ISLAA
Carlos Cruz-Diez: Color at Stake

Curated by Jordi Ballart with Starasea Camara

On Now: Jan 31, 2026 → May 2, 2026
01.31.26 → 05.02.26
CURATORS
Jordi Ballart
Starasea Camara

The Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) is proud to present Carlos Cruz-Diez: Color at Stake, an exhibition featuring twenty-three works by Venezuelan master artist and major figure of international Kinetic and Op art Carlos Cruz-Diez (1923–2019). Spanning 1955 to 1988, the show celebrates Cruz-Diez's contribution to the understanding of color as an experience that evolves in time and space, illuminating the early projects that established him as one of the foremost researchers on color theory in the twentieth century.

Cruz-Diez’s investigations into color and his trajectory as an artist unfolded over several distinct phases and across continents. He began his artistic practice while working in Caracas as a graphic designer, art director, and illustrator. An innovator and visionary, he went on to conduct several in-depth studies on color across experiments in its optical and embodied properties after relocating to Paris in 1960.

This exhibition brings together some of his earliest paintings, from the Signos vegetales series (Vegetal Signs, 1955-56), with select works from his landmark Physichromie, Induction chromatique, Chromointerférence, and Chromoscope series. Featuring abstractions that appear to change as the viewer moves in space, these works serve as physical manifestations of Cruz-Diez's research into color as an autonomous and ever-evolving event. They are accompanied by portfolios and archival materials, including documents and early publications designed and illustrated by the artist, providing an insightful look into his exploration of color and the trajectory of his formal vocabulary.

In encouraging his audience’s participation, Cruz-Diez's legacy occupies a singular place in the history of kinetic art. His work immerses us in a world in constant transformation, inviting viewers to reconsider color as a living, changing, and participatory phenomenon rooted in perpetual becoming.

On view from January 31 to May 2, 2026, Carlos Cruz-Diez: Color at Stake is curated by Jordi Ballart with Starasea Camara. It is accompanied by an original illustrated booklet featuring essays by the curator and Agustín Diez Fischer.

Image Caption: Carlos Cruz-Diez, Construcción cromocinética, Caracas. 1959. Gouache on cardboard 15 x 11 1/2 in. (38 x 29 cm). © Carlos Cruz-Diez / Bridgeman Images 2026. Photo: Arturo Sánchez

INSTALLATION VIEWS

ABOUT THE CURATORS
Jordi Ballart

Jordi Ballart is a curator and specialist in kinetic art and the Latin American art market, with a focus on acquisitions and valuation. He is currently collections consultant at the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA). From 2008 to 2010, he was registrar in the Département des Arts Graphiques at the Musée du Louvre, Paris. From 2010 to 2019, He held the position of head of archives and documentation at the Atelier Cruz-Diez, Paris.

In 2014, Ballart curated Cruz-Diez en noir et blanc at the Maison de l’Amérique latine, Paris. In 2018, he co-curated Obres obertes: l’art en moviment, 1955–1975 at the Fundació Caixa de Catalunya – La Pedrera in Barcelona, followed in 2019 by Luz y movimiento: la vanguardia cinética en París, 1955–1975 at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Alicante (MACA). In 2022, he curated Inés Blumencweig: Structures sensibles at the Maison de l’Amérique latine, Paris. 

Ballart holds a BA in Art History from the Universitat de Girona, Spain, and an MA in Curatorial and Art Conservation Studies from the École du Louvre, Paris.

Starasea Camara

Starasea Nidiala Camara is a curator and scholar whose practice centers Black cultural and artistic production throughout the Americas. She is currently the curatorial and public engagement assistant at the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) in New York City, where she has supported the organization of exhibitions including Diana Dowek: Uprising in the Mirror and Violaciones Domésticas: Feminist Constellations in 1990s Argentina (2025). In 2025 she was nominated as a fellow in the second cohort of the Early Stage Art Professionals Fellowship with the A&L Berg Foundation. She has previously held positions with the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Emerging Curators Institute, Souls Grown Deep Foundation, the Studio Museum in Harlem, and the Museum of Modern Art. Camara’s curatorial projects include In the Presence of Our Ancestors: Southern Perspectives in African American Art at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (2020), and Whiles I Yet Live: Matriarchy and Generational Exchange in Gee’s Bend at the National Quilt Museum (2025). Recently, her writing has been featured in the publications Meaning Matter Memory: Selections from the Studio Museum in Harlem and the 36th Bienal de São Paulo catalogue, Not All Travelers Walk Roads—Of Humanity as Practice.

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The Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) advances the study and visibility of Latin American art through exhibitions, research, and education. Our gallery is free and open to the public Tuesday through Saturday, from 12 to 6 PM. We are closed on Sundays and Mondays. For private appointments, group visits, or research inquiries, please contact us at info@islaa.org. We look forward to welcoming you.

The Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) advances the study and visibility of Latin American art through exhibitions, research, and education. Our gallery is free and open to the public Tuesday through Saturday, from 12 to 6 PM. We are closed on Sundays and Mondays. For private appointments, group visits, or research inquiries, please contact us at info@islaa.org. We look forward to welcoming you.

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