House Model of Circular Dwelling, 200 BC–1300 AD, Calima, Gold, 4 1/4 × 4 in. diameter (10.8 × 10.2 cm), Museum Of Fine Arts, Houston, Gift of Alfred C. Glassell, Jr. (2001.1366), photograph © The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Los Angeles, CA – The Los Angeles County Museum of Art presents The Portable Universe / El Universo en tus Manos: Thought and Splendor of Indigenous Colombia, a groundbreaking exhibition showcasing the diversity and materiality of ancient Colombian cultures. Comprising approximately 400 works, including an unprecedented number of loans from the Museo del Oro in Bogota, this groundbreaking exhibition presents the diversity and materiality of ancient Colombian cultures and reframes how we approach ancient Colombian art. With the European conquest, Indigenous cultures and knowledge, based on millennia of intellectual efforts, were disregarded as crude superstition. The Portable Universe is designed to recapture some of that knowledge and to envelop the works with life and meaning, inviting visitors into a cultural dialogue that spans both space and time. The project also draws heavily on contemporary Indigenous understandings to evoke a worldview in which ancient artworks have relevance for today and the future. The curatorial team has been working in close collaboration with the Arhuaco of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, who are supporting and engaged in the project, part of a long-term initiative in fostering cross-cultural dialogue and knowledge exchange.

The exhibition is co-curated by Diana Magaloni, Deputy Director and Dr. Virginia Fields Curator of the Art of the Ancient Americas at LACMA, and Julia Burtenshaw, Assistant Curator, Art of the Ancient Americas at LACMA. The Museo del Oro, Banco de la República, Bogotá, and the Museum Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) are co-curating partners. The curatorial team has also been working in close collaboration with the Arhuaco community of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, who are supporting and engaged in the project, as part of a long-term initiative in fostering cross-cultural dialogue and knowledge exchange.

 Tripod Offering Bowl with Votive Figures ("Tunjos") and Emeralds, Colombia, Eastern Cordillera (Muisca Period), 800–1600 CE, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Muñoz Kramer Collection, gift of Camilla Chandler Frost and Stephen and Claudia Muñoz-Kramer, photo © Museum Associates/LACMA

Female Figure Container, Colombia, Calima Region (Ilama Period), 1500 BCE–100 CE, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Muñoz Kramer Collection, gift of Camilla Chandler Frost and Stephen and Claudia Muñoz-Kramer, photo © Museum Associates/LACMA