Think Again: New Latin American Jewelry

Think Again: New Latin American Jewelry featured the latest trends and movements through works by 50 jewelry makers, representing some 23 Latin American countries. Among the artists included were Mirla Fernandes, Dionea Rocha Watt, and Claudia Cucchi from Brazil; Valentina Rosenthal from Chile; the Argentinians Elisa Gulminelli, Francisca Kweitel, and Silvina Romero; Jorge Manilla and Eduardo Graue from Mexico; and Miguel Luciano from Puerto Rico. The show was guest-curated by the Netherlands-based, Mexican-born architect Valeria Vallarta Siemelink, who is also the president of Otro Diseño Foundation for Cultural Cooperation and Development, which organized the show.

Objects of adornment have played a significant cultural role throughout Latin America’s history, from the spiritually potent jewelry of the pre-Columbians to the eye-catching ornaments worn by Mexican drug gangs to advertise their status and menace. Now, a new generation of jewelry makers working outside the field’s conventions is examining how this complex relationship with physical adornment has evolved—and why. Figurative and abstract, conceptual and symbolic, traditional and experimental, contemporary Latin American jewelry is tremendously varied, and this diversity enables it to communicate its ethnicity and transcend it. To bring clarity to Latin America’s complex culture and history, the exhibition was organized around three themes: history, memory, and tradition; a knack for invention; and seeking and expressing identity. These themes address the region’s past, its unique fusion of ethnic influences, and its ever-changing socio-political realities.

Think Again: New Latin American Jewelry was organized by the Otro Diseno Foundation for Cultural Cooperation and Development and guest-curated by the foundation's president, Valeria Vallarta Siemelink.