©Luisa Alcantara. Stalker I (The War of the Roses), 2024, spackle, tar, bitumminous water-based sealant, enamel and flocking on panel/oil on canvas, 163 x 233 cm. Courtesy of Yehudi Hollander-Pappi Gallery and Art Cologne
Latin American Art:
Memory, Visibility & New Opportunities
Since mid-October, art, culture, and historical memory have been at the center of a nationwide debate in Colombia. It has drawn in not only artists and cultural professionals, but also students, historians, teachers, victims of violence, and the international media.
On 15 October, Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella announced a "cultural counterrevolution." That same day, his Ministry of Culture, led by Paola Holguín, ordered dozens of artworks, documents, and historical objects removed from the Museo Nacional de Colombia in Bogotá: pieces addressing the country's armed conflict, LGBTQ+ rights, women's rights, and political violence. What remained were conspicuous empty spaces on the walls.
President De la Espriella, a lawyer by profession, seems to have overlooked a fundamental principle: museums must be able to preserve collective memory and make curatorial decisions free from political interference. Within days, a Bogotá court stepped in, ordering the museum to preserve every piece it had taken down and halting further removals.
On 28 October, a Bogotá court ordered the museum to reinstate the removed pieces within 48 hours, ruling that curatorial decisions could not be based solely on objections to their content or the perspectives they represent. By Friday, 30 October, the artworks and historical objects had been returned to the museum.
What was meant to disappear from public view has become impossible to ignore.
©Marta Granados - Museo Nacional de Colombia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Artefacts from the Museo Nacional de Colombia
©Dannagn - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0. Artefacts from the Museo Nacional de Colombia
©Santiago Andrés Correa Isaza - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0. Artefacts from the Museo Nacional de Colombia
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©Usuario El rolo - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0. Artefacts from the Museo Nacional de Colombia
From Bogotá, we travel to Cologne, where the 59th edition of Art Cologne opens from 5 to 8 November. Surprisingly, our first stop there leads straight back to Colombia.
At Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Mexican artist Teresa Margolles, this year's recipient of Germany's Käthe Kollwitz Prize, shows her installation La Entrega (The Delivery). And no, this is not a man taking off his
T-shirt to campaign for Lula da Silva in Brazil's October 2026 presidential election. The color print depicts a Venezuelan migrant in Cúcuta, Colombia, who works as a trochero, a porter carrying goods across informal border crossings near the Simón Bolívar International Bridge. He gave the artist his sweat-soaked T-shirt as part of an exchange; she then cast it into a concrete cube. Labor that usually goes unseen becomes something solid, heavy, and impossible to overlook.
©Teresa Margolles. La Entrega (The Delivery), 2019. 180 x 100 cm. Courtesy of Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Hall 11.2 - Stand number A139 and Art Cologne
The gallery is also showing a painting by Francis Alÿs. Born in Belgium and based in Mexico City since the 1980s, Alÿs makes work that moves between play, communication, and abstraction.
©Francis Alÿs. Untitled (Study for hands), 2026. 13 x 18 cm. Courtesy of Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Hall 11.2 - Stand number A139 and Art Cologne
From the border to the body: São Paulo gallery Yehudi Hollander-Pappi presents Brazilian painter Luisa Alcantara, known for her bold, often humorous female nudes caught in unexpected situations. Working from images she collects, she builds narratives around sexuality, obsession, pleasure, and courage, challenging conventional ideas of the female body and exposing the tension between social expectations and individual longing. With meticulous attention to the texture of skin and the physical weight of the body, her paintings walk the fine line between desire and desperation.
©Luisa Alcantara. Postpunk V, 2026, 100 x 100 cm. Courtesy of Yehudi Hollander-Pappi Gallery, Hall 11.2 - Stand number N13 and Art Cologne
The fair on the Rhine also looks ahead. Since 1980, its NEW POSITIONS program has given emerging artists their own booth of about 25 square meters, right next to their gallery's stand: a first step into the art market that has launched many careers.
©Aerial view of Kölnermesse. Courtesy of Art Cologne
The program is funded by Germany's Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the German Association of Galleries and Art Dealers (BVDG), and Koelnmesse.
This year, 18 artists have been selected, although none appears to be from Latin America. Elsewhere at the fair, however, Chilean-Peruvian artist Ivana de Vivanco is featured in Was uns bewegt – Kunst als Spiegel der Zeit, a special exhibition from the LBBW Collection curated by Barbara Thomann. And speaking of opportunities for artists, here's one worth sharing.
©Ivana de Vivanco. Estudio para una transformación en Cotorra Mitrada. Graphite and colour pencil on Hahnemühle paper, 34 x 25 x 3 cm. Courtesy of the artist.
So, artists from South America: here's your chance to come to Munich!
Artist in Residence Munich (Ebenböckhaus) and Salta art, in partnership with the ERA Foundation, are offering two residencies for contemporary visual artists born and based in South America. The residency comes with rent-free accommodation, a monthly grant of €1,300 from the City of Munich, return flights,
a shared studio in Munich's Museumsquartier, a €600 research allowance, and access to the MakerSpace Munich workshops.
Residency period: 7 July – 29 September 2027
Application deadline: 15 November 2026, midnight (CET)
Click here to download PDF with further information regarding the residency.