Explore the work of Latin American women whose artists' books and other printed matter helped expand the boundaries of classic artistic genres.

Registration for this event has sold out. A limited number of standby tickets will be available on the day of the event.

At Center for Book Arts, a new exhibition, Off-Register: Publishing Experiments by Women Artists in Latin America, 1960–1990, surveys the creative practices of a series of Latin American women artists who channeled part of their artistic impetus into printed and serialized media. The show's curator, Mela Dávila Freire, speaks about her curatorial process, and then joins writer Silvina López Medin to discuss these women artists and writers who were left out of the canons of 20th-century art and literature.

A selection of artists' publications from the collections of The New York Public Library will be on display during and after the talk.

Presented in partnership with Center for Book Arts, whose exhibition Off-Register: Publishing Experiments by Women Artists in Latin America, 1960–1990 will be on view at Center for Book Arts from October 6, 2023 to December 16, 2023.

The Center for Research in the Humanities welcomes everyone to join the conversation between curators, librarians, and researchers, as they discuss new scholarship and projects, research methods, and the Library's rich collections and resources.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Mela Dávila Freire's research focuses on art archives and on the genre of artists' publications. Her specific interests include the revision of the history of artists' publications from a feminist standpoint, but also the theoretical and practical intersections between archives and art collections. She has been Head of Publications and later Head of the Study Center at the Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), and Director of Public Activities at Museo Reina Sofía. She has collaborated as a consultant and independent researcher with the documenta Archive (Kassel) and the Lafuente Archive (Santander, Spain) among others, and is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Fine Arts Hamburg (HfbK), with a doctoral grant from Pro Exzellenzia Plus.

Silvina López Medin has published five books of poetry including La noche de los bueyes (Loewe Foundation International Young Poetry Prize), 62 brazadas (City of Buenos Aires Poetry Prize), and the chapbook Excursion (selected by Mary Jo Bang as the winner of the Oversound Prize). Her hybrid poetry book Poem That Never Ends was a winner of the Essay Press/University of Washington Bothell Book Contest. Additionally, she co-translated Anne Carson's Eros the Bittersweet into Spanish. Her writing has appeared in Ploughshares, Hyperallergic, Lit Hub, Brooklyn Rail, Harriet Books/Poetry Foundation, and MoMA/post, among others. She has taught poetry workshops at The New York Public Library, the International Writing Program/University of Iowa, and NYU. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from NYU and is an editor at Ugly Duckling Presse.

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To join | Please register for an In-Person Ticket. Doors will open around 1:30 PM. For free events, we generally overbook to ensure a full house. Priority will be given to those who have registered in advance, but registration does not guarantee admission. All registered seats are released shortly before start time, and seats may become available at that time. A standby line will form 30 minutes before the program.

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ACCESSIBILITY

In-Person | You can request a free ASL (American Sign Language) interpretation or CART (Communication Access Real-Time Translation) captioning service by emailing your request at least two weeks in advance of the event: email accessibility@nypl.org or use this Gmail template. This venue is fully accessible to wheelchairs.

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Mela Dávina Freire © Philipp Meuser
Silvina López Medin © Martín Sonzogni