Miami, Florida (November 13th, 2024) – The Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (CIFO) The Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (CIFO) is pleased to announce the winners of the 2025 CIFO Grants & Commissions Program to be showcased in an exhibition highlighting new works by seven artists recipients representing five Latin American. On view at MOLAA, from October 2025, through March, 2026, the exhibit continues the international itinerancies of the CIFO Grants & Commissions Program exhibition.

On this edition, CIFO and MOLAA will present 7 award-winning artists, divided into four categories:

Achievement Award, Diana De Solares (Guatemala); Mid-Career Artists—Marcela Armas (Mexico), Voluspa Jarpa (Chile), Ana Vaz (Brazil); Emerging Artists— Madeline Jiménez Santil (Dominican Republic); Alexandre Canonico (Brazil) and Ceramica Suro Artist in Residency- Patricia Encarnación (Dominican Republic)

Photo: Left to right first row: Achievement Award recipient: Diana De Solares (Guatemala) Mid-Career Artist- Marcela Armas (Mexico); Mid-Career Artist- Voluspa Jarpa (Chile); Mid-Career Artist- Ana Vaz (Brazil); Left to right second row: Emerging Artist- Madeline Jiménez Santil (Dominican Republic); Emerging Artist- Alexandre Canonico (Brazil) Ceramica Suro Artist in Residency Program: Patricia Encarnación (Dominican Republic)

“CIFO is thrilled to be partnering with MOLAA for the next edition of the Grants & Commissions program, to continue supporting the artists in the region” said Ella Fontanals-Cisneros, CIFO’s Founder and Honorary President.

“This upcoming exhibition will be a major event, and we are looking forward to seeing the work of these emerging, mid-career and established artists come to life in California, curated by Gabriela Urtiaga, MOLAA Chief Curator. “As a pioneering institution in the United States, MOLAA's mission is to generate, promote, and expand the appreciation of Latin American and Latino art, from Southern California to the world. We commend the prestigious CIFO initiative and the impact it has on the international art scene. MOLAA celebrates this collaboration between both institutions as it is essentially linked to our commitment to showcasing and building bridges to the finest of Latin American and Latino art.” expressed Lourdes I. Ramos, Ph.D., President & CEO of the Museum of Latin American Art.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Diana De Solares (Guatemala) Lives and works in Antigua Guatemala. She attended Architecture school for a few semesters at Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, and later obtained her BA in Economics at Universidad Francisco Mar Roquín. She also studied Painting and Design independently with maestros Juan de Dios González and Daniel Schafer . De Solares works with assemblage and sculpture as well as installation in a collage fashion utilizing diverse objects and discarded materials found in domestic environments and construction sites. She believes that Art and Architecture ought to bring people closer to the qualities of myth and Eros. In consequence, she relies on popular and familiar elements and colors to convey a multisensory approach. In 1996 she won the Glifo de Oro prize at the X Bienal de Arte Paiz , Guatemala City. She also received a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, Bellagio Center , Italy. Recent solo shows include exhibitions at Miami,New York and Guatemala.

MID-CAREER ARTISTS

Marcela Armas (Mexico) She did academic studies at the School of Visual Arts at the University of Guanajuato and in the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Polytechnic University of Valencia. She has received support from FONCA's Young Creators program, Arte-Actual Program Bancomer-MACG 2009, and the Support Program for the Research in New Media of the CENART Multimedia Center. She received the ARCO / BEEP Award for Electronic Art at the Arco Madrid Fair 2012. She participated in the Eleventh Havana Biennial. She received the Production Incentive Award forVIDA 16.0 of FundaciónTelefónica de España. Member of the National System of Art Creators of the National Fund for Culture and the Arts 2016-2019. Her work has been exhibited in Mexico, the United States, Canada, South America, Europe, Russia, China, and India.

Voluspa Jarpa (Chile) Since 1994, Voluspa Jarpa has been actively involved in creating art and has participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions in Chile and other countries Her exhibitions include the 31st São Paulo Biennial, Brazil (2014); En nuestra pequeña región de por acá, MALBA, Argentina (2016); 12th Shanghai Biennial, China (2018); and Altered Views, Chile Pavilion, Venice Biennial, (2019).Altered Views, Chile Pavilion, Venice Biennale, (2019). In 2020 she received the First Julius Baer Prize and in 2023 the Prize of the XVI Biennial of Cuenca, Ecuador. Her artistic work primarily focuses on researching and exploring the concepts of the archive, memory, and social trauma. Specifically, she has delved into the Cold War in Latin America, studying the declassification of intelligence files by the US on various countries in the region. In recent years, her creative endeavors have shifted towards analyzing the social upheavals in the Andean region between 2018 and 2024, examining events in countries such as Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, and Venezuela.

Ana Vaz (Brazil) Is an artist and filmmaker born in the Brazilian midwest inhabited by the ghosts buried by its modernist capital: Brasília. Originally from Cerrado (region of Brazil) and wanderer by choice, Ana has lived in the arid lands of central Brazil and southern Australia, in the mangroves of northern France and in the northeastern shores of the Atlantic. Her filmography activates and questions cinema as an art of the invisible and instrument capable of transforming human perception, expanding its connections with forms of life — other than human or spectral. of the public. Recent showings of her work include the 24th Prize of the Fondation Ricard (Paris, France), “It is Night in America” at Jeu de Paume (Paris, France), Pivô (São Paulo, Brazil) and "Penumbra”, commissioned by Fondazione In Between Art Film at Complesso dell'Ospedaletto (Venice, Italy); "Shéhérazade, at night” at Palais de Tokyo (Paris, France); screenings at MoMA Director’s Fortnight, Locarno Film Festival - Pardo di Domani, ACMI (Australian Center for Moving Images), Grand Action (Paris,France), IMS - Instituto Moreira Sales (São Paulo, Brazil) and retrospectives at MMCA (Seoul, South Korea) and the Harvard Film Archives (USA)

EMERGING ARTISTS

 Madeline Jiménez Santil (Dominican Republic) Her artistic research consists of expanding and putting in tension the possibilities of constructing a “decolonial object/experience” from the gaze of an island body. In addition to investigating the ways in which it operates when entering the structures of contemporary art. She has participated in several exhibitions, among them: underwater mountains fire makes islands, PIVO, São Paulo, Brazil (2022); and KADIST, San Francisco (2023).

Alexandre Canonico (Brazil) Born in Pirassununga, Brazil, in 1974, Alexandre Canonico is a contemporary artist whose work bridges drawing with physical form through sculptures, wall reliefs, and installations. Canonico holds a degree in Architecture from Faculdade de Belas Artes de São Paulo (1999) and completed his postgraduate studies at the Royal Academy Schools in London (2017-2020/21).His practice is rooted in the interplay of lines, voids, shapes, and colors, often resulting in abstract compositions that sometimes suggest recognizable forms. The artist’s use of materials and techniques draws from the DIY ethos rather than traditional artistic methods, reflecting the constraints and circumstances of each project—such as budget, studio size, and material availability.

CERAMICA SURO ARTIST IN RESIDENCY PROGRAM

Patricia Encarnación (Dominican Republic) is an Afro-Dominican interdisciplinary artist and scholar whose work challenges colonial legacies within Afro-diasporic communities, particularly across the Caribbean, Latin America, and its diaspora.Through material culture, collective memory, and cultural identity, Encarnación [re]defines Caribbean and tropical aesthetics.

About the CIFO Grants & Commissions Program

The CIFO Grants & Commissions Program offers emerging, mid-career and established contemporary Latin American artists the opportunity to develop and present new work to international audiences. To date CIFO has awarded more than 160 artists and dedicated over $2.5 million in funds through the program. Each year, artists are nominated by CIFO’s Honorary Advisory Committee, which is composed of leading art professionals, curators and artists from Latin America, the United States and Europe. After a rigorous review process, the winners are chosen by the Selection Committee and ratified by the CIFO Board of Directors. The program has been known to springboard its recipients to the next level of their careers.

About CIFO

Ella Fontanals-Cisneros established the non-profit Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (CIFO) in 2002. The foundation’s mission is to support and foster cultural understanding and educational dialog among Latin American artists and global audiences. CIFO serves as a platform for emerging, mid-career and established Latin American artists through the Grants & Commissions Program, the CIFO Collection, and other related art and cultural projects in the United States of America and internationally. 

For more information about the exhibitions and other programs, please visit cifo.org, and follow CIFO on Facebook, Instagram, and  Twitter.

About MOLAA

Founded in 1996, the Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA) is the only museum in the United States, accredited by the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) dedicated to modern and contemporary Latin American and Latino art. MOLAA’s mission is to educate the public about Latin American and Latino art and culture, serving as a crucial platform for fostering understanding and appreciation of Latin American heritage through its exhibitions and educational programs.

For more information about the exhibitions and other programs, please visit molaa.org, and follow MOLAA on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.