LATIN AMERICAN ARTISTS: ART HAS NO HOMELAND
“Art has no homeland, but the artist does” was a statement former LUAG director Ricardo Viera (1974-2018) frequently made regarding his vision for the Latin American art collection he built at Lehigh. Abstraction, conceptualism, the politics of identity: these are the territories of contemporary art in the Americas. Not surprisingly, these concerns belong to artists of many backgrounds with diverse personal histories. For decades, LUAG has focused on the ways Latino and Latinx artists have carved out a place within the mainstream of art history or have positioned themselves against it. Figures like Diego Rivera, Wifredo Lam, and José Clemente Orozco have become highly visible, but countless others have contributed to the complex story of contemporary Latin American art. Ranging throughout Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Cuba, Jamaica, Ecuador, and elsewhere—these artists produce works reflecting aspects of gender, diaspora, poetics, and political commentary that address the reality of life in the 20th and 21st centuries.
With help from our friends in Lehigh Libraries Special Collections, we are also highlighting a newly digitized archive of LUAG’s past publications. Featuring catalogs, calendars, announcements, and even scrapbooks from the earliest days of exhibitions on campus to the present, this archive sheds new light on the formative history of the arts at Lehigh, part of the distinctive DNA inspiring generations of makers.
Explore archived publications about Latin American artists below:
2001: Latin American Artist-Photographers From the Lehigh University Art Galleries Collection
2010: Latin American Art 3: Cuban Selections from the LUAG Teaching Collection
2015: …Of The Americas:Contemporary Latin American Art from the LUAG Teaching Collection
PastFORWARD: Past exhibitions that continue to shape LUAG’s vision.
As Lehigh University Art Galleries (LUAG) celebrates its 100th birthday in 2025-2026, we are looking to our roots: revisiting past exhibitions and important themes throughout our network of galleries. These are the ideas that have shaped our identity and which galvanize our vision for the future.
Technical innovation paired with creative thinking has fueled significant exhibitions in PHOTOGRAPHY and PRINTMAKING, while the questions what is art? and who are artists? led to showcasing LATIN AMERICAN ARTISTS, SELF-TAUGHT ARTISTS, and members of the LGBTQ+ community. These works have become part of LUAG’s extensive collection of over 20,000 works of art, a resource ready to shape minds for the next 100 years.
PHOTOGRAPHY: INTENTIONS & TECHNIQUES
Dubois Gallery, Maginnes Hall
SELF-TAUGHT ARTISTS: HOWARD FINSTER
Siegel Gallery, Iacocca Hall • September 2, 2025 - March 13, 2026
LGBTQ+ ARTISTS: SHOW AND TELL
Fairchild-Martindale Study Gallery
PRINTMAKING: A PRINT IS A PARADOX PART 1
Alumni Memorial Gallery • September 2, 2025 - December 12, 2025
PRINTMAKING: A PRINT IS A PARADOX PART 2
Alumni Memorial Gallery • January 19, 2026 - May 22, 2026
LATIN AMERICAN ARTISTS: ART HAS NO HOMELAND
The Gallery at Rauch Business Center
