Notes related to Contemporary Art

Mexican artist, Teresa Margolles, transfers the space of death to the sphere of art, a metaphor par excellence of the border, of a limit that paradoxically is reached only when we are no longer and, therefore, we will no longer be able to tell it. An attempt to counter addiction and impotence in the face of daily tragedies such as gender violence or the exploitation of illegal immigration, caused by the inaction of governments and by a melodramatic or sensationalistic media exploitation.

The Chilean pavilion that will represent Chile at the upcoming 59th Venice Art Biennale will host the collective and interdisciplinary project Turba Tol, curated by Camila Marambio and with the participation of Ariel Bustamante, sound artist, Dominga Sotomayor, filmmaker, Carla Macchiavello, art historian and Alfredo Thiermann, architect. The management is in charge of Juan Pablo Vergara and also includes scientists, indigenous activists and other collaborators from the creative field.

A few decades ago, the art utopia consisted of incorporating the viewer into the work, either physically or sensorially. Frank Popper called these practices with the term "participation art".

From March 12^th to June 13^th 2022, the Biennale of Sydney will present over 330 artworks by 89 participants and 400 events. The Biennale, titled rīvus, meaning “stream” in Latin, will feature new work and commissions responding to water ecology and relationships with the natural world. 

ARCOmadrid, organized by IFEMA MADRID, closed its 40+1 Anniversary on Sunday with a commercial balance described by the participating galleries as very positive. The attractive presentation of galleries and artistic programs that have made up the contents of this edition have attracted a global figure of 75,000 visitors, among which were 30,000 art professionals.

The fair takes place from April 6th to 10th at the Bienal Pavilion in Ibirapuera Park, reaffirming its leading role in the arts market and bringing together around 130 galleries, nine of which are international.

Oscar Murillo has developed a multifaceted and inventive art practice, which constantly probes questions of collectivity and shared culture, while being fundamentally connected to the affective qualities of different materials.

“My work attempts to assemble a visual language that reconciles the process in which the history of this information is recorded, stored, and retrieved." Emerson Dorsch presents Alchemic Chants/ Reliquias Fragmentadas, Yanira Collado’s first solo exhibition with the gallery. A platform nearly covers the gallery floor, while objects and paintings punctuate the slim corridor around it. The platform echoes the footprint of a small house, one for living and for working.

UTA Artist Space and Unit London announce a new immersive environment by the celebrated Los Angeles-based artist Enrique Martínez Celaya. The Rose Garden ambitiously brings together new paintings, sculptures, installations, photographs, garments, and writing, inviting viewers to consider the self—both its promise and its threat—through the mystical divination of memory.

Arthouse Project is a hybrid and multidisciplinary platform for artistic and social development whose mission is to exhibit and bring together different disciplines in art, architecture, photography, design and fashion.

The Amazon rainforest is one of the planet’s largest and most important ecosystems, it serves as a and home to the people who inhabit the forest and to forces that impact its future and affect global climate change. These themes are explored in “Forest: Ancestry and Dystopia, presented by The55Project Art Foundation in collaboration with The Fundación Pablo Atchugarry in Miami, from February 19 to July 16,2022.

LnS GALLERY announces the inclusion of The Face of Leviathan (2021) by William Osorio into the permanent collection of El Espacio 23. This work, which is inspired by the protests that erupted in Cuba throughout the summer while compositionally quoting Picasso's Guernica (1937), was acquired by the private collection and is set to debut early this year.

Trophallaxis (2008–17) encapsulates Leigh’s emphasis on the female body—particularly the Black female body—as a culturally loaded signifier. The presentation marks the first time this work is shown since it was acquired for the museum in 2018 with funds provided by PAMM’s Collectors Council.

On Friday, January 21, at 6:30 p.m., the individual exhibition TRAMA, by Nela Ochoa, a Venezuelan/Spanish artist who has resided in Tenerife since 2017, will open at the Saro León gallery.

ARCOmadrid returns to its usual date to celebrate its 40 (+1) Anniversary, from February 23rd to 27th. A unique project set to bring past and present together through the galleries and their essential relationship with artists and collectors. 

Gasworks presents Out of an instance of expiration comes a perennial showing, the first UK solo exhibition by Los Angeles-based artist Gala Porras-Kim.

Fountainhead Arts has been awarded a Grants for Arts Projects award to support Fountainhead Residency, the only live/work residency program in Miami, FL. Amidst a very competitive landscape, Fountainhead earned the NEA’s support with its first application, obtaining full funding for its 2022 project season.

Amarantus is the first retrospective in Mexico of Mariana Castillo Deball's art, who has created a vast body of work in the space between science, narrative, fiction and the visual arts, as well as their relationship with the ways in which Mexico’s precolonial history has been appropriated and investigated at different times.

Negar el desierto (Denying the Desert) is a group exhibition that affirms the persistence of the coastal landscape in the imagination of the artists who inhabit or visit it. The desert is a full space, abundant in historical, emotional and political density.

The ninth edition of PArC, Perú Arte Contemporáneo, has a confirmed date to represent Pinta in Peru. Integrated into the Pinta universe, the most relevant international art fair in Peru is characterized by an ambitious experimental program and a selection of galleries with diverse and contemporary proposals.

The PArC fair, which stands among the most relevant cultural exchange platforms in the region, will take place between April 20^th and 24^th, 2022 at Casa Prado, Lima

One of the key works of the 34th São Paulo Biennial literally anchors the robust and uncomfortable presence between the interstitial areas of this modernist building, so questioned today. However, its meanings go beyond the perimeters of the construction and extend to, for example, some of the civic sculptures that populate public places throughout Brazil and that are also located in the surroundings.

With the curatorship of Oscar Roldán and Luis Fumero, the Solo Projects section acquires a stronger protagonism this year. The section is dedicated to gallery exhibitions that consist of works by a selected artist; the perfect opportunity for visitors to relate more profoundly and personally with the artists.

Miami’s leading art fair for Latin American art opens its doors to the public at a new location. Promising exhibitions, emerging and established talents, and exciting announcements will feature in Pinta 2021. Tickets are available here

The EFG Latin America Art Award, in partnership with ArtNexus, announces José Caerols, from OMA Galeria, Santiago de Chile, as the nominated artist for its annual acquisition award. The list of selected artists is now finallyy complete, and the winner will be announced at Pinta Miami this week.

This year, in its 15^th anniversary and after highly transformative events, Pinta ventures into a new concept. New formats, new location and many other exciting ingredients will make up Pinta 2021.

The arteba Foundation turned 30 years old and celebrated it with a face-to-face fair at Arenas Studios, La Boca neighborhood. arteba 2021 created a space where artists, gallery owners, collectors, curators, cultural references and a massive public converged on the southern part of the City of Buenos Aires.

“Moving with great fluidity between spirituality, the production of visuality, academic reflection and political action, Heráclito is explicit when he says that he wants to ‘act, in a symbolic way, on the devastating consequences of racism and social inequality that affect the black populations'." In this way, the curator and researcher Solange Farkas (Videobrasil and ex-MAM Bahía) summarizes the approach to the production of Ayrson Heráclito, a Bahian artist who won a retrospective at the MAR (Museu de Arte do Rio) and who had an important recent solo show at the Simões de Assis Gallery, in São Paulo.

Curated by Isabella Lenzi, and running until November 20^th, Só é possível se formos 2 [It is only possible if there are 2 of us] is exhibited in the Sala Fernando Pessoa of the Consulate General of Portugal in São Paulo. The exhibition proposes a dialogue between the Brazilian Anna Costa e Silva and the Portuguese Fernanda Fragateiro, two artists from different generations, practices and trajectories, who converge in their desires to think beyond the limits of the individual.

The EFG Latin America Art Award, now in its eleventh edition, was created to support the Latin American artists. The award aims to promote the continent's visual arts production and regional fairs among collectors around the world. From the Colombian ARTBO fair, the nominated artist is Federico Ovalles, and from the Brazilian fair SP-Arte, Gustavo Nazareno was nominated for his work “Guiné”.