PUNTA DEL ESTE.- The second ESTE ARTE fair closes amid reports of strong sales from galleries across the board and increased attendance from collectors, art world professionals and the general public alike, making it the most successful edition of the international art fair to date.

ESTE ARTE took place from 5-8 January 2016 in a new location within the town of La Barra, Punta Del Este, Uruguay, South America’s premier luxury travel destination. After a successful first edition in 2015, the 2016 fair brought together some of the best local galleries from Uruguay and a selection of leading galleries representing 11 countries around world. Over four days the fair attracted twice as many visitors as ESTE ARTE 2015, including some of the most important private collectors from Uruguay, Argentina and around the world alongside trustees, patrons, and professionals of local and international museums.

Directed by Laura Bardier, ESTE ARTE is a fair that presents a tailored selection of leading local and international galleries, giving collectors the opportunity to experience quality on a comfortable scale. Strong sales were reported from both Uruguayan and international galleries for the second edition of the fair.

Attending collectors included Afshan Almassi, Nando Parrado, Martin Summers, Anibal and Marlise Jozami, Juan Ball, Florencia Darke del Castillo, Laetitia D´Arenberg and Norah Hojman from the ESTE AMIGOS, an essential group of local collectors and friends of the fair, as well as Daniel Levinas, Teresa Bulgheroni, Mila Spierenburg, Richard Moatti, Eduardo Constantini, Alberto Rebaza, Noboru Fernandes de Abreu and Patrick Fuchs, the President of the Friends of Mamco - musée d'art moderne et contemporain (Geneva) and Carolina Campeas Talabardon from Fondation ADDAX & ORYX (Geneva).

Curators, directors and patrons from important institutions from around the world, included MALBA (Argentina), Bienal de Montevideo (Uruguay), Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Spain), Centre Pompidou (France), MNAV - Museo Nacional de Artes Visuales (Uruguay), Espacio arte Contemporaneo (Uruguay) and Bienal do Mercosul (Brazil).

Participating galleries commented positively about their experience at ESTE ARTE 2016:

“The fair has improved this year from its first edition, the location and the atmosphere are much better with a great selection of people attending the fair.” – Mario Cristiani, Galeria Continua

“ESTE ARTE’s quality has increased significantly for this second edition - a testament to its potential in South America and beyond. Boutique fairs allow for a level of conversation and interaction with collectors which simply wouldn't possible when you have 200-plus exhibitors. They have a real role to play in the art world's ecosystem. And let's face it, 10 days in sunny Punta del Este couldn't be a better start to the art calendar!’’ – Jonathon Carroll, Director, Carroll/Fletcher Gallery

“For only its second year, ESTE ARTE looks like a major art fair that you would find in any other world city. This year the fair improved from its first year and Laura Bardier and her team have done a great job.” – Renos Xippas, Xippas Gallery

“The fair is improving very quickly to become a great art event and is benefitting this year from the new location and strong selection of galleries. For its second year, it attracted very important collectors, and we made some good sales and are continuing to speak with collectors about a few others. We are confident that next year will be even better, with many more great people attending after the success of this year’s fair.” – Martin Castillo, Director, Galeria Sur

“The quality of the collectors at this year’s fair was really amazing and we were very impressed with their knowledge of our artists, and keen eyes.” – Alexandre Djordjevic, Reginart Collectons

“The fact that the fair takes place on a small scale has meant I have had good conversations with collectors on the stand, so they can learn about both the work we present and get a better sense of the programme of our gallery. I also feel ESTE ARTE presents a good level of work from not only South America, but the rest of the world.” – Nestor Zonana, Director, Pabellón 4 Arte Contemporáneo

ESTE ARTE 2016 | PROGRAMMES
ESTE ARTE presented a strong programme of talks and events that was well attended by fair VIPs and the general public alike. The ESTE CHARLA talks programme considered public and private collecting, art education methods and art funding strategies. This programme included a talk on The fiction of architecture or the architecture of fiction with Argentinean artist Leandro Erlich and Paraguayan architect Gloria Cabral. The ESTE CHARLA programme also included, the lively discussion Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the Gallerist* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) an intimate conversation with gallerists, Renos Xippas, Mario Cristiani and Jonathon Carroll.

The ESTE TERTULIA programme included a series of discussions with artists and presentations of their work, such as Brazilian artist Cao Guimarães, Uruguayan Sculptor Pablo Atchugarry and Eduardo Cardozo. ESTE SONIDO incorporated a programme of public sound art performances including Suite para piano y pulso velado by Uruguayan-French musician Luciano Supervielle. ESTE GUIA, was also presented at the fair, a series of public guided tours. ESTE ARTE also presented their ESTE BOLETIN, a published journal at the fair, which included profiles of the exhibitors, introductory essays and critical texts focused around the artwork exhibited at the 2016 fair. ESTE BOLETIN was published as a supplement of the major national Uruguayan newspaper El País on 3rd January 2016.

ESTE ARTE 2016 STAND HIGHLIGHTS
Highlights of the galleries presenting work at ESTE ARTE 2016 included Carroll/Fletcher’s presentation of works by Richard T. Walker and Eulalia Valldosera. This included Eulalia Valldosera’s work Construction and Deconstruction (I1VII) that documents a performance during which the artist draws the female form using cigarette ends and ash. This striking piece illustrates the reclaiming of the nude by a female artist and appropriations of non-western artistic practices. Galleria Continua presented a group show by world renowned artists Daniel Buren, Carlos Garaicoa, Antony Gormley, Leandro Erlich, Jorge Macchi, Giovanni Ozzola, Cildo Meireles and Hans Op de Beeck. Le point Fort displayed a group show by Sinyoung Park, Axel Gouala and Colin Guillemet. Le point Fort also displayed drawings by Francis Bacon which represented the first time that Bacon’s work has been shown in Uruguay.

Factoría de Arte Santa Rosa displayed a group show by Chilean artists Ismael Frigerio, Carlos Ramos, Robinson Mora, Carlos Fernandez and Roberto Matta. Brazilian gallery Mul.ti.plo Espaço Arte displayed works by Daniela Antonelli, Antonio Dias, Cabelo, Waltercio Caldas, José Pedro Croft, León Ferrari, Elizabeth Jobim, Fernanda Junqueira, Gabriela Machado, Marco Maggi, Maria-Carmen Perlingeiro, Eduardo Sued, Antoni Tàpies, Angelo Venosa and Carlos Cruz-Díez who currently has a major retrospective entitled Cruz-Diez Bidimensional Research 1959-2015 at Espace Expression, Miami. Photology presented a group show by international artists including Jorgen Angel, Mario Cresci, William Eggleston, Luigi Ghirri, Anni Leppälä, Leo Matiz, Tazio Secchiaroli and Richard Tuschman. Reginart Collections presented a diverse range of artists including AD SYSTEMS, Alberto Biasi, Victor Brauner, Pierre Buraglio, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Enrico Castellani, Larry Johnson, Turi Simeti, Pablo Picasso and Joana Vasconcelos who represented Portugal at the 55th Venice Biennale.

Black Gallery displayed a group show by three Uruguayan artists Julia Castagno, Pati Fernández and María Freire and Galería Sur presented work by renowned Uruguayan artists Eduardo Cardozo, Wifredo Diaz Valdez, Ignacio Iturria and Marcelo Legrand. Galería Sur also showcased work by Lithuanian artist José Gurvich. Heinzer Reszler exhibited a new video work Relative I by French artist Mathieu BernardReymond alongside the work of Sophie Bouvier Ausländer, Sylvain Croci-Torti and Adrien Couvrat. This marked the first time that French artist Adrien Couvrat’s work has been displayed in Latin America. Studio 488 presented work by Argentinean and Brazilian artists including Juan Hein, Gaby Herbstein, Maja Lescano, Rosana Simonassi and Natali Turbenchlak. 1/9unosunove displayed a solo exhibition by internationally renowned Italian artist Sergio Lomabrdo.

Swiss gallery Studio Sandra Recio displayed works by Benoît Billotte, Fernanda Fragateiro, Yaima Carrazana, and one of Brazil’s strongest emerging artists Marlon de Azambuja. Xippas Galleries presented a site-specific installation by internationally renowned Uruguayan artist Ricardo Lanazarini. La Pecera presented a group show by Martin Pelenur and Santiago Aldabalde at ESTE ARTE 2016.