SP-Arte "Brazilian Routes": everything you need to know about the fair

The next SP-Arte is coming! Between the days August 28th and September 1st will see the third edition of Rotas Brasileiras , a theme that promises to provide a complete immersion in Brazil through the visual arts . With more than 250 artists, the fair will take place at ARCA, a space located in the west zone of São Paulo . There are galleries , cultural institutions and projects with curated stands that highlight new paths in Brazilian art and exalt national artistic production . Starting with the regional diversity among the participants: the event brings together 67 artists from different origins in Brazil. According to Fernanda Feitosa, founder and executive director of SP–Arte, the Rotas Brasileiras edition unfolds at a different pace from other art fairs. "Rotas is a dive into Brazilian art. Each project is carefully thought out with the galleries and artists, resulting in a set of distinct perspectives, and a deeper look at our identity."

Exhibitors

Among the participants are houses already known on the circuit, such as Almeida & Dale, Gomide&Co, Art Scholarship, Marilia Razuk and Millan , and also the younger ones, such as Mitre, HOA, Project Venus and Verve . Key galleries from the Northeast are also present: Lima (Saint Louis of Maranhão), Ground Zero (Recife) , Paulo Darzé, Collection, RV Culture and Art (Salvador) and Leonardo Leal (Fortaleza). As is customary in Rotas, institutes, collections and galleries that preserve and disseminate the work of renowned names in Brazilian art also participate. They are: ⁠Vlavianos Cultural Institute, Farkas Caravan, Sertão Negro, ⁠Estação Gallery (which will celebrate 20 years in 2024), Mario Cravo Neto Institute, Karandash, ⁠Indigenous Banks of Brazil and ⁠Moraes-Barbosa Collection – dedicated to the preservation of ephemeral works, such as performance and mail art.

Newcomers

Names like Bianca Boeckel, Art Scholarship, Skylight, Marcelo Guarnieri, Marli Matsumoto, Martins&Montero, Pinakotheke, Venus Project, Ricardo Von Bruscky, Sandra & Marcio and Via Thorey will be at the fair for the first time. Check it out here the full list of participants.

On the agenda: Brazilian culture

To heat up the debate on Brazil's cultural wealth, the third edition of Rotas Brasileiras is betting on an agenda that goes beyond the exhibition of works and presents in the program a series of new projects that bring provocations about the theme. The gallery Almeida & Dale will present an unprecedented project that brings together Emmanuel Nassar from Pará, Mirian Inêz da Silva from Goiás and Antonio Dias from Paraíba, whose works reverberate the dynamics of the modernization process of Brazil and Brazilian culture in the 20th century. Discussions about ancestry and the fight to defend the rights of the country's indigenous populations will be raised by Millan , which presents works by artists Daiara Tukano, Gustavo Caboco, Jaider Esbell and Joseca Mokahesi Yanomami. Martins&Montero highlights a similar debate: by exhibiting paintings on paper, entitled “Memory and gift of my Paraguaçu”, by the artist from Recôncavo Baiano Davi Rodrigues, the gallery provokes reflections on environmental preservation and the preservation of cultural memory. The need to broaden the discussion on aesthetic, cultural and socio-environmental manifestations extends to the work of three female artists, Kássia Borges, Kaya Agari and Nara Guichon da Carmo Johnson Projects : The goal of this project is to support sustainable practices and ecological connections. Similarly, the project of Marco Zero seeks to reinvent landscapes and rescue ancestral memories, exploring the concept of deviation as a powerful way of cohabiting the territory. Curated by Bitu Cassundé, the selection includes works by artists such as Advânio Lessa, Bozó Bacamarte and Cícero Dias. THE Closed presents a solo by the artist Moacir. A resident of Vila de São Jorge, in Chapada dos Veadeiros, he has never left the village and his life is surrounded by mythical issues. Drawing is his way of communicating with the outside world and his paintings confront elements of different natures, creating figures loaded with symbolism and characters from the popular imagination. At Gomide&Co , the new exhibit is “Routes of Affection,” which promotes a kind of ping-pong between the work of artist Lenora de Barros and that of her father, Geraldo de Barros. With meticulous curation by the artist, sculptures, paintings and design pieces make up the exhibit. At GDA, Galeria de Artistas , the emphasis is on the Arab diasporas . With works by Mari Dagli, Rodrigo Lahoud, tintanamente and Yara Osman and curated by Khadyg Fares, the works reflect the identities, aesthetics and poetic and political developments that come from this migratory transit: from the East to Brazil.

The highlight of Marcelo Guarnieri is the selection of works produced between 1962 and 2024 by artists Maureen Bisilliat and João Bez Batti. Through photography and sculpture, both develop a practice interested in manual processes , such as analog photo development or the work of sculpting basalt. And with works ranging from organic forms to abstraction, Lima 's project highlights the works made from babassu, andiroba and tamburi seeds , typical of Maranhão, by the long-lived artist Luis Carlos Lima Santos.

Talks

The third edition of Rotas's talk program will take place on the 30th and 31st , Friday and Saturday, in a variety of formats. On Friday (30), Rodrigo Moura will discuss Brazilian contemporary art and present the new sector and the development of projects by participating galleries. Complementing the program will be Gabriel Massan and Guerreiro do Divino Amor , who will reflect on how artificial intelligence and electronic media are transforming artistic creation, and Gustavo Caboco and Kassia Borges , who will discuss the participation of indigenous artists in the art market. On Saturday, Laís Franklin , editor-in-chief of Bravo!, will interview Ayrson Heráclito , from the Darze gallery; Nádia Taquary , from the Verve gallery; and Thiago Martins de Melo , from Lima Galeria.

International exhibition

Starting August 31st, the SP House–Art will host its first international exhibition . The space will be occupied by the Kurimanzutto gallery, with offices in Mexico City and New York . This is the Colombian artist's first solo exhibition Oscar Murillo in Brazil with works that dialogue with fundamental names in Brazilian art, such as Lygia Clark, Hélio Oiticica and Cildo Meireles. Brazilian Routes offers audio guides Thematic audio guides will be available on Spotify. They offer an immersive tour of the Routes, with recommendations and comments on the poetics of artists present at different stands. In this edition, the audio guides were created by Felipe Molitor, coordinator of public programs at SP–Arte, and by independent curator Lucas Albuquerque, addressing themes such as religious expressions and transatlantic diasporas.

New artistic direction

One of the big news is the artistic direction of Rodrigo Moura . A curator, editor and art critic, Moura hails from Belo Horizonte and has been chief curator at the Museo del Barrio in New York since 2019. His career includes stints at MASP as an assistant curator and at the Inhotim Institute as artistic director and curator. He was also the first curator of the Solo Sector at SP–Arte, in 2014 and 2015.

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Moura collaborated in the development of the projects that will be presented in this edition, stimulating and proposing new dynamics of circulation for the galleries’ programs. “ Rotas offers the possibility of creating dialogues around concepts and notions of identity and belonging , proposing questions, revisions and affirmations”, says the artistic director.

SERVICE: SP-Arte Brazilian Routes

28 August–01 September 2024 ARK: 360 - Vila Leopoldina (São Paulo - SP) Schedules August 28: Guests 29–31 August: 12:00–20:00 September 1st: 12pm to 7pm Tickets R$ 80 (full price) R$ 40 (half price) Online ticket office