TWO GREAT SAO PAULO GALLERIES’ ANNIVERSARY
Galería Casa Triângulo and Galería Raquel Arnaud, Sao Paulo.
The year 2014 is a year of celebrations in Sao Paulo. Besides the opening of the FIFA World Cup, the city of Sao Paulo celebrates its famous Art Biennial and the tenth anniversary of its SP Arte fair, establishing itself as one of the nottobemissed appointments in the calendar of the Latin American art circuit. Taking advantage of the latter event, two prominent galleries celebrated their trajectories as such.
Galería Casa Triângulo, originally located in the historic district of the capital city of the state of Sao Paulo, is celebrating the 25th anniversary of its inauguration. The gallery decided to celebrate a series of important events parallel to the SP Art Fair. It chose Pivô Gallery, located in the emblematic Copan building designed by architect Óscar Niemeyer, as the exhibition venue to honor the artists it represents. Thus the department of museography of the METRO company presented a group show featuring 24 of the gallery’s artists. Making an intelligent use of the fabulous space, the exhibition began at the stairs with a largescale installation by the Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos, who also had a solo show at Casa Triângulo. In the upper floor, the tribute exhibition toured the installations and works by Vieira Conceição, Sandra Cinto, Albano Afonso, Jack Strange and Guillermo Mora, and videos by Stephen Dean, Yuri Firmeza and Camila Sposatti. The show ended with artists working in more traditional formats: the drawings by Eduardo Berliner or Pier Stockholm, the painting on canvas by Vânia Mignone, and the handmade embroideries by the Sao Paulo artist Alex Cerveny.
Parallel to this exhibition, in two spaces in Sao Paulo homage was also being paid to one of the most veteran galleries in the city’s art circuit: Galería Raquel Arnaud. In its 40th anniversary in the national and the international art scene, the gallery featured two major exhibitions to commemorate its history: one in the gallery venue in the Vila Madalena art district, and another one in part of the exhibition space of the Tomie Otahke Institute. This latter exhibition, titled Afinidades, explored the gallerist’s relationship with her artists, many of them key figures to understand the most recent history of Brazilian art. Held in conjunction with the exhibition at the gallery, this latter show thus presented an itinerary showcasing the work of great contemporary Brazilian artists like Lygia Clark, Waltercio Caldas, Sergio Camargo, A. Luiz Piza, Mira Schendel, among others, alongside other internationally renowned foreign artists such as Carlos Cruz-Diez.
Both exhibitions are thus examples of the significant work carried out by art galleries in the presentday art scene, showcasing and complementing the artistic production of different generations of Brazilian artists.
