A beloved Latin American TV genre gets its due

Try as you may to make comparisons of the telenovela to the soap opera and other genres, the telenovela remains a phenomenon unto itself. Dishing up storylines of infidelity, family dissension, rags-to-riches, and revenge, telenovelas dominate prime-time viewing across Latin America and Hispanophone households in the US. Now that streaming platforms are altering how and what people watch, a new exhibition at the Americas Society takes a look back at what the telenovela has meant to generations of devoted fans. The 52 artworks in the show date back to the 1970s, and were created in a wealth of originating countries. The exhibition demonstrates that telenovelas are not only an enduring Pan-American product, but a cultural experience transcendent of national borders. “As someone who grew up watching telenovelas, I understand their appeal to all audiences, including artists,” said Aimé Iglesias Lukin, director and chief curator at Americas Society. “Since moving to New York, I have experienced how they can usher a memory and cultural reference, not only for migrants, but also for Latinx and international audiences, who find in telenovelas a space for social catharsis.” The first experience in the exhibition is a full-on simulation of a telenovela set, complete with studio lights and cameras atop tripods. This is Mexican artist Pablo Helguera’s installation, “Instituto de la telenovela (Institute of the telenovela),” an ongoing project he initiated in 2002 in which he recreates a domestic leisure room with armchair, house slippers on the floor in front of it, book case, desk and flat screen monitors on the walls. Each monitor displays a video of a melodramatic scene written and directed by Helguera, filmed with local actors in different Latin American cities, including Bogotá, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, and Rio de Janeiro. The line between staged and real is blurred in Phil Collins’ fictional short film, “soy mi madre,” in which the production crew, lights, cameras, and boons are periodically exposed in the background, themselves staged. Shot in Mexico City, this 28-minute piece follows conflicts within a wealthy woman’s mansion as she berates her uniformed servants and confronts a family secret, eventually committing murder by suffocation. Collins, a British artist who lives and works in Berlin, recruited noted Mexican actors for the production. [caption id="attachment_65475" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Still from Phil Collins’ “soy mi madre” (2008).Photo by Nicholas Boston[/caption] In the telenovela universe, archetypes abound. There is the boss lady, the wise matriarch, the self-sacrificing maid, the ailing paterfamilias, the long-lost illegitimate scion, and so on. A classic telenovela storyline follows what the queer theorist Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick named the “erotic triangle”: two men compete for the hand of the same woman, all the while getting hot under the collar about each other. Wilson Díaz’s installation, “TV Guía o El amor nunca deja de ser (TV Guide or Love never stops being),” immortalizes some of these characters and relationships in four rows of 24 paintings interspersed with vintage record album covers from popular telenovelas produced in Mexico, Venezuela, and Díaz’s native Colombia. [caption id="attachment_65477" align="aligncenter" width="614"] Wilson Díaz's "TV Guía o El amor nunca deja de ser" (TV Guide or Love never stops being) (2026).Nicholas Boston[/caption] The show includes works that capture the moods of telenovela melodrama, if not directly representing them. “Te mentí (Sofía); I lied to you (Sofía)” is a surreal oil-on-canvas piece by Mexican painter Julio Galán that shows a pair of giant human brown eyes encircled by smaller figures — a rose, a lone person in a rowboat, a young woman in a cameo, and others — with lines connecting them to the oculars. In the upper right-hand corner of the composition, written in bold black letters under quotation marks, is the declaration, “Te mentí.” The painting visualizes the internal monologue of a person processing the loss of a relationship to dishonesty. Telenovelas serve heaps and heaps of camp. It is the genre’s prevalent aesthetic. Venezualan Sol Calero and Finnish Dafna Maimon’s video installation, “Desde el jardín” (From the garden) features an over-the-top protagonist, Amazonas, a young gardener at an opulent hacienda, who dreams of becoming the mistress of the manor, living the life of luxury she sees around her. [caption id="attachment_65476" align="aligncenter" width="585"] Poster for Sol Calero and Dafna Maimon’s “Desde el jardin” (2016).Ncholas Boston[/caption] Her wish comes true when the master, El Señor, asks her to secretly assume the identity of his recently deceased wife. The unfolding dystopia features telepathic maids, a handsome love-interest, and — surprise, surprise — an unforeseen web of betrayal and greed that brings Amazonas, played by male Brazilian artist Caique Tizzi, to the brink of emotional collapse. The dream of a white wedding — always to a wealthy suitor — is one common telenovela aspiration. Maripaz Jarmillo’s painting, “Café con aroma de mujer” (Coffee with the scent of a woman), shows a bride and groom looking blissful. “The painting captures one of the genre’s most enduring conventions: the long-awaited union of its protagonists and the promise of a happily-ever-after ending,” reads a statement from the artist’s gallerist in Colombia, Fernandez Mosseri. Fittingly, the painting is the concluding work in the “Telenovela” exhibition, an image of serenity and success that emotionally fuels this genre. Telenovela | Americas Society | Running through March 27, 2027 Nicholas Boston, Ph.D., is a professor of media sociology at Lehman College of the City University of New York (CUNY). Follow him on Twitter @DrNickBoston and Instagram @Nick_Boston_in_New York