The exhibition Ser y Estar brings together a dynamic group of contemporary Latino artists whose works engage with the complexities of presence, existence, and transformation. The title, drawn from the Spanish language's nuanced distinction between ser (to be, in an essential or permanent state) and estar (to be, in a temporary or situational state), serves as a conceptual foundation for the exhibition. It reflects the dualities inherent in artistic practice-identity and change, material and ephemeral, individual and collective experience.
Rather than positioning Latin American art within traditional or identity-based narratives, Ser y Estar highlights the formal, conceptual, and material explorations of its participating artists. The works presented examine presence through abstraction and figuration, through bodily expression and spatial intervention, through permanence and impermanence. This exhibition does not seek to define what it means to be a Latino artist but rather to showcase the breadth of contemporary artistic practices emerging from Latin America and its diasporas.