“El Museo del Barrio announces commissioned projects, exhibition highlights, illustrated catalogue, and opening week programming for Flow States – La Trienal 2024, the museum’s second large-scale triennial of Latinx contemporary art. Organized by El Museo del Barrio’s chief curator Rodrigo Moura, curator Susanna V. Temkin, and guest curator María Elena Ortiz, the exhibition will feature 33 artists working across the United States, Puerto Rico, and—for the first time—geographies that reflect the complexities of diasporic flows, with artists based in the Americas, the Caribbean, Europe, and Asia.

Emphasizing plurality and a sense of movement, the exhibition’s title, Flow States, borrows from the psychology of creative focus and the fluidity of geographic boundaries and cultural exchanges. As such, the phrase reflects the ever-changing paths of Latinx artistic diasporas that inform the exhibition. Participating artists share interests in transformation, hybrid belongings, collective memories, porosities of landscape, and material exchanges. These threads come together against a background of displacements and migrations that continue to transform our local and global ecosystems.” — El Museo del Barrio

“For the second edition of LA TRIENAL, we have broadened the geographic scope to emphasize the multiplicity of the Latinx cultural experience as a lens to frame the contemporary artistic landscape. Importantly, this edition acknowledges the resonances and connections among Latinx, Filipinx, Caribbean, and Indigenous identities,” says Moura.

“Flow States – LA TRIENAL 2024 presents itself as a summit in which the works of the selected artists reflect affinities and solidarities, as well as distinct perspectives and individualized points of departure. Together, they offer strategies for resistance and diverse imaginations for the future,” says Temkin.

Commenting on the significance of the exhibition at this particular moment, Maria Elena Ortiz, guest curator and curator at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, adds: “This exhibition validates Latinx art, focusing on its diasporic realities to expand on the mainstream notion of Latino. Breaking away from national boundaries, it is an opportunity to admire the work of emerging voices, celebrate underrepresented artists, and include other narratives into the discourse.”

“Flow States – LA TRIENAL 2024 demonstrates El Museo del Barrio’s unwavering commitment to championing Latinx art and amplifying the voices of underrepresented artists. This edition extends our reach beyond the United States and Puerto Rico to include new geographies that reflect the complexities of diasporic flows, with artists based in the Americas, the Caribbean, Europe, and Asia. We invite audiences to challenge established narratives and find their own stories mirrored in the powerful works of art that will be on display,” says Patrick Charpenel, Executive Director, El Museo del Barrio.