Rio de Janeiro Art Fair
Marina de Gloria, Rio de Janeiro
September 8-12, 2021
Website: www.artrio.com
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By Adriana Schmorak Leijnse

In 2021, between September 8 and 12, ArtRio reached its 11th edition. Continuing the model made last year, the fair had its face-to-face form, in Marina da Glória, and also a virtual format within the ArtRio platform. com. More than 60 galleries and 16 institutions related to Art have participated. ArtRio has a strong commitment to the dissemination of Brazilian art, the work of galleries and artists. Throughout the last year,
He acted incessantly in the communication of news related to the world of art, with the production of rich content published on his site, coverage of events such as exhibitions and exhibitions, and a strong performance on social networks.

"Having face-to-face events is extremely important in this segment, where we highly value seeing the work up close, talking with the artist, and stimulating different emotions. At the same time, it was a period in which we better understood the scope, dimension and myriad possibilities of digital performance. Art Rio online received in one week, in 2021, more than 300 thousand page-views, including visitors from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Spain and Portugal. It was even possible to have an extensive agenda of debates and online guided tours”Says Brenda Valansi, president of ArtRio.

The curatorial committee, made up of the gallery owners Alexandre Roesler (Nara Roesler Gallery), Antonia Bergamin (former director of the Bergamin & Gomide Gallery), Filipe Masini and Eduardo Masini (Athena Gallery), Gustavo Rebello (Gustavo Rebello Arte), and Juliana Cintra (Silvia Cintra + Box 4), selected the galleries participating in the 2021 event. These galleries were in turn, divided into two programs: 

Panorama, in which galleries with established activities in the modern and contemporary art market participated.
Vista: program dedicated to young galleries, with up to 10 years of existence, with exhibition projects developed exclusively for the fair.

For the face-to-face event, occupying the main pavilion of Marina da Gloria, ArtRio followed all the security protocols indicated by the competent bodies, including the requirement to use a mask, the availability of alcohol gel and social distancing.  
The number of visitors has also been limited, with an indication of entry hours and length of stay.

Varanda Art Rio, which is in the external area of ​​Marina da Glória, with an incredible view of the Guanabara Bay and the Sugarloaf Mountain, is a different building specially built for the occasion, but which has been dismantled once the event ended. .
This space received the galleries of the SOLO program, a selection of artists for the presentation of special one-person projects. In 2021, eight artists participated in the program and had their works exhibited in the Varanda Art Rio space. Among them we can mention: Alessandra Rehder, Nathalie Cohen, Alexandre Mazza, Evandro Soares, Osvaldo Gaia, etc.

MIRA
In 2021 Art Rio held the 5th edition of the MIRA program, dedicated to video art. Curated by Víctor Gorgulho, the program exhibited audiovisual works by young and established artists of different generations.
"If between the 1960s and 1980s, the new video recording media operated a true revolution in the field of art, today the production of images takes place in a world saturated by them, surrounded by stimuli of all kinds, triggered by screens of increasingly dizzying sizes and resolutions”, Indicated Víctor Gorgulho  

Institutions:
Following its commitment to enhance Brazilian and Latin American art, and also to stimulate accessibility to art, Art Rio gave space to important institutions to present their work. Among them: MAM Rio, EAV, Funarj, MT Proyectos de Arte, Secretariat of Culture of the State of Rio de Janeiro, etc.  

Art Rio Online:
The Art Rio online platform broadcast the entire conference and talks agenda between artists and curators, and guided visits to collections and workshops. It also made it possible to make a virtual visit to the stands of the participating galleries, seeing the selection of works and speaking directly with the gallery owners.  

Next, we will list our favorite artists, the galleries that have exhibited their works, and a brief description of their careers.  

Luis Escanuela
São Caetano do Sul, SP, 1993
Work: Saturnália das Commodities, 2021
Oil on canvas, 195 x 384 cm

Maluf Gallery, São Paulo, Brazil
From the age of 6, Luiz Escañuela has been drawing observation and color dynamics drawings. He trained in Graphic Design and conceived his first series of authorship works at the age of 20, when he began to study visual arts. In his studies, Escañuela went deeply into the theories of contemporary art, developing a line of research where he began to use his technique in favor of conceptual narratives.
From there, his work took as its main guideline the meticulousness of the hyper-realistic oil technique, together with the theoretical experimentations on anatomical representation, inserting it in new contexts and places.
The artist uses representation as an instrument that converges with Brazilian iconography, for the development of new visual and conceptual narratives. By practicing the hyper-realistic technique together with the themes of denunciation, he achieves that both meet from the fascination and reflection that figurative painting still awakens in people.
His work proposes the conception of the human being as a species and a social being, seeking the properties of the skin and the body in juxtaposition to Brazilian historical, iconographic and cartographic themes. For Escañuela, the artist needs to be attentive to the issues of his time, when investigating the production of previous times, analyzing the possibilities of proposing the new and the disruptive.
In “Saturnália das Commodities”, Luiz Escañuela manages to make the representation of the Roman orgiastic festivals coexist with cuts of beef that stain a split and bleeding universe red. Place these objects in relation to the title, with the idea of ​​commodities, which are nothing other than merchandise, generally raw materials such as meat and grains, but also metals such as gold, iron and copper, which serve as the basis for the global industry.
The cuts of meat hanging from butcher hooks are symbolically linked, through the blood-red color, to the sphere of the world, as if the universe of which we are a part was also being chopped up for commercialization.
In turn, the objects in the left area of ​​the painting are conceptually linked to the human bodies fused in the Saturnal of the opposite sector. Human flesh ends up becoming, in the same way, a functional raw material to the industrial and commercial system. The marble figures, snowy Roman sculptures, now seem to be stained red and participate in the orgy as if they were individuals of flesh and blood.
No less important is the way in which the artist conceptually links the Roman Empire with the political-economic organization of the current, equally decadent world, and does so in a critical and ironic way.  

Flavia Junqueira
Sao Paulo, 1985
Work: Engenho de Piracicaba # 1, 2021
Mineral pigment on cotton paper, 150 x 206 cm

Zipper Gallery, São Paulo
Flávia Junqueira works mainly with photography. The visual universe of childhood and the construction of an imaginary about this first stage of life, permeate the artist's work from the beginning of her production.
Indeed, in the photograph presented at ArtRio 2021, we see in the center of the scene a hot air balloon that draws attention due to the space it occupies and the variety of saturated colors it displays, often used in stories, cartoons, and children's films. and even in toys.
The hot air balloon reminds us in some way of the children's story "The Wizard of Oz" by Lyman Frank Baum and the novels of Jules Verne: "Five Weeks in a Balloon" and "The Mysterious Island." This multicolored balloon is accompanied by dozens of soap bubbles, a very common game among children, but which could also be alluding to the luxury bubble in which we find ourselves in the midst of general poverty.
In addition, in Junqueira's photograph, the absence of human figures and the fact that the balloon remains parked within a huge and cloistered space, whose ruined walls threaten to crumble, is striking.
This empty space is the Central Plant of Piracicaba, built by Baron de Rezende in 1881 for the industrialization of sugar, a fundamental raw material for the Brazilian economy. In 1974 it was permanently deactivated, and in 1989 it was declared a Cultural Heritage. The mill suffered a serious fire in September 2019. Currently it remains in disuse and in a state of disrepair as can be seen in the photo.
Luísa Duarte points out in her article "On the work of Flávia Junqueira" that "If at first glance the works of Junqueira may seem seductive to the sweetened gaze of contemporary man, a slightly longer delay is enough to perceive that the surface is deceptive. What emerges attractive and evokes joy, in between the lines, reveals a dearth of affection and humanity (...) there are always clues that amidst the pulsating color and familiar icons there is something insidious ready to make it all fall apart."(1)
Thus, photography Engenho de Piracicaba # 1, critically alludes to our current situation, a time in which visual pleasure and the possession of luxurious, bright, colorful objects coexist on a ruined, lonely and empty background of humanity. At the same time, a virtual image that comes to us through movies and children's stories, full of color and naivety, in the face of an imperfect and meaningless reality.
Junqueira's works are part of the collection of important museums and art centers such as MAM-SP, MIS-SP, MABFAAP, Museo de Itamaraty, RedBull Station, World Bank and Instituto Figueiredo Ferraz.  

Bosco Sodi
Mexico City, 1970
Lives and works in New York
Work: Untitled, 2016/2021
Ceramic glaze on volcanic stone

Luciana Brito Gallery, São Paulo Bosco
Sodi is known for his large-scale paintings of rich textures and vivid colors. He leaves many of his works untitled, with the intention of eliminating any predisposition or connection beyond the immediate contact of the observer with the work. Sodi's influences range from the informal art of artists like Antoni Tàpies and Jean Dubuffet, to colorful masters like Wilhem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, and the bright hues of his own Latin American heritage.
Bosco Sodi's research stands out for the simplicity of materials of natural origin, such as pigments, sawdust, fibers, wood, earth, etc. The combination of these elements with the gestures of his production, give an exceptional character to each work that, according to the artist, "makes it impossible to replicate", in addition to establishing a special connection between art and nature.
Over the past seven years, his interest has been increasingly focused on volcanic rocks. In an interview with the Mexican newspaper La Jornada in May 2013, Sodi points out: “I really like the idea of ​​a stone that comes from lava and is reheated at high temperatures. From the beginning I wanted to use the stones as a canvas, a three-dimensional canvas, but I wanted to incorporate the concept of chance and the unexpected. And if there is such a material, it is ceramic glaze: in the first place, it has no color when you apply it, so you have to imagine the colors, contrasts and the result. Secondly, when it is put in the oven, the colors melt and mix, therefore, chance and temperatures greatly influence"(2).
Later, he points out that he is interested in three characteristics that rocks have: "the energy of the rocks, the passage of time and the influence of the climate that made the lava turn into these rocks and then the accident that results from painting them."
In “Untitled” (2016/2021), Sodi proposes a reflection on the unbridled consumption, characteristic of our contemporary capitalism. Several gold-plated volcanic stones are placed on the shelves, alluding both to the historical exploitation of gold as a natural resource, as well as to its market value, purity and perfection.
Among his solo exhibitions are: Museum of Contemporary Art of the University of South Florida, Tampa, USA (2021), CAC Málaga, Spain (2020), Royal Society of Sculptors, London, England (2019); Museo Barracco di Scultura Antica, Rome (2019), Instituto Cultural Mexicano, Washington DC, USA, 2019, Museo Nacional de Arte, México (2017), Museo del Bronx, New York (2010).
Group exhibitions: Harbor Arts Sculpture Park, Hong Kong (2018), The Museum of Modern Art, Gunma, Japan (2017) and Museo Espacio, México (2016), etc.
Bosco Sodi's work is also part of important collections such as JUMEX Collection (Mexico), Harvard Art Museums (USA), Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (USA), New Orleans Museum of Art (USA), The Scottish National Gallery of Art (Scotland), Walker Art Center (USA), etc.  

Isidora gajic
Belgrade, Servia, 1988
Work: Havana Taxi, blues. 2016
Photograph, 60 x 120 cm
Silvia Cintra + Box 4 Gallery, Rio de Janeiro

Isidora Gajic seeks to transform feelings and relationships in her photographs, using images as a form of visual poetry that mixes fiction and reality. The artist explores themes such as: feminine energy, culture, moods, fairy tales and time. She creates artisan handmade books, collages and multimedia visual dialogues made with photographs.
In 2016 Isidora photographed portraits of Cubans moving around in vintage cars. These images represent a time typical of Havana, stopped in the past, at the time to which these cars belong.
Vehicle windows serve as frames for portraits of locals, and the finished collage is divided into two groups of six juxtaposed photographs. Each group has its own frame and each snapshot appears to be the mirror image of the next one.
The old vehicles of different shades of blue offer the service of moving by taxi through the city of Havana. However, in “Havana Taxi, blues”, these vehicles do not seem to be moving, on the contrary, they give the impression of being stopped and even cut off, both in their back and front parts.
The cars in “Havana Taxi, blues” are timeless, mechanical and colorful structures that serve as testimony of times past, some inserting themselves into the other, mutually preventing circulation. In addition, the English term "blues" refers to the blue color of the bodies, but also to the musical genre born within the African-American community in the southern United States and to a state of mind characterized by sadness or melancholy.
Isidora exhibited in Brazil, in places like the SESC in Petrópolis, RJ (collective exhibition). Also in Holland, Serbia and Latvia. Some of the awards he has received include the “Dutch Talent 2012” (Dutch Talent 2012). Likewise, he participated in residencies such as the ISSP, in Latvia, in 2012 and Miguel Rio Branco, in Brazil (2014).  

Georgia kyriakakis
Ilheus, Bahia, 1961
Work: West 2, 2014
Photo-Object Triptych: photographs and wooden frames
53 x 120 x 10 cm
Clima Gallery, Brasilia DF Geórgia

Kyriakakis is trained in Plastic Arts by the Armando Alvares Penteado Foundation (FAAP). He holds a Master's degree and a Doctorate of Arts from the School of Communications and Arts of the University of São Paulo.
The Bahian artist began her artistic career, at the end of the 80s, as draftsmen and from there she began to develop sculptures, installations, objects, videos and photographs. His production is marked by the use of various media and by the experimentation of the limits of resistance, fragility, instability and permanence of things.
Her interest in natural materials and processes leads her to work with fire, glass, paper, wood and ceramics. Through processes of combustion, suspension and tension, Geórgia transforms the materiality or nature of objects to create what she calls “border situations”. It is when the work is faced with the imminence of its disintegration.
The references used for the creation of his works are trips and walks, conceived as expeditions, and always start from poetic-visual approaches to geography in its multiple aspects. These are landscapes, topography, climatic phenomena, geopolitical maps and natural events, such as constant and often imperceptible processes of crumbling, sedimentation and erosion.
His photographs are framed in such a way as to accompany the subject of the image. Thus, Geórgia plays with the relationships between the materiality of the world and the virtuality of the image, and projects her works within a territory in which nature is conceptualized.
Since 1986, Geórgia has exhibited her work in collective and individual exhibitions, inside and outside Brazil, having received several awards, of which it is worth highlighting: the Iguatemi / SPArte / DF Award; the Funarte Prize for Contemporary Art; Vitae bag; The Research Artist / MAC / Niterói; Brazilian Project / European Center for Ceramic Work / Holland; National Hall, among other distinctions.
His works are part of the collection of important private collections, museums and public institutions, such as: Brazilian Museum of Art, Museum of Art of Ribeirão Preto, Museum of Art of Brasilia, Museum of Contemporary Art of Niterói, Museum of Contemporary Art of Paraná , Municipal Palace of Santo André, National Museum / DF, SESC / Social Service of Commerce.
The artist lives and works in São Paulo and is represented by the Clima de Brasilia and Raquel Arnaud de São Paulo Galleries.  

Iván Navarro
Santiago, Chile, 1972
Lives and works in New York, United States
Works: Ipanema (green) and Chimney (orange), 2020
Neon, tamarind wood, mirror and electric power
172 x 87,7 x 23 cm

Luciana Brito Gallery, São Paulo Iván Navarro is a Chilean conceptual sculptor. To create his works he uses neons, mirrors and optical phenomena, with which he transmits complex ideas, generally of a pedagogical nature or with an ideological charge. His minimalist sculptures and installations are often oriented towards a sharp social and political criticism, which has its origin in the personal history of the artist, born during the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, in the 1970s.
His childhood memories shape the choice of his subjects, specifically that of electricity, which has been used as a tool of torture, execution, and political dominance in Chile. The dictator Pinochet also adopted practices such as frequent cuts in the electricity supply, as a means of promoting the isolation and subordination of the population.
Both "Ipanema (green)" and "Chimney (orange)" are works that attract the public from the combination of elements that question their perception. On the one hand, from a formalist point of view, his works are carefully constructed, with light as the main support, on the other, these colorful lights arouse a kind of fascination in the viewer.
In these two works presented at ArtRio 2021, Navarro created illusory spaces, where the game of perspective causes infinite virtual fields. At the same time, the colors used awaken different sensations: of calm and desire to cross the portal, as if it were a jungle, in "Ipanema (green)", of fear of falling into a kind of halogen radiator, which connects the surface with the center of the Earth, in "Chimney (orange)"
The Chilean artist's work has attracted international attention, which has earned him participation in numerous exhibitions, including at the Guggenheim Museum and the Paul Kasmin Gallery in New York, the Egeran Gallery in Istanbul, the Daniel Templon Gallery in Paris, the Farol Santander exhibition center, São Paulo (2020), Niterói Museum of Contemporary Art, Rio de Janeiro (2019), Buenos Aires Museum of Contemporary Art (2019), National Museum of Fine Arts, Santiago, Chile ( 2015), etc.  

Deborah Engel
Palo Alto, United States, 1977
Vertigem nº4, 2021
Colagem of 15 litters - 110 x 100 cm

Portas Vilaseca Gallery, Rio de Janeiro Deborah Engel proposes in her research a reinvention of the gaze, taking as her interest issues related to expanded photography, the experimentation of perspective and framing, and kinetic art.
Thus, it expands the function of photography as a mere representative record of reality and affirms a new function of the photographic image in contemporary art, from which the viewer can be invited to question the environment in which they live.
The artist manages to produce in the viewer the illusion of contemplating a high-relief or a low-relief, in a space where only 2D images exist. This optical illusion, achieved by superimposing flat images of different sizes, is a new experience that alters our perception of the world.
By superimposing photos of modern buildings, with their windows and color cladding arranged rhythmically from largest to smallest, Deborah creates the illusion of an overhead plane whose reference we could interpret as a skyscraper repeated to infinity, perhaps alluding to the vertigo of living in large cities.
Deborah Engel held individual and group exhibitions in Brazil and abroad. Among the groups, the following stand out: "Monument in Miniature", ABC in Rio (NY); "In Search of Territory", Center D'Art Santa Mónica, (Barcelona, ​​Spain); "Frestas, Sorocaba Contemporary Art Triennial", SESC Sorocaba (Sorocaba, SP); "XVI and XIX Bienais de Cerveira" (Vila Nova de Cerveira, Portugal); "Dialogues of the Collection", Instituto Camões (Vigo, Galicia); "Novas Aquisições - Coleção Gilberto Chateaubriand 2007-2010", Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro; "Arte Pará", Historical Museum of Pará (Belém, PA); and the individual "Mergulho", Galería Portas Vilaseca; "Imaginary Plane", Virgilio Gallery (São Paulo); "The space that moves", Studio X, Rio de Janeiro; "Possible Landscapes", Artur Fidalgo Gallery, among others.  

Other world-renowned artists whose works have participated in ArtRio 2021 and worth mentioning are:

Michael Rio Branco, Brazilian photographer represented by the Silvia Cintra + Box 4 gallery, Rio de Janeiro; Leandro Erlich, Argentine conceptual artist, represented by the Luciana Brito Gallery, São Paulo; Vik Muniz, Brazilian plastic artist and photographer, represented by the Nara Roesler gallery, Rio de Janeiro / São Paulo / New York.
The Paulo Kuczynski gallery in São Paulo exhibited works by three famous representatives of XNUMXth century Brazilian modernism: Candido Portinari, Tarsila do Amaral y Emiliano DiCavalcanti.
For its part, the São Paulo gallery Frente presented at its stand at ArtRio 2021, works by the Brazilian architect, landscaper, ceramist and painter Robert Burle Marx. The galleries Mercedes Viegas and Mul.ti.plo Espacio de Arte, both based in Rio de Janeiro, put works by the Argentine for sale Leon Ferrari.  

- Complete List of Art Galleries that participated in ArtRio 2021
- Almeida & Dale Art Gallery - São Paulo
- Thebaldi Galeria Warehouse - Rio de Janeiro
- Anita Schwartz Art Gallery - Rio de Janeiro
- Aura | Bailune Biancheri - São Paulo
- Bianca Boeckel - São Paulo
- Bordallo - Portugal
- C. Gallery - Rio de Janeiro
- Carbon Gallery - São Paulo
- Carcará - São Paulo
- Triângulo House - São Paulo
- Cassia Bomeny Gallery - Rio de Janeiro
- Central Galeria - São Paulo
- Danielian Galeria - Rio de Janeiro
- Folio Livraria - São Paulo
- Fortes D'Aloia & Gabriel - São Paulo / Rio de Janeiro
- Gaby Indio da Costa Arte Contemporânea - Rio de Janeiro
- Athena Gallery - Rio de Janeiro
- Ipanema Art Gallery - Rio de Janeiro
- Base Gallery - São Paulo
- Weather Gallery - Brasília, Miami, Porto Alegre and Rio de Janeiro-
- Estação Gallery - São Paulo
- Front Gallery - São Paulo
- Inox Gallery - Rio de Janeiro
- Karla Osorio Gallery - Brasília
- Lume Gallery - São Paulo
- Map Gallery - São Paulo
- Gallery Millan - São Paulo
- Movimento Gallery - Rio de Janeiro
- Galleria Continua - San Gimignano, Italy
- Gustavo Rebello Arte - Rio de Janeiro
- Janaína Torres Gallery - São Paulo
- Luciana Brito Gallery - São Paulo
- Luis Maluf Art Gallery - São Paulo
- Lurixs: Contemporary Art - Rio de Janeiro
- Marcia Barrozo do Amaral Art Gallery - Rio de Janeiro
- Martha Pagy Escritorio de Arte - Rio de Janeiro
- Matias Brotas Contemporary Art - Vitória
- Mendes Wood DM - São Paulo
- Mercedes Viegas Contemporary Art - Rio de Janeiro
- Metaverse Agency - Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo
- Mul.ti.plo Espaço Arte - Rio de Janeiro
- Nara Roesler - São Paulo / Rio de Janeiro / New York
- OMA Gallery - São Bernardo do Campo
- Paulo Kuczynski Escritorio de Arte - São Paulo
- Pinakotheke - Rio de Janeiro / São Paulo / Fortaleza
- Portas Vilaseca Gallery - Rio de Janeiro
- Quadra - Rio de Janeiro
- Rafael Moraes - São Paulo
- Ronie Mesquita Gallery - Rio de Janeiro
- RV Cultura e Arte - Salvador
- Be Gallery - São Paulo
- Silvia Cintra + Box 4 - Rio de Janeiro
- Simões de Assis Art Gallery - Curitiba
- Simone Cadinelli Contemporary Art - Rio de Janeiro
- SOMA Gallery - Curitiba
- Vermelho - São Paulo
- Verve - São Paulo
- Zipper Gallery - São Paulo

Notes:
-1 Duarte, Luisa. On or work of Flávia Junqueira
-2 MacMasters Interview. "Bosco Sodi addresses the sculpture with volcanic stones in the Omni exhibition". La Jornada newspaper. Culture Section. Mexico City. May 26, 2013, p.6  

Bibliography:
Zipper Gallery: Flavia Junqueira
Duarte, Luísa. "About the work of Flávia Junqueira"
Portfolio of Luis Escañuela in Luis Maluf Art Gallery
Interview by Mac Masters, Merry. "Bosco Sodi addresses the sculpture with volcanic stones in the Omni exhibition". La Jornada newspaper. Culture Section. Mexico City. May 26, 2013, p.6
Bosco Sodi at Luciana Brito Art Gallery
Bosco Sodi Website: Bio | boscodi
Ivan Navarro: Blombo Web Site
Ivan Navarro: Artnet Web Site
Iván Navarro. Luciana Brito Gallery
Georgia kyriakakis Web Site
Georgia kyriakakis. Raquel Arnaud Gallery
Georgia kyriakakis. Weather Gallery
Deborah Engel. Portas Vilaseca Gallery
Deborah Engel. Carbon Gallery

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