Minerva Cuevas's 'Ecologia Social' at MASP redefines ecological crisis through corporate appropriation

Minerva Cuevas presents 'Ecologia Social,' a solo exhibition at MASP curated by André Mesquita, running from December 5, 2025, to April 12, 2026. The show reframes ecological crisis as inseparable from neoliberal systems, drawing from anarchist writer Murray Bookchin's ideas. Cuevas's practice, spanning over two decades, operates at the intersection of art and activism, employing corporate logos, consumer products, and linguistic codes as interventionist tools. Her seminal project 'Mejor Vida Corp.' (1998–) functions as a fictional corporation offering free goods and services, performing micro-sabotage on neoliberal value systems. Material choices include chapopote (a petroleum derivative) coating paintings and objects, and the 'Petrolina' series featuring artificial floral arrangements in used multinational automotive oil cans. These works overlay extraction regimes with pre-Hispanic knowledge systems, creating ambiguous zones between beauty and critique. Rather than offering solutions, Cuevas destabilizes symbolic infrastructures supporting neoliberalism, positioning ecology as a field of dispute. The exhibition oscillates between corporate iconography rearticulation and material textures, resisting easy consumption of crisis imagery.