The Latin American presence at ARCO is consolidating year after year, establishing itself as a primary guiding thread beyond market trends, becoming a significant part of the identity of the Madrid fair. In this sense, the participating galleries in the various programs showcase well-established names as well as younger or more radical bets, shaping an ecosystem in which various productions can be analyzed.

The organization has entrusted Mexican curator José Esparza Chong Cuy with the development of Perfiles | Arte latinoamericano, a curated journey that highlights, through ten selected figures, the diversity of visual approaches. As the curator himself states, it offers "a broad panorama of how to identify as artists and build community, proposing new ways of making, thinking, and living together."

Maria Wills (Bogota, Colombia 1979) and Denilson Baniwa (Barcelos, Brazil, 1984) are the responsible for Wametisé: ideas for an amazofuturism, one of the special programs curated for ARCO 2025 and that navigates the Amazon and its growing impact on contemporary art. This proposal proposes a scenario of representation and dialogue through a selection of galleries and guest artists who will raise, through their works and their realities, the different conceptions of the Amazonian world and the possibilities of a collective future.

Madrid's Reina Sofia Museum, in collaboration with the Reina Sofia Museum Foundation, reinforces its growing involvement and strategy for the dissemination and study of Latin American contemporary art with the creation of the Cáder Institute of Central American Art (ICAC), dedicated to the research and dissemination of Central American art.

Intricate between action and register, El Apartamento hosts Algo deja quien se va, the first solo exhibition in Spain by Reynier Leyva Novo (Havana, Cuba, 1983). Starting from the political concept of historical memory and linking it to the issues of power and colonialism, the artist unfolds in two well-differentiated series his proposal to approach these lines, and extends his networks to the impact (or influence) they have on the institutional and cultural fabric.

The intervention Wasi Llamkha (Place and touch), by artist Andrea Canepa (Lima, Peru, 1980), stands on the South Patio of Madrid's Condeduque. This pavilion, designed as an ephemeral architectural structure, invites us to explore its sensorial value, far from the preeminence of the visual, and claims, by way of inspiration, the quipus, the forms of representation and recording of information from pre-Columbian Peru.

Madrid's CentroCentro approaches the artistic production related to the Amazon with the exhibition Trópico sin tópico: Amazonas (Tropic without Topic: Amazon), curated by Halim Badawi (Barranquilla, Colombia, 1982), and with which it intends to facilitate new looks beyond the usual ones with which the European imaginary contemplates the indigenous legacy and its relation with the contemporary world.

The Mexican art scene is going through an exceptional moment. There is a palpable energy, with new galleries opening, others already consolidated in the process of expansion and Mexican artists and curators gaining more and more international visibility. Their presence in museums, biennials and global fairs continues to grow, consolidating Mexico as a key player in the contemporary art scene.

As 2024 draws to a close, it’s time to assess the state-of-the-art market over the past year. After the post-pandemic boom of 2021 and 2022, the art market suffered a marked slowdown in 2023, which has continued through 2024. According to auction data, the market has accumulated a total decline of 51% since 2022.

Miami Art Week has just concluded, providing an excellent opportunity to reflect on Miami's evolution as a growing art center and a prominent player in the art market.