New Latino Art Galleries Now Open at the Blanton

The Blanton Museum of Art at The University of Texas at Austin has opened two new collection galleries dedicated to Latino art as part of an institution-wide initiative to expand its focus on art by Latino artists. A major component of this initiative was the gift and purchase of over 5,000 artworks from the Gilberto Cárdenas and Dolores Garcia Collection, one of the largest private collections of Chicano and Latino art in the world.  

The inaugural rotation of artworks in the galleries spotlights portraits from this important collection by Chicana and Chicano artists working in a range of media. Titled Cara a cara / Face to Face: Portraits by Chicano Artists from the Gilberto Cárdenas and Dolores Garcia Collection, it features artists who have chosen portraiture as a form of personal, cultural, or political affirmation. These works depict people from all walks of life, celebrating stories belonging to Mexican American communities. The featured artists also embrace the portrait as a platform to address issues of social justice, ranging from politically provocative images shaped by the Chicano movement for civil rights, to the use of humor and ambiguity in more recent examples. Among the artists included are Connie Arismendi, Claudio Dicochea, Gaspar Enríquez, Esperanza Gama, Carmen Lomas Garza, Yolanda López, Delilah Montoya, Malaquías Montoya, Dulce Pinzón, George Yepes, and Vincent Valdez.  

The Blanton is in the final stages of hiring an Associate Curator of Latino Art who will program future rotations in the galleries, in addition to directing the project to catalogue, document, and digitize works from the Cárdenas/Garcia collection. This new curatorial position is funded by the Advancing Latinx Art in Museums initiative.