Merrill Lynch arteaméricas celebrates its seventh edition in Miami

Ronald Morán. Vista # 2 Habitación infantil (Childs Room), Lambda print, Ed 4/7. 40” x 27.50”. Courtesy PanAmerican Art Projects

Miami Beach Convention Center, March 27 - 30, 2009

By Denise Colson

In March of this year, the seventh edition of Merrill Lynch arteaméricas, with the participation of renowned galleries from Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Haiti, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, Spain, the United States, Uruguay and Venezuela will be the ideal place to view this region’s most recent artistic trends and expressions.

For four days, the Miami Beach Convention Center will showcase the works of several great masters of Latin American art, as well as emerging talent. This will be an exceptional opportunity for collectors, curators, museum professionals, artists, art critics and the public at large to access pieces of superb quality in a wide assortment of different media, such as: painting, sculpture, drawing, ceramics, conceptual art and new audiovisual media.

Available for sale will be the works of internationally-renowned creators, such as: Wifredo Lam, Fernando Botero, Armando Reverón, Lygia Clark, Rómulo Aguerre, León Ferrari, Jesús Soto, Joaquín Torres-García, Rufino Tamayo, Germán Cabrera, José Pedro Costigliolo, among others; whose pieces have attained a high level of recognition in the art market. Likewise, Merrill Lynch arteaméricas will open its doors to the greatest exponents of the current Latin American avant-garde, represented by artists, such as: Tony Bechara, Alexandre Arrechea, Gerard Ellis, Ronald Morán, Bastón Díaz, José Bedia, Carlos Estévez, Eleomar Puente, Eduardo Chapela, Alexis Leyva (Kcho), García Cordero, Mauro Giaconi, Gustavo Acosta, Edouard Duval Carrié, Víctor Payares, Santiago Porter, Rogelio López Marín (Gory), Melissa Mejía, Mariana Monteagudo, Juan Erlich, Hugo Zapata, among others.

The fair will welcome galleries that participated in years past, as well as galleries attending the event for the very first time, all carefully selected by a committee of experts in Latin American art. At the time of publication, the Merrill Lynch arteaméricas organizers were able to confirm the participation of the following galleries: Aldo de Sousa, Del Infinito Arte, Fundación Leopoldo Torres Agüero, Pabellón 4, Van Eyck Galería de Arte and Via Margutta Arte Contemporáneo (Argentina); Nueve Ochenta Arte Contemporáneo, Galería El Museo, and Galería Sextante (Colombia); La Galería (Peru); dpm Arte Contemporáneo, (with locations in Ecuador and Miami); Galería Fernando Pradilla and Joan Guaita (Spain); Carlos Woods Arte Contemporáneo (Guatemala); Galerie Bourbon-Lally (Haiti); Galería Jacob Karpio (Costa Rica); Alfredo Ginocchio, Quetzalli and Nina Menocal (Mexico); Galería Arteconsult, Aleman & Grimberg (with locations in Panama); Lyle O. Reitzel Gallery (with exhibition space in the Dominican Republic and Miami); Galería Sur (Uruguay); La Carnicería and Juan Ruiz Galería (Venezuela). The United States will be represented by: Alonso Art, PanAmerican Art Projects, Ideo Box, Artformz Alternative, Cernuda Arte, Dot Fiftyone, Diana Lowenstein Fine Art, Durban Segnini Gallery (which also has a prominent gallery in Venezuela), Latin Art Core, Praxis International Art, Sammer Gallery, The Americas Collection, Cecilia de Torres LTD, Henrique Faria Fine Art, Ruiz-Healy Art, among others.

For the first time, the fair will include three alternative spaces: Project Room, Young District and Video Box, which will help to enrich and diversify the exhibitive offering. Project Room will be dedicated to exhibiting large-format installations and sculptures; participating galleries will be able to display the single work of one artist. Young District will be an area devoted to young galleries, where they can exhibit the works of emerging artists valued at less than 2,000 dollars. Lastly, Video Box will assemble the videos of Latin American creators, as selected by the curator, Maria Iovino.

Prestigious museums and institutions will also participate at this event. Of note, among them are: the Bass Museum (Miami Beach), CIFO/Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Lowe Art Museum (University of Miami), MAM/Miami Art Museum, MOCA/Museum of Contemporary Art (North Miami), Museum of Art Ft. Lauderdale, The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum (Florida International University), Museo del Barrio (New York), MoLAA (California), Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, and the Inter-American Development Bank (Washington D.C.), which will sponsor the Video Box space.

In its seventh edition, Merrill Lynch arteaméricas will try out a new fair scheme, with a more specialized selection and fewer galleries, in order to facilitate a more intimate and effective exchange between dealers and collectors.

Denise Colson: Art critic and writer based in Miami.