Whether it’s literally bringing Panamanian soil to Miami, or subverting the messages of Mexican religious cults by appropriating their iconography into tile murals dripping with sexual innuendo, Latin American artists at Art Basel Miami Beach this year are finding ways to reinvent their cultural heritage as surprising and fantastic pieces of art.

The mexican artist Renata Petersen, originally from Guadalajara, has outfitted her Art Basel booth with three collections that may at first appear disconnected – intricate murals made from tiles and covered slogans and iconography, 80 chrome-blown glass works that look slightly like chess pieces but are actually derived from sex toys, and ceramic vases sporting carefully arranged motifs. For Petersen,these works spring from a childhood lived with her anthropologist mother,where she learned to look at cults and other religious movements with a detached eye.

“My mom is an anthropologist and specializes in religion, and she took me along to all of her fieldwork,” Petersen shared. “She has a book that she wrote in 1993, The Kids of the Light, about a huge cult that started in guadalajara. My life story was really influenced through my mom’s story, always asking questions, never judging, just very open to understanding these new religious movements.”

Artists Find Inspiration in Heritage and Humble Materials

Growing up in 1980s Brazil, as the country emerged from a nearly 30-year dictatorship, a career in art wasn’t exactly practical for Hamaoui. “Brazil wasn’t a place where you could be an artist,” she explained. “It felt like I’d really struggle.” She started by customizing secondhand clothes, frequently enough painting directly onto them – a skill that proved useful as she moved to painting on cotton and linen. “even now, when I paint, I’m really careful about the fabrics I choose. It makes a huge difference in the surface, depending on whether I use linen or cotton.”

From Brazil’s neighbor to the south, Argentinian gabriel Chaile creates striking sculptures from adobe, a material that connects him to his childhood. He remembers his family making bread in a traditional hearth to support themselves – a recipe passed down from his Indigenous grandmother, who taught her family how to be self-sufficient through baking.