Yesterday, Art Gallery of Ontario held a private media launch for its latest exhibition, Recuerdo: Latin American Photography at the AGO, which opens to the public on May 2.

Curated by Curatorial Assistant Marina Dumont-Gauthier, the showcase highlights new acquisitions and unseen works from AGO’s Photography Collection. 

“Recuerdo” has several meanings in Spanish. It can mean “memory”, “I remember” and “a souvenir”. The name (that is also featured in one of the artworks by Rafael Goldchain) reflects the exhibition’s unique display of collective and personal stories. The curator started her exploration with the following question: “Does Latin American refer to works done in Latin America, by Latin American makers, about Latin America, or all of the above?”

This poetic exhibition takes visitors on a journey from Mexico to Argentina, from the 1920s to today. Visitors can discover works by known and noted photographers, including Manuel Álvarez Bravo who was Mexican, and Tina Modotti, who was Italian-born American photographer, but worked extensively in Mexico. Alongside the famed photographers, there are also photographs from press collections, including anti-fascist demonstrations in Italy in support of Chile or documentation of Juan Perón’s arrival in Argentina that led to Ezeiza Massacre in 1973. 

The exhibition concludes with evocative photographs by Chilean-born, Canadian artist of Polish-Jewish decent Rafael Goldchain. He moved to Toronto in the 1970s, and in the 1980, he travelled extensively throughout Mexico and Central America, producing two of his most significant bodies of work: Nostalgia for an Unknown Land (1986–1987) and Inventories (1986–1990). Bright and deep images are definitely a highlight of the show!

This exhibition will open with live musical performance by Amanda Martinez in Walker Court, on Friday at 7 p.m., and is on view through October 19, 2025.

Photography by Darina Granik.

Feature image: Rafael Goldchain, Itinerant Photographer’s Studio (Recuerdo), Coban, Guatemala, 1987. Chromogenic print, Overall: 25.4 x 20.2 cm. Art Gallery of Ontario. Gift of David Angelo, 2019. © Rafael Goldchain. 2019/2465