LATIN AMERICA IN THE SPOTLIGHT: THREE EXHIBITIONS AT NOTTINGHAM CONTEMPORARY

Nottingham Contemporary, one of Europe’s leading contemporary art centers, presents a 2026 program featuring major Latin American artists. The exhibition offers an engaging journey through the imaginative visions of Chico da Silva, the singular themes explored by Julia Isídrez, and the profound emotional depth found in the work of Francisco Tún.

Chico da Silva
First, the gallery presents Chico da Silva: And the Soul is for the Birds (Y el alma es para los pájaros), on view from June 6 to September 6. This is the first institutional solo exhibition in Europe dedicated to the late self-taught Brazilian artist Francisco da Silva (1910–1985), known simply as “Chico.” It brings together a selection of key paintings produced throughout his life, celebrating his contribution to and legacy within contemporary Indigenous art practices in Brazil.

Chico grew up in the Amazon rainforest. He began his artistic career in Fortaleza, where he painted fishermen’s houses with motifs such as fish and birds that later became central to his mature work. He initially worked with rudimentary materials such as “chalk, charcoal, and burnt clay, adding color with fruits and leaves.” Amid the rise of Neo-Concrete art in Brazil during the 1950s and 1960s, Chico remained faithful to his imaginative vision and his community, drawing on folklore, astronomy, and the occult rather than minimalism and geometry.

Julia Isídrez
Nottingham Contemporary presents the first international institutional solo exhibition of Guaraní artist and ceramist Julia Isídrez (Paraguay, 1967), whose clay sculptures shed light on key issues shaping current cultural debates, from Indigenous identity and identity politics to craft. Rooted in ceramic traditions passed down through generations of women in Itá, Isídrez learned her practice within her family, working with local clay and ancestral Guaraní techniques that have gradually evolved over time.

The themes of her work are anything but conventional: hybrid figures resembling dinosaurs and spherical, multi-headed amphibians populate her sculptures. The exhibition will be open from October 3, 2026, to January 11, 2027, and is a co-production in collaboration with MALBA in Buenos Aires.

Francisco Tún
The gallery presents the first international institutional solo exhibition of the late Guatemalan Indigenous artist Francisco Tún (1948–1989, Guatemala City). A self-taught visionary whose distinctive style defies easy categorization, Tún was raised in a working-class Indigenous family.

He developed a unique visual language: broad fields of color dotted with tiny human figures, both intimate and monumental. Painted on supports ranging from canvas to wood and textiles, his works balance bold chromatic simplicity with emotional depth, reflecting solitude, resilience, and a strong sense of place. Despite early success, Tún disappeared from the art scene. He died or vanished in 1989, leaving behind a remarkable body of work.