La Chola Poblete at MASP: Brown Baroque, Andean Pop

La Chola Poblete, an Argentine artist born in 1989, presents her first solo exhibition in Brazil at the Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP). Titled "La Chola Poblete: Pop Andino," the show features watercolors, photoperformances, bread sculptures, and sound pieces that blend Andean cosmology, Baroque aesthetics, pop culture, and queer fury. Curated by Adriano Pedrosa and Leandro Muniz, the exhibition is part of MASP's annual program dedicated to Latin American Histories. The artist reappropriates the term "chola"—historically used as a racial slur against Indigenous and working-class women—as a political program and alter ego, interrogating narratives of gender, race, and coloniality.

This exhibition matters because it centers Indigenous, brown, and queer perspectives within a major institutional context, challenging hegemonic art historical narratives. La Chola Poblete's "Pop Andino" framework repositions subalternized figures as protagonists, using strategies from pop music and mass culture to critique colonial legacies. By presenting her work at MASP, one of Latin America's most prominent museums, the show amplifies ongoing conversations about decolonization, identity, and representation in contemporary art, while also marking a significant milestone for the artist's international career.