Three works by Indigenous Paraguayan artist Osvaldo Pitoé feature in Latin American Histories at the Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand in São Paulo, Brazil. Curated by Amanda Carneiro and Julieta González, the international exhibition examines how the very idea of Latin America has been constructed, contested, and continually reimagined through histories of migration, exchange, and cultural encounter. It also foregrounds Indigenous conceptions of time, endings, and renewal, offering alternative ways of understanding the past while imagining possible futures.
The featured paintings by Pitoé now form part of the museum's permanent collection, following a donation made to MASP by Cecilia Brunson Projects this past summer. The donation marks a significant milestone for the artist and further recognises the growing international importance of Indigenous artistic practices from Latin America.
Osvaldo Pitoé first came to prominence in Europe in the landmark exhibition Trees at Fondation Cartier (Paris, 2019) which positioned him as an important voice advocating for the preservation of Indigenous ways of living, in union with the forest and its ecosystems. Painting on wooden panels, the artist conjures images from accounts of elders and his own childhood memories. Almost dreamlike in their atmosphere, with figures suspended and engulfed by their landscapes, his images inhabit a non-existent space of memory, desire, and imagination.
Latin American Histories
Curated by Amanda Carneiro and Julieta González
Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, São Paulo, Brazil
4 September 2026 - 31 January 2027
