March 21, 2025, Filed Under: Visiting ScholarLecture (Apr. 9, 4pm): Mari Carmen Ramírez, “Frida: The Making of a (Plural) Icon” Wednesday, April 9 Art History Lecture Series “Frida: The Making of a (Plural) Icon” 4:00–5:30pm Art Building (ART), Room 1.102, 2301 San Jacinto Blvd., Austin, TX 78712 Please join us for a reception following the lecture Dr. Mari Carmen Ramírez will be lecturing on artist Frida Kahlo, the subject of a major exhibition opening at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston in Spring 2026. Dr. Ramírez is the Wortham Curator of Latin American Art and founding Director of the International Center for the Arts of the Americas (ICAA) at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. A globally renowned authority on modern and contemporary Latin American art, Ramírez has published extensively and curated numerous exhibitions, including the award-winning Inverted Utopias: Avant-Garde Art in Latin America (2004, with Héctor Olea); Beatriz González: A Retrospective (with Tobias Ostrander, 2019); Hélio Oiticica: The Body of Color (2006); Contingent Beauty: Contemporary Art from Latin America (2015); HOME, So Different, So Appealing (with Chon Noriega and Pilar Tompkins, 2017); Joaquín Torres-García: Constructing Abstraction with Wood (Menil Foundation, 2009). She’s also conceptualized and implemented the ICAA Documents of 20th Century Latin American and Latino Art Project, a major digital archive and book series focused on primary sources. In 2005 Ramírez received the Award for Curatorial Excellence granted by the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College. That same year, TIME magazine named her one of “The 25 Most Influential Hispanics in America.” In 2023, Ramírez was awarded the Queen Sofía Spanish Institute’s Sophia Award for Excellence by her Majesty, Queen Sofía of Spain. Co-organized by the Department of Art and Art History’s Art History Lecture Series and the Center for Latin American Visual Studies (CLAVIS). With collaboration from Blanton Museum of Art. Funding support provided by the Art History Division Lecture Series, Office of the Dean of the College of Fine Arts, Sterling Clark Holloway Centennial Lectureship in Liberal Arts, and Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies and Argentine Studies Program.
