In each chapter, in conversation between the most remarkable artists from Latin-America and Latinxs in the US, and our MOLAA Chief Curator Gabriela Urtiaga, we place the focus on a series or specific artwork which requires a close inspection and deliberate process of contemplation, and exploration; delving into the ideas surrounding the creation of the works, their sources of research and inspiration, in an effort to immerse ourselves in the world of the artists.
This session will be pre-recorded.
Guillermo Bert (Chile, 1959)
Los Angeles–based multimedia artist Guillermo Bert, born in Santiago, Chile (1959), draws on his bicultural experience to explore urbanism, consumerism, and displacement. In the early 1990s, his bricolage transformed street posters from Los Angeles’s Skid Row into a form of urban archaeology. He later incorporated barcodes into laser-cut artworks and paintings. A pivotal 2010 trip to Chile led to collaborations with Mapuche weavers, integrating QR codes into textiles that, when scanned, reveal films featuring Indigenous stories. Expanding this project, Bert has also worked with Navajo, Maya, Mixtec, and Zapotec weavers, producing 40 short films that connect viewers directly with Indigenous artists.
Beyond textiles, Bert’s films offer documentary glimpses into cultural narratives. Over 15 years he has recorded artists sharing their voices— often in Indigenous languages—creating a series of films spanning several countries. His multidisciplinary practice includes weaving, laser sculpture, photography, and film.
Bert’s mid-career retrospective, The Journey, was presented at the Nevada Museum of Art (2023) with an accompanying book and catalog. His work has recently been shown at the William Turner Gallery in Santa Monica and at LACMA in the exhibition Grounded.
His work is held in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery, LACMA, MOLAA, and the Rhode Island Museum of Art, and has been reviewed in Smithsonian Magazine, ArtNews, The Los Angeles Times, and LA Weekly.
Patrick Frank is the author of several books on modern Latin American art. His books include monographs on José Guadalupe Posada the Argentine movements Los Artistas del Pueblo and Nueva Figuración. He wrote the Revised Edition of Twentieth-Century Art of Latin America for University of Texas Press in 2015. He has also edited and translated two volumes of Latin American artists’ writings. He earned M.A. and Ph.D. degrees at George Washington University in Washington, DC before teaching the history of Latin American art for several years at the University of Kansas and the University of Colorado. He lives in Venice, California.