Luis Pérez-Oramas

Luis Pérez-Oramas (1960, Caracas) received his PhD in Art History under the direction of Louis Marin and Hubert Damisch at the École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France, in 1993. In 2003 Luis Pérez-Oramas became Adjunct Curator in the Department of Drawings at The Museum of Modern Art, New York; in 2006, he was appointed The Estrellita Brodsky Curator of Latin American Art at MoMA, a position that he held until 2017. Prior to MoMA, Pérez-Oramas was professor of art history at the Université de Haute Bretagne-Rennes 2, France (1987-1991); Ecole Régionale Superieure des Beaux Arts de Nantes, France (1992-1994); and the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Artes Plásticas Armando Reverón, Caracas, Venezuela (1994-2002), as well as Curator of the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, Caracas (1994-2002). In addition, Pérez-Oramas served as the Chief Curator of the Trigésima Bienal de São Paulo, The Imminence of Poetics, in 2012. He is the author of several exhibition catalogues, seven volumes of essays on art, politics and social issues and eight books based on his poetry, among them most recently La dulce astilla (Valencia: Pre-Textos, 2015), La (in)actualidad de la pintura y vericuetos de la imagen (Valencia: Pre-textos, 2021). Since 2017 he serves as curatorial advisor to the Hochschild Correa Collection of Latin American Art, Lima, Perú, and since 2019 he acts as curatorial advisor and senior curatorial director of the Nara Roesler group of galleries, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and New York. He currently lives and works in New York.

Contributions

Carlito Carvalhosa: Sum of Days

Carlito Carvalhosa, falecido em maio aos 59 anos, foi uma das figuras contemporâneas mais elogiadas da arte brasileira. Nesta homenagem ao saudoso artista, Luis Pérez-Oramas reflete sobre a sua colaboração para a exposição de 2011 no Museu de Arte Moderna Carlito Carvalhosa: Sum of Days.

Carlito Carvalhosa: Sum of Days

Carlito Carvalhosa, quien falleció en mayo a los 59 años, fue una de las figuras más elogiadas del arte brasileño contemporáneo. En el presente homenaje al artista, Luis Pérez-Oramas reflexiona sobre su colaboración para la exposición de 2011 en el Museum of Modern Art, Carlito Carvalhosa: Sum of Days.

Carlito Carvalhosa: Sum of Days

Carlito Carvalhosa, who died in May at the age of 59, was one of the most widely praised contemporary figures in Brazilian art. In this homage to the late artist, Luis Pérez-Oramas reflects on their collaboration for the 2011 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, Sum of Days.

Part 3: Lygia Clark: If You Hold a Stone

Through Brazilian musician Caetano Veloso to ancient Roman philosopher Pliny the Elder, scholar Luis Pérez-Oramas outlines and contextualizes Brazilian artist Lygia Clark’s vast body of work. The third and final section of this essay connects the sculptural nature of Clark’s paintings and the human body’s activation in her later works.

Part 2: Lygia Clark: If You Hold a Stone

Through Brazilian musician Caetano Veloso to ancient Roman philosopher Pliny the Elder, scholar Luis Pérez-Oramas outlines and contextualizes Brazilian artist Lygia Clark’s vast body of work. Part two of this essay positions Clark’s paintings as architectural explorations and living organisms.

Part 1: Lygia Clark: If You Hold a Stone

Through Brazilian musician Caetano Veloso to ancient Roman philosopher Pliny the Elder, scholar Luis Pérez-Oramas outlines and contextualizes Brazilian artist Lygia Clark’s vast body of work. Part one of this essay examines Clark’s early works as form-based and the underlying performative aspects of their construction.

Part 1: Tarsila, Melancholic Cannibal

In this essay, curator Luis Pérez-Oramas considers the work of Tarsila do Amaral, the subject of the exhibition Tarsila do Amaral: Inventing Modern Art in Brazil on view February 11 through June 3, 2018 at The Museum of Modern Art, New York.