Programming: SP-Arte 2017

Every year, SP-Arte attracts prestigious local and international art galleries to São Paulo. Presenting modern and contemporary art, and serving as a thermometer of the creative economy, the festival brings more than 120 galleries to Brazil’s cultural epicenter in 2017. A variety of mediums are represented at SP-Arte, including painting, sculpture, print, photography, installation and video.

This section features works by renowned and emerging artists. Visitors  will come face-to-face with works in a variety of different mediums and scales. From São Paulo to New York to London, exhibitors include Galeria Marilia Razuk, David Zwirner, and Other Criteria, among many others.

In this section, galleries exhibit up to three contemporary artists. This curated selection draws upon new talent and encourages discovery.

Through individual exhibitions, this section celebrates artistic reflection and research and combines the voices of creators from different generations. The space is curated by Luiza Teixeira de Freitas – an independent curator who worked at the Tate Modern gallery in 2008 and was assistant curator of the 3rd Marrakech Biennale in 2009.

In its inaugural year, the Repertório section follows a chronological period. This year, the artists selected were born before the 1940s and the works presented were produced before the end of the 1980s.

The section was conceived with the objective of introducing Brazilian and international artists who have been central in shaping contemporary artistic practices, some of whom have not not yet been duly recognized.

Selected artists include Pino Pascali, linked to Art Povera; Richard Long, one of the most important British artists of the second-half of the 20th century; and Lothar Baumgarten, German artist whose work is highly influenced by the landscape, history and culture of Brazil’s Amazon.

The space is curated by Jacopo Crivelli Visconti, curator of artist retrospectives like Héctor Zamora (CCBB-SP, 2016), Sean Scully (Pinacoteca-SP, 2015) and Leda Catunda (MAM-RJ, 2014), and the 12th Bienal de Cuenca (Ecuador, 2014), among other exhibitions.

A country with one of the most visual cultures in the world, Japan has a rich history of radical innovation and multi-disciplinary creators. In celebration of Japan House’s inauguration in São Paulo, curator Marcello Dantas has selected works to exhibit at SP-Arte.

The focus of the exhibition is the juxtaposition of the Japanese obsession with precision and a less-known characteristic of its culture: a strong admiration for imperfection.