Regina Silveira Pieces Together an Evolving Narrative of Latin America

"Regina Silveira has spent the better part of three decades considering the relationship between media and meaning, particularly as it relates to Latin America. First presented in 1997, "To Be Continued..." features 100 black-and-white reproductions of photos, newspaper clippings, propaganda, advertisements, and more. Silveira nests each image into an oversized puzzle piece, which cuts off faces and scenes to leave fragments of pop culture icons, flora and fauna, and even the occasional mugshot spliced next to one another."

""To Be Continued..." is on view this month at Alexander Gray Associates alongside the latest iteration of the work, "Continued..." Together, the large-scale installations present Silveira's evolving considerations of a region that continues to grapple with its post-colonial environment and unending interventions by world powers. Black pieces and occasional white gaps suggest both loss and an opening for new additions, while the grooved edges seemingly allow for reconfiguration."

Regina Silveira is a São Paulo–based pioneer of Brazilian conceptual art who examines how media circulate and produce meaning across Latin America. She uses light, installations, and photography to assemble sprawling visual narratives in the Latin American Puzzle series, treating imagery like jigsaw pieces. "To Be Continued..." (1997) includes 100 black-and-white reproductions—photos, newspaper clippings, propaganda, advertisements—each nested in oversized puzzle pieces that crop faces and scenes into fragmented juxtapositions. The works create a "patchwork quilt of entropic character" that complicates linear or geographic narratives. Large-scale installations emphasize malleability, loss and possibility through black pieces, white gaps, grooved edges, and titles that end in ellipses.

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