Latinx Art Works: Making, Collecting, and Exhibiting America

Despite making up nearly 20% of the US population, Latinx communities and their artistic contributions remain narrowly understood and severely understudied. Rather than focusing solely on matters of representation, this lecture considers what Latinx art can reveal about the United States itself: its histories of migration and belonging, race and identity, labor and cultural production, language, and the shifting boundaries of who and what constitutes "American." Drawing on her curatorial experience at the Whitney Museum of American Art and other institutions, Dr. Marcela Guerrero, DeMartini Family Curator, will examine how museums have shaped the ways Latinx art is exhibited, collected, and situated within broader narratives of American art.

Marcela Guerrero is the DeMartini Family Curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art. A Whitney curator since 2017, Guerrero has curated no existe un mundo poshuracán: Puerto Rican Art in the Wake of Hurricane Maria; Martine Gutierrez: Supremacy; and Pacha, Llaqta, Wasichay: Indigenous Space, Modern Architecture, New Art. She was also part of the curatorial teams that organized Vida Americana: Mexican Muralists Remake American Art, 1925-1945 and the Whitney Biennial 2026.

This event is supported by Belonging? a contribution by the Arts and Humanities departments of Trinity College to We the People: A Duke and Durham Initiative. Belonging? is funded by Trinity College and Duke Arts. With additional support from Duke Pluriversal Studio + FHI Social Practice Lab.