BACK TO THE FUTURE

MFAH launches world's most comprehensive digital archive of Latin American andLatino art

Cover for the journal Azulejos (Mexico City), Vol. I, No. 2 (September, 1921),coleción de Instituto de Investigaciones Bibliográficas: BibliotecaNacional/Hemeroteca Nacional, Mexico City
Cover for Carlos Mérida’s exhibition, La Pintura en su estado actual, held atMexico City’s Galería de Arte Mexicano, 1953
Luis Cardoza y Aragón, “México, de cerca, de lejos…: A André Breton,” ElNacional: Diario Popular (Mexico City), Sep. 19, 1936, pages one and three,coleción de Instituto de Investigaciones Bibliográficas: BibliotecaNacional/Hemeroteca Nacional, Mexico City
Kenneth Kemble, “Para aquellos a quienes esta exposición pueda sorprender…” (Tothose of whom this exhibition may surprise…], In Kemble exhibit catelogue,Buenos Aires: Galería Pizarro, 1961
Daniel Joseph Martinez, To Make a Blind Man Murder for the Things He’s Seen(Happiness Is Over-rated), 2002, silicon over animated Fiberglass skeleton usingcomputer-controlled pneumatics, digital audio with self-contained sound system,museum purchase with funds provided by the 2007 Latin American Experience Galaand Auction
Carlos Cruz-Diez, Cromosaturación (Chromosaturation), 1965/2004, threechromo-cubicles (fluorescent light with blue, red and green filters), gift ofthe Cruz-Diez Foundation at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Maurício Nogueira Lima, Objeto rítmico no 2 [Rhythmic Object (second version)],1953, plastered paint on hardboard, The Adolpho Leirner Collection of BrazilianConstructive Art, museum purchase with funds provided by the Caroline Wiess LawAccessions Endowment Fund
Xul Solar, Jefa (Patroness), 1923, watercolor on paper set on cardboard, museumpurchase with funds provided by the 2005 Latin American Experience Gala andAuction

After a decade of culling historical material from across North and South America, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and its research institute, International Center for the Arts of the Americas (ICAA), will launch its long-awaited digital archive of Latin American and Latino art on Thursday.

The centerpiece of a $50 million initiative that began in 2001 to expand the museum's 20th-century Latin American art, the new online collection offers an array of primary-source material — including artists' writings and correspondence as well as other textual material from period journals and newspapers — all brought together for the first time in a free searchable database.

"Primary documents like this are fundamental to the history of art," ICAA director Mari Carmen Ramírez said.

"The project is about access to documents, rather than the collecting of physical objects," ICAA director Mari Carmen Ramírez told CultureMap in a recent phone interview. "The material never leaves the institutions or countries that have shared them with the archive."

The study of Latin American art has been plagued by a lack of scholarly infrastructure, she said. Throughout the Americas, uncataloged materials remain sequestered in universities, museums and private collections throughout the Americas without a means to find them.

"Primary documents like this are fundamental to the history of art," Ramírez explained. "Until now, though, they haven't been available in any comprehensive format. We hope this project opens new avenues of scholarship."

Documents of 20th-Century Latin American and Latino Art, as the online archive is known officially, begins with a look at 2,500 documents from Argentina and Mexico as well as the American Midwest. The Midwest is an area rich in groundbreaking Chicano art, yet, like many regions of the United States, it's often not included in broader studies of Latin American art.

"Artists from the U.S. are typically not appreciated as part of this history of Latin American art," said Victor Sorell, one of the key American consultants for archive and director of the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame. "It's wonderful to see so many neglected arenas of visual arts finally commanding attention."

To accompany the online archive, the MFAH and Yale University Press will publish a series of 13 books throughout the next decade featuring selections from the digital collection, many of which will be published for the first time in English. The first volume, Resisting Categories: Latin American and/or Latino? will be available in the coming weeks.

"The project offers one of the first fully continental looks at Latin American art," said Tomás Ybarra-Frausto, a noted Chicano art historian and editor of the forthcoming Resisting Categories book. "At last US Latino American voices will be incorporated into the dialogue."

"This certainly will change the larger art historical record as a whole, offering a new map to modernity," he noted. "The archive presents a complex multi-centric perspective on modern art.

"Not just New York, Paris, and Los Angeles, but other centers like Chicago and Lima as well."

Starting Thursday, the MFAH will host a free two-day symposium to mark the new archive. Click here for details.

unspecified

Concert News

Guitar gods Joe Satriani and Steve Vai to rock Houston on 2026 tour

Photo by Jon Luini

Joe Satriani and Steve Vai will play at the Music Hall at Fair Park on April 17, 2026.

Legendary guitarists Joe Satriani and Steve Vai will bring their debut SATCHVAI Band tour to the United States for the first time, including a stop at the 713 Music Hall in Houston on April 16, 2026.

The “Surfing with the Hydra” 2026 tour will travel to 37 cities over the course of two months, starting in Seattle, Washington on April 1.

In addition to Houston, Satriani and Vai will also play in Dallas on April 17 and Austin on April 18. They'll be joined by special guest Animals As Leaders on all dates.

The two guitar icons, who have a nearly 50-year friendship and musical partnership, formally joined forces as the SATCHVAI Band in March 2024. They subsequently put out two songs: "The Sea of Emotion, Pt. 1" and "I Wanna Play My Guitar."

They're getting set to release another song, “Dancing,” which will come out on March 2, 2026.

Both musicians have solo careers that date back to the 1980s. Satriani has released 18 albums in his career, most recently The Elephants of Mars in 2022. Vai has released 11 albums in his career, most recently Vai/Gash in 2023.

Tickets for the tour will go on sale starting with the artist presale on Wednesday, December 10 at 10 am local time, which fans can access with the password SATCHVAI2026.

Local presales follow on Thursday, December 11 prior to the general on-sale date of Friday, December 12. All ticket details are available at satchvaiband.com.

SATCHVAI Band “Surfing with the Hydra” 2026 U.S. Tour

April 1 – Seattle, WA – Paramount Theatre
April 2 – Portland, OR – Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
April 4 – Oakland, CA – Fox Theater
April 5 – Reno, NV – Grand Sierra Resort and Casino
April 7 – Long Beach, CA – Long Beach Terrace Theater
April 8 – San Diego, CA – Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre
April 10 – Mesa, AZ – Mesa Amphitheatre
April 11 – Las Vegas, NV – The Theater at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas
April 14 – Denver, CO – Mission Ballroom
April 16 – Houston, TX – 713 Music Hall
April 17 – Dallas, TX – Music Hall at Fair Park
April 18 – Austin, TX – ACL Live at the Moody Theater
April 20 – Mobile, AL – Saenger Theatre
April 22 – Pompano Beach, FL – Pompano Beach Amphitheater
April 24 – Clearwater, FL – Baycare Sound
April 25 – St. Augustine, FL – St. Augustine Amphitheatre
April 26 – Orlando, FL – Hard Rock Live
April 27 – Atlanta, GA – Atlanta Symphony Hall
April 29 – Charlotte, NC – Ovens Auditorium
April 30 – Durham, NC – DPAC
May 2 – Minneapolis, MN – State Theatre
May 3 – Chicago, IL – Chicago Theatre
May 5 – Milwaukee, WI – The Riverside Theater
May 8 – Cincinnati, OH – PNC Pavillion at Riverbend Music Center
May 9 – Indianapolis, IN – Everwise Amphitheater at White River State Park
May 12 – Buffalo, NY – Kleinhans Music Hall
May 15 – Northfield, OH – MGM Northfield Park
May 16 – Rochester Hills, MI – Meadow Brook Amphitheatre
May 17 – Syracuse, NY – Landmark Theatre
May 20 – Boston, MA – Leader Bank Pavilion
May 21 – Albany, NY – Palace Theatre
May 22 – Waterbury, CT – Palace Theater
May 23 – Virginia Beach, VA – The Dome
May 27 – Reading, PA – Santander Performing Arts Center
May 28 – New York, NY – Beacon Theatre
May 29 – Atlantic City, NJ – Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa
May 30 – Vienna, VA – Wolf Trap

concerts music