Regina Silveira Pieces Together an Evolving Narrative of Latin America

Regina Silveira has spent the better part of three decades considering the relationship between media and meaning, particularly as it relates to Latin America. Based in São Paulo, Silveira is a pioneer of Brazilian conceptual art who is known for utilizing light, installation, and photos to consider how images circulate and tell stories. One of her projects working in this vein is Latin American Puzzle, a series that assembles sprawling visual narratives like jigsaws.

First presented in 1997, “To Be Continued…” features 100 black-and-white reproductions of photos, newspaper clippings, propaganda, advertisements, and more. Silveira nests each image into an oversized puzzle piece, which cuts off faces and scenes to leave fragments of pop culture icons, flora and fauna, and even the occasional mugshot spliced next to one another. Rather than organizing pieces by time period, geography, or thematic context, these juxtapositions create what the artist calls “a patchwork quilt of entropic character” that leaves a more complicated view of Latin America.

“To Be Continued…” is on view this month at Alexander Gray Associates alongside the latest iteration of the work, “Continued…” Together, the large-scale installations present Silveira’s evolving considerations of a region that continues to grapple with its post-colonial environment and unending interventions by world powers.

Black pieces and occasional white gaps suggest both loss and an opening for new additions, while the grooved edges seemingly allow for reconfiguration. Combined with titles that end in ellipses, the malleable compositions portray narratives that are always in flux.

See Latin American Puzzle through February 14 in New York. Find more from Silveira on her website.

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