A New Exhibition of Contemporary Latinx Paintings at Buffalo AKG

Courtesy Buffalo AKG Art Museum

Let Us Gather in a Flourishing Way installation view. Patrick Martinez, Promised Land, 2022. Acrylic, stucco, neon, Mean Streak, ceramic, spray paint, latex house paint, banner tarp, ceramic tile, tile adhesive, and family archive photo collage on panel. 84 × 192 × 7 in. (213.4 × 487.7 × 17.8 cm). Collection Buffalo AKG Art Museum, George B. and Jenny R. Mathews Fund, 2022.

The Buffalo AKG Art Museum announced Let Us Gather in a Flourishing Way, a current exhibition that explores contemporary Latinx artists’ innovations and interventions within established traditions of painting. The project celebrates painting from the Latin American and Caribbean diaspora, inviting discussion on a variety of themes and revealing the diversity and expansiveness present within the field today. The fifty-eight artists in the exhibition—and those in the Latinx field more broadly— encourage us to interrogate the continued relevance of boundaries, from political borders to disciplinary confines. The exhibition is organized by the Buffalo AKG Art Museum and curated by Curator Andrea Alvarez. It will be on view at the AKG from March 6 to September 6, 2026, and will be followed by a national tour including presentations at the Des Moines Art Center, the Phoenix Art Museum, and the Frye Art Museum, Seattle.

Inspired by former U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera’s poem “[Let Us Gather in a Flourishing Way],” the exhibition’s title celebrates the abundance of these artists’ diverse contributions and advancements to the discipline of painting and frames the show’s vision of Latinx art that is, like the diaspora itself, infinitely complex. Let Us Gather in a Flourishing Way showcases artists whose expressions are personal and subjective, but which also enrich the histories of American and contemporary art, two fields from which such artists have been historically excluded.

Courtesy Buffalo AKG Art Museum

Let Us Gather in a Flourishing Way installation view.

“It has been the honor of my career to work closely with so many innovative and outstanding artists to organize this exhibition,” said Andrea Alvarez, Curator at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum. “Taken together, the works in Let Us Gather in a Flourishing Way demonstrate the remarkable breadth and depth of contemporary painting by Latinx artists, and the many ways in which those artists 2 continue to interrogate established traditions of painting. This exhibition affirms that these artists are key figures in American contemporary art, and that they and their predecessors have helped shaped that discourse for decades.”

Photo: Brenda Bieger, Buffalo AKG Art Museum.

Eamon Ore-Giron, Talking Shit with Illapa (variation I), 2023. Mineral paint and Flashe on canvas. 72 × 96 1/8 in. (182.9 × 244.2 cm). Collection Buffalo AKG Art Museum, George B. and Jenny R. Mathews Fund, 2024 (2024:6).

Let Us Gather in a Flourishing Way takes its cues from the artists themselves and embraces cacophony and heterogeneity in its narratives. These are artists actively cultivating the landscape of contemporary painting while visitors experience these significant examples in the museum. Rather than telling a finished story, the exhibition invites audiences to enter into a vibrant and active network.

A robust bilingual catalogue featuring scholarly investigations of topics related to contemporary Latinx art, an artist roundtable discussion, newly commissioned poetry, and illustrations of all works in the exhibition will be available in the AKG’s Shop during the exhibition. The book reveals the richness and diversity that characterizes contemporary Latinx painting and offers a panoramic overview of the field at a crucial moment in its history.

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Let Us Gather in a Flourishing Way is made possible by the Henry Luce Foundation and the Terra Foundation for American Art. Major support is contributed by the Rich Family Foundation and the Rich Family Fund for Community Access. Generous support is provided by Catherine Beltz Foley, Esq. Additional sponsors include the Blum Family, Charlie James Gallery, Fred Eychaner, Lehmann Maupin, and Luis De Jesus Los Angeles.

The exhibition is presented with leadership support from the Let Us Gather in a Flourishing Way International Exhibition Committee. Exhibition programming is supported by New York State Assemblymember Jonathan D. Rivera.

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Photo: Paul Salveson, Courtesy Matthew Brown.

Vincent Valdez. The Sea, 2020. Oil on canvas. 50 × 70 in. (127 × 177.8 cm). Courtesy Matthew Brown.

About the Buffalo AKG Art Museum

Founded in 1862, the Buffalo AKG Art Museum (formerly the AlbrightKnox Art Gallery) is the sixth-oldest public art institution in the United States. For more than 160 years, the Buffalo AKG has collected, conserved, and exhibited the art of its time, often working directly with living artists. This tradition has given rise to one of the world’s most extraordinary collections of modern and contemporary art.

In June 2023, following the completion of the most significant campus development and expansion project in its history, the Buffalo AKG opened anew to the public. The project is funded by a $230 million capital campaign, the largest such campaign for a cultural institution in the history of Western New York, including $195 million raised for construction and $35 million in additional operating endowment funds.

Photo: Brenda Bieger, Buffalo AKG Art Museum.

Lilian Martinez, Garden Club, 2024. Acrylic on canvas. 50 × 65 in. (127 × 165.1 cm). Collection Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Gift of Pamela and David Hornik, 2025 (2025:9).

About the Henry Luce Foundation

The Henry Luce Foundation seeks to enrich public discourse by promoting innovative scholarship, cultivating new leaders, and fostering international understanding. The Foundation advances its mission through grantmaking and leadership programs in the fields of Asia, higher education, religion and theology, art, and public policy.

The Luce Foundation's American Art Program supports innovative museum projects nationwide that advance the role of visual arts of the United States in an open and equitable society, and the potential of museums to serve as forums for art-centered conversations that celebrate creativity, explore difference, and seek common ground. The Foundation empowers museums to reconsider accepted histories, foreground the voices and experiences of underrepresented artists and cultures, and welcome diverse communities into dialogue.

About the Terra Foundation for American Art

The Terra Foundation for American Art expands narratives of American art through our grants, collection, and initiatives. With offices in Chicago and Paris, we work with organizations to foster intercultural dialogues and encourage transformative practices, locally and globally.