Magical Realism: Latin American Photographers in Dialogue

Magical realism is a literary genre popularized by Latin American writers such as Gabriel García Márquez and Isabel Allende. It understands the spiritual and material worlds as intertwined rather than opposed, drawing from Indigenous traditions and beliefs as well as the legacies of Spanish literature. The presence of spirits and prophecy is ordinary. Bodies, objects, or places can suddenly transform into something else entirely.

Photographers often share a similar outlook. Through attention to coincidence, pattern, and symbolic presence, ordinary moments can become charged with new meaning. This exhibition creates a dialogue between important Latin American photographs in SBMA’s permanent collection and select prints which further explore the literary and the fantastical.