In Wonderland: The Surrealist Adventures of Women Artists in Mexico and the United States

Until January 13 of 2013, the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (INBA) presents the exhibition entitled In Wonderland: The Surrealist Adventures of Women Artists in Mexico and the United States at the Museo de Arte Moderno (MAM). This is a comprehensive exhibition that includes the creative and leading participation of surrealist women artists from two American countries that is aimed at shedding renewed light and promoting a profound approach to the works of these women artists from both Mexico and the US.

Organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the exhibition includes works by women artists associated with surrealism who lived in Mexico or the US between the 1930s and 1970s.

Under the curatorship of Ilene Susan Fort and Teresa Arcq, the show includes more than 150 works borrowed from collections in Mexico and the US. Among these works are paintings by well-known artists like Leonora Carrington, Frida Kahlo, Jacqueline Lamba, Helen Lundeberg, Rosa Rolanda, Kay Sage, Dorothea Tanning, and Remedios Varo; photographs by Lola Álvarez-Bravo, Kati Horna, Lee Miller, and Francesca Woodman, among others; sculptures by Louise Bourgeois and Addaline Kent; and other artists with works created with video.

Consisting of a total of 138 pieces, the exhibition is divided into 10 thematic centers that cover some of the issues each of the groups explored throughout their lives. While some of these preoccupations were unknown, others were shared by many.

Curators Ilene Susan Fort and Teresa Arcq emphasize that the themes that dominated the works of the surrealist women from Mexico and the US illustrate their life experiences, real conditions, fears, hopes, and desires. According to the curators, "Their work often challenges social expectations and historical conjectures, and it represented a profound dialog between the self and the other that was very different from any superficial projection of desire represented by the surrealist men artists."

In Wonderland is accompanied by a catalog with informative essays by important experts of surrealism and feminism. They explore the effects of geography and gender in the movement. The catalog also includes revealing biographies, photographic portraits, and a gallery of images organized by artist.