Curated by Luis Pérez-Oramas

This dual retrospective sets Argentine León Ferrari in dialogue with Brazil-based, Switzerland-born Mira Schendel and traces the full sweep of both artists’ oeuvres. Curator Luis Pérez-Oramas selects some 260 works, giving special attention to the ’60s through the ’80s, a period during which the two took language as their core subject and material—yet to divergent aesthetic effect. Ferrari’s more systematic efforts contrast with the poetic muteness of Schendel’s works, meaning that for some, the show might be more puzzling than pleasing. The exhibition’s substantial catalogue, with contributions by Pérez-Oramas and historians Andrea Giunta and Rodrigo Naves, will no doubt find significant links between the pair—and provide much-needed scholarship on bodies of work long overshadowed by concurrent yet distinctly different linguistic and conceptual experimentation in the US.

— Monica Amor