Mari Carmen Ramírez is on fire, leading the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston in relentless pursuit of the best and brightest modern and contemporary art from Central and South America. Ramírez, the Wortham Curator of Latin American Art and director of the International Center for the Arts of the Americas, has a keen eye, and the museum's "Contingent Beauty" exhibit was an edgy showstopper with themes of poverty, political oppression and violence. We saw exciting installations, like the starfish-studded Woven Water: Submarine Landscape by María Fernanda Cardoso; the minimalist Stress (in memoriam) by Yoan Capote (incorporating thousands of human teeth); and Óscar Muñoz's video projection chronicling the desaparecidos. Both cerebral and beautiful, it was the sort of exhibit that stays in your mind long after it closes.