By May Zhee Lim, Markets Media Life Correspondent

The first American museum exhibition dedicated to contemporary Latin American design is on view now at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York. New Territories features more than 75 designers, artists, craftpersons, and collectives from a design scene that has been thriving since 2000.

The name of the exhibition comes from Italian designer Gaetano Pesce’s term for a convergence of artistic practices in contemporary creativity, referring to the state of making in today’s globalized society. New Territories is just that kind of exhibition, bringing together a broad cross section of skills, techniques, heritages, and creativities. The exhibition zeroes in on cities where aspects of “new territories” can be observed, and gives each urban hub its own theme. Caracas, Venezuela, for instance, is where young designers are influenced by artistic legacies of the past. “Repurposing” is the theme for Brazilian cities, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, where the artists’ upcycling and repurposing of everyday objects for use in art is a reflection of the country’s concerns with resource destruction and ecological sustainability.

The works featured are dynamic, interactive, and socially conscious, suggesting the ways that artists in Latin America are trying to redefine what is Latin American. Curated by Lowery Stokes Sims, New Territories is part of the museum’s initiative to highlight art from world regions that are often under-represented in traditional museum settings. The exhibition will play a role in bringing lesser known Latin American talents to the forefront of the contemporary art and design scene.

To learn more about the exhibition, visit http://newterritorieslab.org