Interventions “en la west coast”: Latin American Art in Vancouver, 1980s-2019

Recently, Latin American art has gained more visibility as revisions to the histories of modernisms and conceptualisms adopt feminist and decolonial frameworks to contest national and western art canons. While its existence has been debated since the 1970s, for many practicing artists, especially those living outside the region, the category “Latin American Art” is a double-edged sword.

Considering the complexities that burden the term, this paper presents preliminary research to map and historicize the increased presence of Latin American artists and their conflicting relations with the term Latin American Art, on the west coast of Canada in the last forty years. From the influx of Chilean refugees in the 1970s to current migrant flows from Mexico and Central America in Vancouver, it explores the potential of the category “Latin American Art” to intervene in both national and global art canons as a destabilizing force rather than essentialist term and to elucidate alternative histories of artistic exchange and broaden the historical narratives of Latin American Art north of the United States. Ultimately, this paper also seeks to open up the narratives of Vancouver’s vibrant art scene and make visible the deep connections that the Canadian West coast has with its southern hemispheric neighbours who have left a mark in many cultural fields and have used the term Latin American to advance different agendas.