving families the opportunity to better understand the techniques artists use to make art. $8 per child, $6 per child for MFAH members. Adults can attend for free with general admission.

MFAH Playdate | From Ordinary to Extraordinary
Tuesday, June 4, 10:45 to 11:15 a.m. 
Children up to 35 months old, and an adult caregiver, are invited to enjoy a multi-sensory experience in the galleries. Families sing songs, listen to storybooks, and participate in fun games and activities, all while being introduced to ideas and themes found in the art on view in Between Play and Grief, such as color, size, and texture. Free with general admission.

Little Artists | Discovering Monsters!
Friday, June 7, and Saturday, June 8, from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. 
Children ages 3 to 5, and an adult caretaker, are invited to experience an exciting art adventure at the Museum. Participants will learn about the materials and processes artists used to create different works of art in the exhibition. This program includes a storybook circle, multisensory play, materials exploration, and making an art project in the studio. The morning concludes with an educator-led conversation in the galleries. $8 per child, $6 per child for MFAH members. Adults can attend for free with general admission.

About the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Established in 1900, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, is among the 10 largest art museums in the United States, with an encyclopedic collection of nearly 70,000 works dating from antiquity to the present. The main campus comprises the Audrey Jones Beck Building, designed by Rafael Moneo and opened in 2000; the Caroline Wiess Law Building, originally designed by William Ward Watkin, with extensions by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe completed in 1958 and 1974; the Lillie and Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden, designed by Isamu Noguchi and opened in 1986; the Glassell School of Art, designed by Steven Holl Architects and opened in 2018; and The Brown Foundation, Inc. Plaza, designed by Deborah Nevins & Associates and opened in 2018. Additional spaces include a repertory cinema, two libraries, public archives, and facilities for conservation and storage. Nearby, two house museums—Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens, and Rienzi—present American and European decorative arts. The MFAH is also home to the International Center for the Arts of the Americas (ICAA), a leading research institute for 20th-century Latin American and Latino art. mfah.org 

Organization & Funding     
This exhibition is organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Media Contact
Sarah Hobson, publicist
shobson@mfah.org | 713.800.5345