MASP — Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand will present the exhibition "Picture gallery in transformation: recent gifts" starting May 15, as part of its Latin American histories series. The show features two sets of silkscreen prints recently added to the museum’s collection: 51 prints (2002–2007) by the Argentine collective Taller Popular de Serigrafía, which combined art and activism during the 2001 economic crisis, and the series "Ink and blood: 1968–2009" by Mexican artist Abraham Cruzvillegas, comprising 41 facsimiles of protest ephemera from Latin American social movements. The exhibition is curated by MASP artistic director Adriano Pedrosa, curator Regina Teixeira de Barros, and curatorial assistant Matheus de Andrade.
The exhibition matters because it highlights silkscreen printing as a historically vital political tool for street-level activism and social mobilization across Latin America, expanding MASP’s collection of political printmaking alongside works by Gran Fury, Guerrilla Girls, and Serigrafistas Cuir. It also underscores MASP’s ongoing commitment to Latin American histories, featuring a year-long programme that includes exhibitions by Santiago Yahuarcani, Damián Ortega, La Chola Poblete, and others, reinforcing the museum’s role as a leading institution for contemporary and political art from the region.