Book Launch: Feliciano Centurión

Join us for a virtual book launch of Feliciano Centurión, the first monograph ever published in any language on the life and work of Paraguayan artist Feliciano Centurión (1962-96). Through the embroidery and painting of vernacular objects such as blankets and aprons, Paraguayan artist Feliciano Centurión (1962-96) rendered poetic readings of his youth in the tropics, his experiences of love in the metropolis and his reflections prior to his untimely death from AIDS-related illness. Since his death, Centurión’s work has been largely overlooked, only recently receiving recognition. This book traces the short but vibrant career of a remarkable artist. With essays and reproductions, it attends to Centurión’s stories of the self—his love life, his disease—but also stories of a cultural body searching for a new political expression in a changing world.

Co-edited by Aimé Iglesias Lukin and Karen Marta, the fully-illustrated hardcover volume includes texts by Ticio Escobar, Jimena Ferreiro, Jorge Gumier Maier, Aimé Iglesias Lukin, Francisco Lemus, and Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro and reproduces over 80 key works by the artist, accompanied by numerous details and archival material. The book is distributed by Artbook D.A.P. and will be available for purchase at major bookstores.

Speakers:

• Gabriel Pérez Barreiro, Curator of Feliciano Centurion: Abrigo
• Pablo León de la Barra, Curator at Large, Latin America, Guggenheim Museum
• Karen Marta, Co-editor, Feliciano Centurión
• Aimé Iglesias Lukin, Director and Chief Curator of Visual Arts at Americas Society
   

About the speakers:

Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro is a curator and scholar focused on art from Latin America. He curated Feliciano Centurión: Abrigo at Americas Society and the 33rd São Paulo Biennial in 2018. He was previously director and chief curator of the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros and curator of Latin American Art at the Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin. 

Pablo León de la Barra is curator at large for Latin America at the Salomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, New York and chief curator at MAC Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro. He was born in Mexico City in 1972. He has a Ph.D. in histories and theories from the Architectural Association, London. He was previously the Guggenheim UBS MAP Curator, Latin America (2013-2016) and director of Casa França-Brasil in Rio de Janeiro (2015-16). León de la Barra has organized or co-organized exhibitions at institutions worldwide, founder and co-curator of the 1st and 2nd Bienal Tropical, San Juan, Puerto Rico (2011 and 2016), co-curator of SITE Santa Fe Biennial, New Mexico (2016) and curator of the Mexican Pavilion at the 2017 Venice Biennale. He has written for various publications and catalogues, participated in numerous international symposiums and conferences. In 2012 he was awarded the first Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros and Independent Curators International Travel Award for Central America and the Caribbean in honor of Virginia Pérez-Ratton. León de la Barra is in the advisory boards of the Luis Barragán Foundation, Mexico City; Capacete, Rio de Janeiro; and the Caribbean Art Initiative, Basel among others.

Karen Marta is a New York-based editor and consultant. She is the editor of Hans Ulrich Obrist’s Interviews Project and has edited many books including co-editing José Leonilson: Empty Man and Lydia Cabrera: Between the Sum and the Parts as well as the present Centurión book for Americas Soceity. Her firm, Karen Marta Editorial Consultants (KMEC) works with and advises a range of institutions on art and architecture books, including Americas Society, Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP), Sharjah Art Foundation, D21 Proyectos de Arte, Santiago, Chile, and Serpentine Galleries, London. 

Aimé Iglesias Lukin is director and chief curator of Visual Arts at Americas Society. She is finishing her doctoral dissertation at Rutgers University, holds an MA from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University, and a BA in art history from the Universidad de Buenos Aires. Iglesias Lukin has independently curated exhibitions at museums and cultural centers and worked in the Modern and Contemporary Art Department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and at Fundación Proa in Buenos Aires.

For press inquiries, please contact: mediarelations@as-coa.org