The most outstanding exhibitions of 2024

The most outstanding exhibitions of 2024: what art did this year leave us?
Contemporary art in 2024: tributes, exhibitions and the cultural wealth of national and international artists in a year of economic challenges.
The year 2024 was characterized by a series of tributes and retrospectives in the field of art, as well as by various choral productions that covered the work of prominent contemporary artists both national and international. Despite the economic problems that affected national museums, exhibition mobility was restricted, which led to the closure of the Museum of the History of Costume. In this context, private spaces and foundations set the pace for a diverse calendar. With some exhibitions still available, Infobae Cultura made a selection of exhibitions that, far from being a ranking, seeks to expose the richness and vitality of art.
Featured exhibitions

One of the most relevant exhibitions was the one dedicated to Joaquín Torres García, which took place at the National Museum of Fine Arts (MNBA). This exhibition, which celebrates the 150th anniversary of the birth of the great Uruguayan artist, includes around 80 works, such as paintings, drawings, illustrations, toys, engravings and calligraphy books. The curatorship was in charge of María Cristina Rossi and presents pieces that Torres García created during his stays in cities such as Barcelona, Paris, New York and Montevideo. Among the works on display are 9 paintings from the museum's collection and from public and private Argentine collections. The exhibition will remain open until March 16, 2025 and begins with the first magazine illustrations, complemented by a section dedicated to his theoretical production and manuscripts, essential elements of each period of his plastic work. Torres García is known for his theory of constructive universalism and for being the founder of the Taller Torres García, an influential artistic movement in the region that focused its teaching on painting based on geometry and the use of color. Other contemporary exhibitions

The exhibition “The Future is Not a Dream” by contemporary Chinese artist Cao Fei was presented at MALBA and is made up of nine projects that include thirty video installations created from the beginning of the 2000s to the present. This exhibition, produced by the Pinacoteca de São Paulo, was adapted to the Latin American Art space in Buenos Aires and explores the dehumanized human experience, broken dreams and virtuality as a means of escape, posing non-dystopian future scenarios that reveal the beauty of existence. The exhibition will remain open until the end of February.
Among the must-see exhibitions is “Dialogue,” which presents a demonstration by Antonio Berni and a remake of Mondongo on John Baldessari, marking the first panoramic exhibition in South America of the American, pioneer of conceptual art.

This year will also be remembered for the opening of Puertos, a new venue in Escobar, and for Aprendizaje Infinito, a space in San Telmo that addressed contemporary art from different angles. The latter included works by Martín Legón on the relationship between traditional education and artificial intelligence, as well as textile installations by Celina Eceiza and the Nigerian Onome Ekeh, which will remain on display until April. The exhibition proposed an interesting journey that combined the recognition of masters with experimental proposals arising in different social contexts.
Exhibitions on civilizations and traditions

The exhibition “The Incas”, presented at the Proa Foundation, challenges the predominant narratives about the fascinating civilizations of pre-Hispanic America. This exhibition brings together 138 ceramics, stone objects and metals that have never been shown before, covering an interdisciplinary perspective that includes archaeology, history, linguistics and design. The exhibition is part of the tradition of spreading the knowledge of the continent's indigenous peoples, highlighting the Olmec civilization of the Gulf of Mexico and the aborigines of the Gran Chaco, as well as Mapuche silverwork and the sacred paths of the native inhabitants of Argentina.

The exhibition “Juma. Preserving memory. Imaginar”, by the Peruvian Rember Yahuarcani, presents a powerful iconography of the indigenous Amazonian Uitoto people and can be visited during the summer. This exhibition, curated by Sandra Juárez, marks the debut of an activist who condenses the knowledge and history of his people, representing a unique style that emerges from the darkness and is related to the cosmogony of his community.
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