Pinta brings Latin American art to London this weekend
Alejandro Zaia
Art collectors will descend on London today, tomorrow and over the weekend for the Pinta London, Europe’s only fair exclusively devoted to Latin American, Spanish and Portuguese art.
“The majority of visitors are all collectors who have an interest in Latin American, Spanish and Portuguese art, and the number of new collectors increases year-on-year,” says the fair’s director, Alejandro Zaia.
“Since the show’s inception in London in 2010, Pinta has attracted many local visitors, as well as a high proportion from France, Germany, and most recently Asian and Middle Eastern visitors, who are more and more beginning to collect Latin American art, adding our artists to their international collections.
“In addition to this, a very important audience for us are curators, many of which know our fair very well and come each year to ‘discover’ new works and artists.”
Today, art fairs have developed to become a showcase where artists, galleries, collectors and curators meet to discuss, follow and create trends in the art world, sharing knowledge and information.
“This isn’t something that the gallery environment easily lends itself to, which is partly why I believe art fairs are becoming increasingly popular,” says Zaia. “One of the big attractions of an art fair is that visitors have access to a great breadth of work in multiple disciplines: from painting to photography and installation.
“This is very true of Pinta London, as not only do we present work by leading international galleries, but we have developed several project spaces which offer access to perhaps the more under-rated areas of art.”
This year for example, Zaia says he is particularly looking forward to our project space titled ‘Black and White in Spanish Geometry from 1950 to 1970’, which will shed light on a selection of Spanish artists working in abstraction, whose work was – unfairly – forgotten in Madrid for many years. Another unique highlight will be ‘Pinta Media Art’, which will feature historical works from Eduardo Kac, pioneer of BioArt.
Zaia says the market for Latin American art is strong, but is without significant bubbles – with the exception of a few specific artists, mostly Brazilian artists, who have grown bigger in the last five years.
“Londoners are well educated and sophisticated and the more they know about our art, the more the market grows and consolidates. The prices are still good, and at Pinta London you may find great opportunities if you search thoroughly, but there are no longer the ‘bargains’ in Latin American art, that you could find years ago.”
Zaia’s best advice for anyone attending the fair is to follow your instinct, but try and gather as much information as possible before making that final decision.