Curated by João Fernandes

One of the most significant Brazilian artists to emerge in the 1970s, Cildo Meireles epitomizes the ways in which Latin American artists have reshaped art-historical narratives of modernism and its aftermaths. His practice opens onto the experiential with formal elegance and arresting political critique. In Madrid, Meireles presents more than 100 pieces, a selection organized around an axis of four major works: Olvido (Oblivion), 1987; Marulho (Surge of the Sea), 1991; Abajur (Lantern), 2010; and Amerikka, an installation conceived in 1991 that comprises a floor of 20,000 wooden eggs set beneath a ceiling of 50,000 bullets and that will be realized here for the first time. Expect this survey to cement Meireles’s role in forging the visual forms, communication models, and perceptual strategies through which art has come to represent, and continues to contest, the social sphere. Travels to the Fundação Serralves, Porto, Portugal, Oct. 26, 2013–Jan. 27, 2014; HangarBicocca, Milan, Mar. 6–June 1, 2014.

— Nuit Banai