Research Keywords

  • Latin American Studies, Contemporary Art, Brazil, Art and Culture

Creative Research

  • Organized a major survey of Video Art in Latin America at LAXART Gallery in Los Angeles, September 16-December 17, 2017. The first major U.S. survey of the subject from the late 1970s until today, featuring works rarely if ever seen in the U.S. and introducing audiences to groundbreaking achievements throughout Latin America. The exhibition begins with the earliest experiments in South America, where video became an important medium for expressing dissent during an era dominated by repressive military regimes, and follows themes that emerged in multiple artistic centers throughout Latin America, from labor, ecology, and migration to borders, memory, and consumption. The exhibition also highlights the ways in which contemporary video artists in Latin America continue to pursue the sociopolitical commitment of earlier work, exploring themes related to identity and the consequences of social inequality, without shying away from humor and irony. The single-channel video programs will be complemented by a selection of environmental video installations. Exhibition, completed 09/16/2017.
    http://laxart.org/exhibitions/view/pacific-standa...
  • Brazilian Video Art Rubell Collection Museum, Miami, FL- Art Basel Miami Co-curated with Glenn Phillips Rubell Collection Museum, Miami, FL A focused show of Brazilian video art from the 1970s to the present for the Rubell Collection Museum during Art Basel Miami 2016. Including works by Sonia Andrade, Rodrigo Cass, Anna Bella Geiger, Sandra Kogut, Cinthia Marcelle, Leticia Parente, and Berna Reale. Exhibition, completed 12/02/2016.
    https://rfc.museum/exhibitions/current-exhibitions...
  • Dissonance, Video Art from Latin America at the Getty Research Institute Co-curated with Glenn Phillips, Getty Center, Los Angeles, CA Artist videos ranging from the 1970s until today from Brazil, Mexico, Panama, Chile, Argentina, and Colombia in which artists are uniquely reflect on and respond to discord. Including work by Mauricio Alejo, Brooke Alfaro, Sonia Andrade, Sybil Brintrup, CADA, Virginia de Medeiros, Gabriela Golder, Karlo Andrei Ibarra, Alejandro Leonhardt and Matías Rojas, Pablo Lobato, Cinthia Marcelle, Amanda Melo, Carlos Mota, Clemete Padín, and Martín Sastre. Exhibition, completed 06/08/2016.
    http://www.getty.edu/research/exhibitions_events/e...

Presentations

  • “The Global GDR - A Transcultural History of Art (1949-1990),” Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (SKD) and the Academic Heritage of TU, Dresden, June 9-11, 2022. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 06/10/2022.
  • “Repensar lo audiovisual desde el archivo: 40 años del Festival Franco chileno de Videoarte”, El Centro Nacional de Arte Contemporáneo (CNAC), Santiago, Chile, Dec 2021. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 12/10/2021.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tL8LzzADc74
  • Plenary Session participant in “Afterlives, Colonialism, and Indigenous Cultures of the Americas: A Conversation,” Afterlives: Reinvention, Reception, and Reproduction, Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies Los Angeles, November 2021. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 11/06/2021.
  • Department of Art and Design, Visiting Lecturer Program, Art Insights, Southern Utah University, October 5, 2021. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 10/05/2021.
  • Speaker in “Matters of Fact: The Concrete and the Conceptual in 1970s Latin America,” MOMA NYC, Sept, 2021. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 09/21/2021.
  • Keynote Lecture, “Video’s Posthistorical Memory and Colonial Representation” for AKA PACHA: Contemporary Art in las Américas, Workshop at Academy of Fine Arts, Dresden Germany, Sept, 2021. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 09/06/2021.
  • Video Screening and talk, “States of Crisis”, Archiv der Avantgarden, Dresden, Germany July 8, 2021. Presentation, Presented, 07/08/2021.
  • “The Politics of Memory in Video Art from Latin America,” Technical University, Dresden, Germany, May 2021. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 05/26/2021.
  • Moderator, panel on “Public and Visual Art” Utah Presents, part of the series Artists Elevated: Discussing Equity and Creativity in the Mountain West, January 2021. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 01/27/2021.
    https://www.utahpresents.org/artistselevated/
  • Moderator, panel on “Public and Visual Art” Utah Presents, part of the series Artists Elevated: Discussing Equity and Creativity in the Mountain West, January 2021. Presentation, Presented, 01/20/2021.
  • Lecture and Screening, University of Houston “ The Politics of Memory in Video Art,”. Invited Talk/Keynote, Accepted, 09/24/2020.
  • Latin American Studies and the Center for the Study of Democracy, University of British Columbia, Canada. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 11/14/2019.
  • “Changing Roles: Reinvisioning the Colonial Other” in Visual Culture of Resistance in Brazil, BRASA, Austin, TX, March 2020. Conference Paper, Accepted, 10/19/2019.
  • Moderator of panel, A History of Art from Brazil through Exhibitions and Collections, BRASA, Austin, TX, March 2020. Other, Accepted, 10/19/2019.
  • A presentation and video screening at Momentum in Berlin, Germany . Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 07/18/2019.
  • “Toward Remembering: The Role of Memory in Video Art from Latin America” in Video in Times of Global Crisis, CAA, NYC Feb 2019. Conference Paper, Presented, 02/15/2019.
  • Complex Connectivity and Radical Inclusion: Towards Another Art History” Seminar for ASAP/10: The Arts of the Present, Oct 2018. Conference Paper, Submitted, 10/17/2018.
  • “The Global Medium: Video Art in Latin America” in Conexões: o Brasil e a América Latina na História da Arte Global, BRASA (Brazilian Studies Association) Conference. Conference Paper, Presented, 07/19/2018.
  • UC Berkeley in class presentation on video art. Presentation, Presented, 03/16/2018.
  • Cantor Center for the Visual Arts, Stanford University, Roundtable with Oscar Muñoz and Natalia Brizuela. "The Matter of Photography in the Americas.” . Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 03/15/2018.
  • Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archives, UC Berkeley, Screening/Lecture on Video Art in Latin America. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 03/14/2018.
  • Fowler Museum, UCLA, Respondent for symposium "Blackness and the Art of Empowerment in Bahia, Brazil" accompanying the exhibit Axé Bahia: The Power of Art in an Afro-Brazilian Metropolis . Invited Talk/Keynote, Other, 02/24/2018.
  • UC Santa Barbara, Screening and Lecture on Video Art in Latin America. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 01/15/2018.
  • West Hollywood Public Library, Screening and Lecture on Video Art in Latin America. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 12/09/2017.
  • Cal State Long Beach, School of Art, Screening and Lecture on Defiant Bodies from Video Art in Latin America. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 11/16/2017.
  • UCLA, Department of Art, Lecture on Video Art in Latin America. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 11/13/2017.
  • "Video Art in Latin America" in New Directions in Latin/o American Art: Projects from Pacific Standard Time LA/LA, ASAP/9: The Arts of the Present, Berkeley, CA. Conference Paper, Presented, 10/12/2017.
  • Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Lecture on the exhibition Anna Maria Maiolino, . Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 10/05/2017.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvBS3rYPlU4
  • The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, Lecture on the exhibition Radical Women: Latin American Art 1960-1985. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 10/03/2017.
  • California Institute of the Arts (CALARTS), Lecture on Video Art in Latin America. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 09/29/2017.
  • UCLA, Art History Department, Seminar: Latin America on Display in Los Angeles: Surveying the Field. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 06/01/2017.
  • "Memory and Forgetting," Public Workshop on "Latin American Art & Memory", History of Art and Architecture , UCSB. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 05/01/2017.
  • Guest Lecture, CLAVIS, Center for Latin American Visual Studies, University of Texas, Austin,. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 03/01/2017.
  • "Currency, Art and Economic Crisis" in Art in the Age of Financial Crisis, CAA, NYC. Conference Paper, Presented, 02/16/2017.
  • Guest lecture and book presentation at Rice University, Houston, TX . Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 11/11/2016.
  • “The Art and Crisis of the Cruzeiro in Cildo Meireles’s Banknote Projects,” Williams College, Williamstown, MA, October, 2016. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 10/03/2016.
  • “The Cartography of Place in Brazilian Art,” ABRALIC (Associação Brasileira de Literatura Comparada), Rio de Janeiro, 2016. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 09/21/2016.
  • “Defying Television in Early Video Art, Brazil ca. 1970s” in Artistas brasileiros e sua produção audiovisual (Brazilian Artists and their Audiovisual Production), BRASA (Brazilian Studies Association), Providence, Rhode Island, April 2016. Conference Paper, Presented, 04/01/2016.
  • Exhibition, Yoshua Okón, Oracle at Utah Museum of Contemporary Art. Other, Other, 02/05/2016.
    http://www.utahmoca.org/portfolio/yoshua-okon-orac...
  • "A Systems Perspective of Brazilian Art"at The Forum Transregionale Studien “Global Modernisms: Contiguities, Infrastructures and Aesthetic Practices” Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 11/06/2015.
    http://arthist.net/archive/11277
  • Recent Video Art from Latin America, Screening and discussion, CalArts. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 10/27/2015.
    https://www.calarts.edu/event/2015-10-27/structuri...
  • Exhibition Screening "Recent Video Art from Latin America" at the Getty Research Institute. Other, Presented, 06/03/2015.
    http://www.getty.edu/research/exhibitions_events/e...
  • “Intertwined Histories: Video Art and Violence in Latin America” in The Re-emergence of Utopias, LASA May 2015, Puerto Rico. Conference Paper, Presented, 05/27/2015.
    https://lasa.international.pitt.edu/files/Final-Ma...
  • “Counter-Television: Video Art in Brazil, ca. 1970s” in Global Video: Histories and Practices, CAA (Feb 2015, NYC) . Conference Paper, Presented, 02/14/2015.
  • Keynote lecture, Political Topographies, Crossing The Boundaries 2014, Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Conference, Binghamton University (April 4-5th, 2014). Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 04/04/2014.
  • “Anna Bella Geiger’s Mapas Elementares: Space and Place in Brazil during the 1970s” in Mapping Spaces: Cartographic Practices in Art and Architecture CAA (February 2013, NYC). Conference Paper, Presented, 02/2013.
  • Participant in workshop on sexuality, visuality and performance. 8th Encuentro of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, Cities/Bodies/Action—The Politics of Passion in the Americas, São Paulo, Brazil, January 2013. Presentation, Presented, 02/2013.
  • “Forging the New in Brazilian Contemporary Art” Writing the Art Histories of Brazil, Getty Research Institute workshop, Los Angeles, October 2012. Presentation, Presented, 10/2012.
  • “Sensory Overload and the Institutional Challenge of Decaying Art, Brazil ca. 1972” at the Getty Research Center, Los Angeles, June 2012. Presentation, Presented, 06/2012.
  • “Fernando Novaes Correia’s Boi Encantado (1972): Sensory Overload and the Institutional Challenge of Decaying Art,” presented at CAA New York, (February 2011) in the panel, Conspiracy Methods: Revisiting Latin American Art, 1960s to the Present. Conference Paper, Presented, 02/2011.
  • The Distance between Utopia and Dystopia: Imagining Space Post Brasília.” LASA (Latin American Studies Association) Conference. Toronto, Canada, October 2010. Conference Paper, Presented, 10/2010.
  • Participant in a panel discussion at Oi Futuro Flamengo, on the occasion of Brazilian artist Sonia Andrade’s video art installation “Get with Mandrake Root.” Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, May 8, 2010. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 05/2010.
  • "Border Crossings and the Art of the de la Torre Brothers." Art Talk event at the Kimball Art Center, Park City, Utah, April 2, 2010. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 04/2010.
  • “Patterns in Mexican Art.” Keynote lecture for the Evening for Educators: Mexican Art event at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, March 10, 2010. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 03/2010.
  • Panel co-chair for CAA (College Art Association), Representations of Brazil and Shifting Identities. Chicago. Thursday, February 11, 2010. Other, Presented, 02/11/2010.

Languages

  • German, basic.

Geographical Regions of Interest

  • Brazil
  • Caribbean
  • Central America
  • Europe
    Berlin, Germany.
  • Latin America and the Caribbean
  • Mexico
  • South America
  • United States of America

Publications

  • Elena Shtromberg & Glenn Phillips (2022). Encounters in Video Art in Latin America. Getty Publications. Published, 12/22/2022.
  • Elena Shtromberg (2022). Adele Nelson, Forming Abstraction: Art and Institutions in Postwar Brazil (University of California Press, 2022), LALVC forthcoming. LALVC. Accepted, 05/31/2022.
  • The history of exhibitions in Brazil during the 1960s and 1970s provides a key reference point for understanding how artistic vanguards and contemporary art unfolded in direct relationship to social and political contexts. The seminal exhibitions during these pivotal decades elucidate how the contemporary in Brazilian art stages and reframes conceptions of the “new” vis-à-vis the art object. The exhibitions in question trace the development of Ferreira Gullar’s não-objeto (non-object, 1959) and its path toward the idea-based artwork, an impulse that was prevalent throughout the 1960s in the United States and Europe as well. Inaugurated by the emergence of Brasília, Brazil’s new capital city in the formerly barren hinterlands of the state of Goiás, the 1960s witnessed a new model of artistic practice that pushed the boundaries between art and life, actively seeking out the participation of the viewer. This is most evidenced in the canonical work of artists Hélio Oiticica and Lygia Clark. By the 1970s, challenges to the utopian undertakings from the previous decades had become imbricated with political activism, as artists and intellectuals alike pronounced a commitment to the quest for democracy after the military coup of 1964. The 1970s also witnessed heightened artistic engagement with new information and communication technologies, including the use of video equipment and computers. Constructing the history of Brazil’s contemporary art via the most important moments of its display will not only historically and politically contextualize some of the groundbreaking artists and artworks of these two decades, but also introduce readers to the challenges that these artworks posed to the more traditional methods of institutional display and the criteria used to interpret them. Published, 11/06/2021.
    https://oxfordre.com/latinamericanhistory/view/10....
  • Elena Shtromberg (2021). “Conjuring the Image: Oscar Muñoz in Conversation with Elena Shtromberg/Invocar la imagen: Oscar Muñoz en conversación con Elena Shtromberg. Phoenix Art Museum. Munich, Germany: Hirmer Publishers. Published, 09/06/2021.
  • Elena Shtromberg (2021). Karen Benezra, Dematerialization Art and Design in Latin America (University of California Press, 2020),. Kunstform,. Published, 05/10/2021.
    http://www.sehepunkte.de/2021/05/35025.html
  • Elena Shtromberg (2021). • Karen Benezra, Dematerialization Art and Design in Latin America (University of California Press, 2020). Kunstform, http://www.sehepunkte.de/ueber-uns/. Accepted, 02/15/2021.
  • This manuscript has been submitted and is in route to copy editing. Accepted, 10/2020.
  • “Revising Histories through New Media” in ReVisión: Art in the Americás, exh catalogue, Denver Art Museum, Feb 2020. Accepted, 02/21/2020.
    https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/dist...
  • Elena Shtromberg (2019). “Artistic Vanguards in Brazil, 1960 to the Present" . Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History. Accepted, 11/01/2019.
  • Elena Shtromberg & Ondine Chavoya (2019). “Lessons from PST: LA/LA” . Latin American and Latinx Visual Culture Journal. Vol. 2. Published, 04/19/2019.
    https://lalvc.ucpress.edu/content/1/2/74
  • A brief entry for exhibition catalogue. Published, 02/01/2019.
  • Book Review. Published, 11/01/2018.
    http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/tam.2018.78
  • Artist essay. Accepted, 07/31/2018.
  • Book Review. Published, 07/02/2018.
  • Elena Shtromberg (2018). "Currency, Art and Economic Crisis" . Visual Resources. Vol. 3. Published, 04/01/2018.
  • Elena Shtromberg (2017). Defying Expectations in Radical Women. [Website/Blog] URL https://hammer.ucla.edu/blog/2017/11/defying-expectations-in-radical-women/. Published, 11/07/2017.
    https://hammer.ucla.edu/blog/2017/11/defying-expe...
  • Elena Shtromberg & Glenn Phillips (2017). Video Art in Latin America. LAXART. Published, 09/01/2017.
  • Amnesty and Justice for All: The Art of Regina José Galindo. Published, 02/21/2015.
    https://lareviewofbooks.org/essay/amnesty-justice-...
  • “Brazilian Art and Architecture, Post-independence,” Oxford Bibliographies in Art History, ed. Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann, New York: Oxford University Press (February 2014). Published, 02/2014.
  • Alfredo Jaar, “Context Is Everything.” December 8, 2013. http://lareviewofbooks.org/essay/i-will-not-act-before-understanding-context-is-everything-the-work-of-alfredo-jaar. Published, 12/08/2013.
    http://lareviewofbooks.org/essay/i-will-not-act-b...
  • “Contemporary Latin American Video Art” reference entry in Gale World Scholar—Latin America & the Caribbean . Accepted, 02/01/2012.
  • Exhibition Catalogue “Reversible Taxonomies: Meaning and its Undoing in Diane Pearce’s Aesthetic Propositions” in Dianne Pearce: Indisciplined Meetings. Published, 02/2011.
  • Looking in Three Acts: The Art of Sonia Andrade,” in Sonia Andrade: Videos. Rio de Janeiro: Aeroplano: Oi Futuro, December, 2010, 23-33. Portuguese translation, “O Olhar em três atos,” pp 48-58. Exhibition catalogue. Published, 12/2010.
  • “Translating Revolution: U.S. Artists Interpret Mexican Muralists,” exhibition review in Art Nexus 78 (October-November 2010), 141-143. Exhibition review. Published, 11/2010.