Social turmoil, violence, political upheaval, indigenous rights disputes: From Ecuador to Cuba, the strife and conflicts that have shaped Latin America’s history are all too current in the daily headlines about crime, marginalization and repression.
However, that chaotic reality has also incubated a vibrant and diverse art scene whose influence is expanding beyond the region. For example, this year is to see the appointment of the first Latin American curator to direct the Venice Art Biennale. Rio de Janeiro-born Adriano Pedrosa is to take on the world’s longest-running contemporary art exhibition from April with “Foreigners Everywhere,” a show focused on highlighting Global South movements and giving voice to artists otherwise ignored, from migrants to indigenous groups.
The heightened buzz around Latin American art was also evident at last week’s annual fairs in Mexico City: In its 20th edition, Zona Maco, the largest of these simultaneous events, logged a record 81,000 attendees; the parallel fairs Material and Salon ACME were also packed (Full disclosure: My wife works with a gallery that participated at Material).
Illustration: Tania Chou
In a case of art imitating life in countries where doing business comes with big hurdles, several galleries still had their containers stuck in customs even after the shows started.
However, my own wanderings through the exhibits left me with two strong positive impressions:
First, as a Latin American, I was struck by the collective energy and enthusiasm at these events, in contrast to the region’s divisive politics.
Second, as a financial journalist, I could not help but feel that Latin American art might be having something of a financial moment.
I ran this thought by the specialists at Sotheby’s, who said their recent sales of art from the region have performed well (almost US$250 million in sales from 2020 to last year, or more than 50 percent above the pre-COVID-19 pandemic years).
“Recently we’ve had renewed interest in Latin American art at large,” said Anna Di Stasi, head of the Latin American division at the auction house. “It’s a wonderful moment in terms of education and opening up the market.”
Di Stasi said that while the region’s political instability might have influenced certain artists and styles, there is more than a single reason behind this trend, including collectors looking at specific movements (like surrealist works from the 1940s to the 1960s or Venezuelan geometric abstraction) and emerging indigenous artists who until the past few years did not receive much recognition.
Curatorial demand from museums and institutions in the US is also driving sales. “It’s part of a larger conversation within the art market and with clients looking at representing important periods from this region in their collections,” Di Stasi said.
She was careful to describe the trend not as a boom, but as a moment of “substantial growth,” because in the current fast-paced global art market, collectors can quickly move on to something else.
Still, Sotheby’s expects strong revenues in the early part of this year and is preparing to auction works by Colombian master Fernando Botero, who passed away in September last year.
The growing Latino community in the US, which already represents almost 20 percent of the country’s population and whose purchasing power is expanding, also translates into more visibility for this art either in education centers or exhibitions. Next month, for instance, the Museum of Modern Art in New York is to open a show dedicated to 1940-1980 Latin American design.
Of course, it is not that easy to specify exactly what constitutes Latin American art beyond the nationality of its protagonists. Jose Kuri, co-owner of Kurimanzutto Gallery in Mexico City, said he sees the region as being “on the edge” of Western art, in a “privileged position” compared with more mainstream sources that could be seen as “a bit exhausted.”
Kurimanzutto opened a branch in New York last year to tap that demand in the US market for other voices.
Ricardo Zielinsky, a Brazilian art dealer who owns namesake galleries in Barcelona and Sao Paulo, told me that “Latin American art has many more layers than others, and collectors or institutions in other countries are interested in discovering this because it’s a novelty to them.”
When I asked both gallery owners about possible names to chase, they recommended female artists, including Mexican Lilia Carrillo and Argentine icon Marta Minujin, along with the Brazilians Vera Chaves Barcellos and Gretta Sarfaty.
As a journalist all too steeped in the region’s political and economic troubles, I still prize works that cast them in a different and more memorable light. Last year, I bought a photograph taken by Brazilian artist Romy Pocztaruk, who in 2011 took a long road trip through the Transamazonica, a highway that crosses northern Brazil from east to west, documenting the derelict artifacts of the previous military dictatorship’s effort to integrate remote lands through a grandiose highway. It is an emotional reminder not only of Brazil’s broken promises but also of how pharaonic projects tend to go to waste and are quickly forgotten. However, governments in Latin America still insist on building them.
Will that photograph one day prove a good investment? Who knows. However, having it in my living room inspires me to think harder about the job I do — and if my purchase of it in some small way enhanced Latin America’s soft power, so much the better.
Juan Pablo Spinetto is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Latin American business, economic affairs and politics. He was previously Bloomberg News’ managing editor for economics and government in the region. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
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