The New York Times Includes Americas Society Exhibition in Its Best Art of 2024 Write-Up

Art-wise, 2024 had an in-between-things vibe. It was a year of big-deal biennials, but the consensus was that none delivered much firepower. There was a lot of talk about money—what sold for what, and to whom—but no radically record-busting news. In general, the institutional art world veered, as it always does, between uplift (some strong museum shows) and cringe (the $6.2 million banana). I’ll go mostly with uplift in the (unranked) list of highlights below. [...]

‘El Dorado’ 

Installed in Americas Society’s small Manhattan gallery, the second half of the ambitious two-part exhibition called El Dorado: Myths of Gold opened last January. As compelling to look at as it was to think about, it considered gold both as a substance of spiritual allure to Indigenous peoples of the ancient Americas, as an early magnet of European colonial acquisition, and as a spur to an empire-building still very much with us. With art including cast-gold pre-Hispanic sculptures, gilded church altarpieces and critically reflective work by contemporary artists, the show confirms the valuable scholarly work being done by small institutions outside the mainstream...

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