Dispossessions in the Americas

“Dispossession”—the deprivation of land, culture, language, or all three—has been a defining condition across the Americas, initiated by European colonialism. The exhibition Dispossessions in the Americas: The Extraction of Bodies, Land, and Heritage from La Conquista to the Present brings together more than 40 works by 36 contemporary artists from across Latin America whose creative output broadly seeks to critique and unsettle the long-standing politics of dispossession. Featuring photographs, videos, installations, performances, sculptures, and paintings, all produced between 1960 and 2025, the exhibition examines the enduring legacies of colonialism, showing how dispossession continues to shape Indigenous, Afro-descendant, Queer, and Trans communities. Dispossessions in the Americas is now open at Wrightwood 659 (659 W. Wrightwood Avenue). The exhibition is curated by Jonathan D. Katz, Professor of Practice, History of Art and Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies, University of Pennsylvania (and curator of the recent blockbuster The First Homosexuals), and independent curator Eduardo Carrera. Dispossessions in the Americas: The Extraction of Bodies, Land, and Heritage from La Conquista to the Present is presented by Alphawood Exhibitions. Professor Katz notes, “Dispossession—the European colonial theft of land, culture, and human beings in the Americas—is not merely a historical fact. It remains arguably the defining condition of much of Latin America.” Professor Katz continues, “Dispossessions in the Americas takes this historical context as a starting point, marshalling activist artists whose work defies the Colonial values and institutions that have systematically overwritten the priorities of Indigenous, Latinx, and Afro-descendants, as well as women and Queer/Trans people.” Co-curator Carrera added, “Dispossessions in the Americas examines how the dynamics of loss and resistance shape the structures of power inherited from colonialism. The artists in the exhibition reconfigure memory, assert belonging, and create new ways of relating to history and territory by exploring the hybridization of body, territory, spirituality, and ecology. They become the mediators of physical and symbolic spaces that challenge colonial hierarchies.” From 2021 to 2024, 12 Latin American museums across 10 countries worked with local curators to present exhibitions as part of Dispossessions in the Americas, a transdisciplinary project combining research, teaching, and community engagement, led by the University of Pennsylvania under the support of the Mellon Foundation. The Wrightwood 659 exhibition is the final cumulative presentation of works from these exhibitions and includes bilingual text in English and Spanish. Organized around three themes—Territory, Body, and Cultural Heritage—the exhibition explores how contemporary artists transform the substance and symbols of colonial power into practices of environmental care and embodied liberation. These works also present a new—and more accurate—relation to history, no longer told from the colonist’s perspective. They reveal hybrid connections among territory, gender, and ecology, with artists shaping interactions between bodies and the environment to rethink memory, identity, and relationships to the land.

Event Links

Tickets: https://go.evvnt.com/3635208-0

Website: https://go.evvnt.com/3635208-2

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