Liliana Porter

1941, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Lives and works in New York, USA. 

Through references drawn from popular culture and collective memory, Liliana Porter uses devices that border on the fantastic to compose works that subvert the conventions imposed by everyday life and by art itself, creating ambiguous and controversial situations, called “vinhetas teatrais” [theatrical vignettes]. Through a private collection of images and small objects, the artist works on different supports ranging from photography and videos to installations, to present the viewer with allegorical and distorted narratives of reality and time. 

Liliana Porter graduated in visual arts from the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes (Buenos Aires, Argentina) and from the Universidad Iberoamericana (Mexico City, Mexico). Residing in the USA since 1964, that same year she founded the New York Graphic Workshop, with Luis Camnitzer and José Guillermo Castillo. In 1974, she participated in the creation of the Studio Camnitzer artist’s residency, in Italy. She has held solo shows at notable venues that include the San Jose Museum of Art, San José, USA (2023), Saint Louis Art Museum, USA (2022)National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland (2019); the Pérez Museum, Miami, USA (2018); El Museo del Barrio, New York, USA (2018); the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA (2014); MALBA, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2013); Museu Tamayo, Mexico (2009); the Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2003); Phoenix Art Museum, USA (2000); Bronx Museum, USA (1992); the Museo de Arte Moderno, Cali, Colombia (1990); and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, USA (1973). She has participated in group shows at many prominent venues, including the Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA (2019); the Pinacoteca de São Paulo (2018); Brooklyn Museum, USA (2018); the 57th Venice Biennale, Italy (2017); the Whitney Museum of Art, New York, USA (2016); the Museo Nacional de Artes Visuales, Montevideo, Uruguay (2015); the Bienal de Curitiba, Brazil (2011); the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art, Japan (2008); the VI Bienal do Mercosul, Porto Alegre (2007); and the III Bienal Iberoamericana de Lima, Peru (2002). Her works figure in more than 50 public collections, including those of the Whitney Museum (USA), Tate Modern (England), the Smithsonian Institution (USA), MoMA (USA), the Metropolitan Museum (USA), the Museu de Arte Moderna of Rio de Janeiro, MALBA (Argentina), the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Spain), and Daros Latinamerica (Germany).