Artbo in Bogotá, Colombia’s premier artwork truthful (till 25 November), opened its nineteenth version in a brand new location and on a brand new date. Guests on the VIP preview yesterday (22 November) perused stands unfold throughout 5 tales of the sprawling Ágora Bogotá conference centre, with panoramic views of the town and the encircling Andes Mountain Vary within the background.
Regardless of the falling worth of the Colombian peso and political unease over current elections, sellers approached by The Artwork Newspaper reported loads of purchaser curiosity in addition to some gross sales. Leon Tovar, who based his gallery in 1991 in Bogotá earlier than relocating to New York in 2012, positioned a small untitled work by the Colombian artist Santiago Cárdenas for $30,150 and a big wood sculpture from the Peruvian artist Jaime Miranda-Bambarén’s Seeds sequence for $55,000. Examples of the latter have been dotted all through the foyer close to the doorway of the truthful. Tovar represents each artists.
Seed sculptures by Jaime Miranda-Bambarén within the foyer of the Ágora Bogotá conference heart. Courtesy Artbo
“I used to be slightly stunned, as a result of the political conditions in Latin America are excessive generally,” Tovar says. “However they’re very optimistic right here, we obtained some gross sales within the early hours.”
Among the many hottest works at Artbo are Sergio Ferro’s handmade ceramic soup cans at Bogotá gallery Salón Comunal’s stand. A Colombian twist on the Warholian Campbell basic, Ferro paints the names of native kinds of the dish, like “sopa de lentejas”, onto small vases. The soup cans, priced at round $60 every, have been almost bought out inside hours of the truthful’s opening.
Artbo’s director since 2012, María Paz Gaviria, the daughter of the previous Colombian President César Gaviria, says that one of many truthful’s strengths is that it has remained distinctively Latin American all through the years. Round two-thirds of the 33 galleries participating in Artbo’s important truthful part hail from Colombia, with the remaining coming from international locations like Argentina, Brazil, Chile, the US, Spain and France. The truthful usually welcomed round 70 galleries within the years simply earlier than the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic (Together with the principle artwork galleries, Artbo hosts separate sections for design, large-scale installations and smaller items, like zines, posters, tote baggage and journals).
Sergio Ferro’s handmade ceramic soup cans at Bogotá gallery Salón Comunal’s stand
Courtesy of Salón Comunal
“Artbo has positioned itself because the truthful with essentially the most Latin American content material, by way of its composition, with rising artwork, as a spot of discovery and as a really boutique truthful.” Gaviria says. “For that motive, it has at all times drawn possibly essentially the most worldwide guests of festivals in Latin America.”
These worldwide purchasers could be a lifeline for sellers in Colombia.
“The artwork market in Colombia has at all times been very fragile. So it is a very, essential second for the native artwork scene,” says Paula Bossa, the curator and director of operations at Bogotá gallery Casas Riegner. “We’re at all times anticipating worldwide guests and though the dates are a bit complicated, it has been a pleasant shock to see some very fascinating guests.” At Casas Riegner’s stand, ceramics exploring the feminine type by the Colombian artist Luz Lizarazo vary from $600 to $3,000; a drawing by the artist can also be being supplied, priced at $3,800.
Whereas the VIP preview was well-attended, this yr’s iteration of Artbo overlaps with the American Thanksgiving vacation, and only a few guests from the US have been current. The truthful is usually held in late October, however this yr these dates clashed with regional elections in Colombia and the truthful’s earlier venue, one other conference centre close to the Ágora Bogotá, serves as one of many nation’s largest polling places.
“Circumstances of the market are very a lot tied to political situations. That’s at all times the case, after all. And it is very a lot the case throughout Artbo,” Gaviria says. “We simply went by a mayoral election right here within the metropolis of Bogota and also you noticed a really dramatic shift a few weeks in the past within the worth of the peso, which after all impacts the artwork market.”
Financial woes
The worth of the Colombian peso sank final week after new authorities figures revealed the nation’s financial system shrank within the third quarter of the fiscal yr, marking Colombia’s first year-on-year financial contraction since 2020 as each excessive rates of interest and inflation proceed to curb spending (galleries at Artbo are inclined to promote works priced in US {dollars}). Final month, candidates backed by President Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s first leftwing president, have been defeated by opposition candidates in regional elections that have been broadly seen as a referendum on the president’s first yr in workplace. For many years, Colombia was caught in violence between highly effective drug cartels, right-wing paramilitary teams and left-wing guerrilla actions.
Up to date artwork is especially difficult to promote in Colombia, the place there’s nonetheless a powerful style for conventional artwork kinds, although sellers say there isn’t any scarcity of younger, gifted artists creating groundbreaking work.
“I imagine the Trendy market is powerful, however the up to date market is simply beginning, so it is sort of troublesome and tough for up to date galleries to maintain afloat. We’re a brand new market,” says Katy Hernández, the director of Galería Espacio Continuo in Bogotá. The gallery is providing Ana María Rueda’s Celosía (2023), a textile and plaster hanging, for $9,000. “We’ve got wonderful artists right here in Colombia, however we’d like worldwide visibility,” Hernández provides
This can be a sentiment echoed by Omayra Alvarado-Jensen, the manager director of Instituto de Visión, which operates galleries in each Bogotá and New York. She says that the gallery has bought works largely to worldwide collectors at Artbo this yr, and that its Colombian market is smaller due to the Colombian financial system and the worth of the peso (Alvarado-Jensen usually gives Colombian collectors and establishments particular charges, she says).
“We’ve got great artists, very highly effective and refreshing practices and other people producing from very totally different backgrounds,” Alvarado-Jensen continues. “Once you reside in a spot like Colombia, the place there’s—sadly—a lot social and political turmoil, that may be a place the place nice artwork can come from.”
