WHO ARE THE CURATORS THAT WILL LEAD THE NEXT BIENAL DE SÃO PAULO

The Fundação Bienal de São Paulo announces Amanda Carneiro and Raphael Fonseca as chief curators of the 37th Bienal de São Paulo. Scheduled to take place in 2027 at the Pavilhão Ciccillo Matarazzo in Ibirapuera Park, the Bienal de São Paulo is the largest visual arts event in Latin America and one of the three most important in the world, alongside the Venice Biennale and documenta in Kassel.

Amanda Carneiro and Raphael Fonseca are internationally acclaimed curators from Brazil. Since 2018, Carneiro has been a curator at Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand (MASP). She was an artistic organizer at the 60th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale (2024) – Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere. Raphael Fonseca is a visual arts curator at Culturgest, which has offices in Lisbon and Porto, Portugal. He is curator-at-large for Latin American modern and contemporary art at the Denver Art Museum in the United States, and curator of the Taiwan Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale (2026). He is a member of the curatorial group for the 3rd Counterpublic Triennial (2026) and is one of the co-curators of the Sequences festival in Reykjavík, Iceland, in 2027.

“I am honored by this appointment, and especially honored to be sharing the position of chief curator with Raphael Fonseca, a longtime friend and collaborator, and with a curatorial team whose research interests match the scale and complexity of the Bienal de São Paulo, one of the most important platforms for contemporary art. Taking on this project is, at once, a joy, a challenge, and a responsibility. I am excited to work with artists in São Paulo, which is also my city, to support the realization of their projects and to collaborate with the Bienal team in building this edition. For this unique opportunity, I am grateful to the president of the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo, Andrea Pinheiro, as well as to the institution’s governing board,” says Amanda Carneiro.

 “The first time I traveled from Rio de Janeiro to São Paulo was in 2006, precisely to see a visual arts biennial for the first time—the 27th Bienal de São Paulo,” recalls Raphael Fonseca. “To be in the position of chief curator twenty years after that first encounter with the biennial format is something that exceeds any of my expectations and leaves me, frankly, speechless. Also, being able to work on a project of this scale with Amanda Carneiro—someone with whom I’ve collaborated numerous times and who, more than just a co-curator, is part of my family of friends—makes me even more excited. I can’t wait to start solidifying our ideas together with our curatorial team, the artists, and the various teams of professionals who make up the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo. I am very grateful for the trust and the opportunity granted by the institution’s presidency and its board,” he says.

Over the course of recent editions, the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo has explored and experimented with different curatorial models, ranging from international chief curators to collective structures with no defined hierarchy, creating a deliberate alternation between external perspectives and voices rooted in Brazil. In this context, the appointment of Amanda Carneiro and Raphael Fonseca marks a return to a distinctly Brazilian curatorial tradition, while simultaneously placing that tradition in dialogue with contemporary debates and international circuits.