Exhibition "Chola Poblete: Andean Pop", by La Chola Poblete

O MASP – São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand Art Museum presents La Chola Poblete: Andean Pop, the artist's first solo exhibition The Poor Chola (Guaymallén, Argentina, 1989) in Brazil. The exhibition brings together works that start from pop art and reinterpret it in a Latin American context, articulating discussions about gender, sexuality, chola identities, and the effects of colonialism.

Curated by Adriano Pedrosa, artistic director, MASP, and Leandro Muniz, assistant curator, MASP, the exhibition “reflects on colonial legacies in Latin America, starting from the artist's biography to discuss indigenous, popular and hybrid presences in Argentina,” as Muniz states.

"Chola" is a term marked by its recurrent use as a racial slur against women of indigenous descent in Andean countries such as Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia. By incorporating it into her name and discussing it in her work, La Chola Poblete dismantles stigmas and stereotypes through its reappropriation and rearticulation. In the watercolor series Vírgenes cholas [Virgin Cholas] (2022 – ongoing), the artist combines Andean and Catholic deities, references to music and fashion, phrases of political protest, and autobiographical details. Together, these elements take on a collective dimension by highlighting conflicts and potentialities experienced by artists from historically marginalized groups.

In the posters PAP ART / Pop Andino (2023), displayed on one of the opening walls of the exhibition, La Chola Poblete constructs a persona of a touring singer, in dialogue with pop culture and the logic of music promotion. Among her references is the cover of Lady Gaga's album ARTPOP. The narrative about the chola as a figure to be admired also runs through the Manifesto Pop Andino (2023) — a sound work that gives the exhibition its title — available on major audio platforms and which begins with the phrase: "My gender is artist." By mobilizing the manifesto format, Poblete repositions established references from art history, reinscribing them from her own experience.

In Il Martirio di Chola, a photo-performance in which she mobilizes codes of Baroque portraiture, such as the three-quarter pose and the dark background, La Chola Poblete incorporates signs of Chola identity, such as the aguayo bag, a traditional Andean fabric, and braids, equating the sufferings of the Cholas with those of Christ. The Italian title refers to the classical tradition of European painting, placing the artist within the canon of Western art history. By articulating references from the Baroque and Pop Art, two periods marked by the massive circulation of images, the artist critically appropriates these legacies to challenge canonical and marginalized narratives.

La Chola Poblete: Andean Pop is part of MASP's annual program dedicated to Latin American Histories. This year's program includes exhibitions by Sandra Gamarra Heshiki, Claudia Alarcón & Silät, Santiago Yahuarcani, Colectivo Acciones de Arte, Damián Ortega, Sol Calero, Carolina Caycedo, Pablo Delano, Rosa Elena Curruchich, Manuel Herreros and Mateo Manaure, Jesús Soto, and the large group exhibition Latin American Histories, in addition to video screenings by Clara Ianni, Claudia Martínez Garay, Edgar Calel, Oscar Muñoz, and Regina José Galindo.

Service
Exhibition Chola Poblete: Andean Pop
From March 06th to August 02nd
Opening hours: Tuesdays free, from 10am to 20pm (entry until 19pm); Wednesday and Thursday from 10am to 18pm (entry until 17pm); Friday from 10am to 21pm (free entry from 18pm to 20:30pm); Saturday and Sunday, from 10am to 18pm (entry until 17pm); closed on Mondays.

Mandatory online booking via link masp.org.br/tickets