El Museo Del Barrio Hosts Symposium On Latinx Art Market Growth
The Aspen Institute's Latinx community division, Aspen Conexión, conceived the event. Pilar Frank O'Leary, executive director of Aspen Conexión (formerly Latinos in Society), stated that the division was founded on the principle that“Latino impact in the United States is not only a domestic story but a hemispheric one across business, culture, finance, sports, and the arts.” She added that“Latino communities are shaping markets, influencing global demand and redefine how we think about economic growth and cultural power across the Americas and beyond.”
In her opening remarks, Karla Harwich, board chair for El Museo, characterized the increased visibility of US Latinx artists as“a profound cultural shift.” However, she emphasized that“there is still significant work to be done to ensure that this influence is matched by sustained institutional, equitable market investment, and long-term infrastructure.” Harwich concluded,“The questions we are exploring feel both urgent and long overdue. This is precisely why today matters.”
Frank O'Leary also noted the current moment, stating,“We are gathering at a moment when Latino culture is increasingly redefining the American and the global mainstream,” referring to it as“the Bad Bunny era.” Patrick Charpenel, El Museo's executive director, posed a central question for the day:“At El Museo del Barrio, we think deeply about how to translate cultural moments into structural change. What does it take to move from moments of visibility to lasting recognition?”
A primary focus of the afternoon was drawing lessons from the success of Latin American art in both market and institutional contexts over the past two decades. Diego Deleersnyder, managing director of Aspen Conexión, noted,“The rise of Latin American art over the past two decades did not happen by accident. It was built intentionally, through institutions, collectors, galleries, fairs, and sustained investment over time.” In contrast, Latinx art is“still in an earlier chapter of that story.”
A case study was presented by Diego Costa Peuser, founder and global director of the Pinta Group, which organizes various fairs and art weeks across Latin America and the US. His presentation,“Building the Market: Latin American Art Fairs in Focus,” detailed Pinta's strategies, including recent expansions to art weeks in cities like Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and Panama City, aimed at highlighting local art scenes. Costa Peuser concluded,“In short, we understand that the growth of Latin American art does not occur spontaneously, but from sustained work.”
The first panel,“Latin American and Latino Art in the U.S. Market: Galleries, Collectors, and Museums,” featured adviser Gabriela Palmieri, artist Emilio Perez, and Sotheby's Latin American specialist Emily C. Nice, and was moderated by the Aspen Institute's Danielle Baussan. Palmieri highlighted the continued rise of Latin American artists in the secondary market, citing Leonora Carrington's auction record, which was broken twice in two years: first at $3.3 million in 2022 and then at $25.8 million in 2024.
Institutionally, Palmieri noted that Wifredo Lam's masterpiece“The Jungle” (1942–43), which once hung by elevators at the Museum of Modern Art, was given a prominent position in the artist's MoMA retrospective last fall. Nice elaborated on Sotheby's history of Latin American art auctions, which began after a specialist's trip to Mexico in 1977. Both of Carrington's records were set at Sotheby's, while Frida Kahlo's“El Sueño (La cama)” established a new record for the most expensive Latin American artwork, selling for $54.7 million at the auction house in November 2025.
Palmieri expressed enthusiasm for these developments, stating,“Context is key, placement is seminal, and excitement is real.” Perez, whose work is currently featured in“Let Us Gather in a Flourishing Way,” a survey of contemporary Latinx painting, joined the discussion to advocate for broader inclusion. He explained,“Given my background, of course, I'm always going to be Latino, that's who I see when I look in the mirror in the morning. But when it comes to how the work is perceived, it really has so much to do with nuance.... As an artist, my interest [focuses on] being able to connect with a much broader audience, and sometimes I find labels to be somewhat of a constraint.” He added,“For any artist, the important thing is showing up every day, and when those opportunities happen, when those doors open, you have to walk through them.”
The second panel,“Decolonizing the Art System: Visibility and Invisibility in Latin American and Latino Art,” featured Silvia Cubiñá, executive director and chief curator of the Bass Museum of Art in Miami; Irene Gelfman, global curator for the Pinta Group; Patricia Hanna, director of the Jorge M. Pérez Collection and El Espacio 23; and Susanna V. Temkin, El Museo's interim chief curator. Hanna emphasized the importance of visibility, saying,“We talk a lot about the market, sales, record sales, and these works entering collections, but these works need to be seen, so how do people even know they exist if they don't go to institutions and museums?”
One strategy, presented by Hanna, is for El Espacio 23, founded by collectors Darlene and Jorge M. Pérez, to display works in an annual exhibition during Art Basel Miami Beach. She explained,“Our approach in terms of visibility is to really insert these artists into a more global conversation.” Temkin suggested exhibitions like El Museo's La Trienal, which relaunched in 2021, as another method. Temkin, who previously worked as a Latin Americanist and assistant curator at the Americas Society, remarked,“It was only after being a part of exhibitions here that I realized what a platform El Museo in particular can be for the visibility of Latin American and Latino artists.” She added,“Shortly after the first Trienal, we witnessed [some featured artists'] work finally being acquired by major institutions,” a point corroborated by Hanna, who noted the Pérez collection's acquisition of works from La Trienal.
While acknowledging the value of learning from Latin America, Cubiñá cautioned against over-reliance on it as a sole roadmap. She highlighted that it is“a little bit of an unfair comparison,” primarily due to the tenfold difference in population size: Latin America and the Caribbean have approximately 673 million people, compared to the US Latinx population of 68 million. Cubiñá also pointed out that each Latin American country possesses its own established ecosystem of museums, galleries, and collectors. She stressed the importance of“Creating that [infrastructure] which El Museo del Barrio does so well, and I think all of us try a little bit to, do is really important and the way forward.”
The keynote address was delivered by E. Carmen Ramos, chief curatorial and conservation officer of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Drawing on decades of curatorial experience, Ramos stated,“I bring lived experience grounded in the belief that equal opportunity, curiosity, pride, and joy can help advance Latinx art in the present and future.”
We previously reported:Cuauhtémoc Medina will curate the 25th Bienal de Arte Paiz in Guatemala, scheduled for November 2027 to February 2028 in Antigua and Guatemala City.
Source: ARTnews
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