SP-Arte 2025 Spotlights a Buzzy Brazilian Art Scene

Despite the official arrival of Brazilian autumn, a hot and sticky day took over the city of São Paulo for the VIP day of SP-Arte 2025 on Wednesday, April 2nd. The weather outside mirrored the warm, buzzing atmosphere inside the Bienal Pavilion at Ibirapuera Park, where the 21st edition of Brazil’s largest art fair kicked off with palpable excitement among gallerists and attendees.

A flow of visitors was steady once the fair opened at 10 a.m. and grew in the afternoon, with smiles, selfies, and the clinking of glasses setting a jovial scene. As the sun set in the evening behind the glass windows of the Oscar Niemeyer-designed circular building, a DJ set only enhanced the fair’s festive and energetic tone.

Founded in 2005 by the collector Fernanda Feitosa, SP-Arte remains firmly committed to its original ambition: to project Latin American art to the world from the cultural epicenter of Brazil. Nearly 180 booths make up this year’s fair, which includes a growing design section, as well as institutional participants and publishers. Some 102 contemporary and modern art galleries—12 of them international—are among them.

This year’s edition of the fair is notably taking place at a time of renewed international enthusiasm for Latin American art. Last year’s Venice Biennale main show, “Foreigners Everywhere,” was curated by Brazilian Adriano Pedrosa, artistic director of the local institution Museum of Art of São Paulo (MASP), and placed Latin American and Global South artists at its center.

“The Venice Biennale has played a crucial role in elevating the visibility of historically underrepresented voices, such as Indigenous creator Joseca Mokahesi Yanomami or Rubem Valentim,” said Hena Lee, a partner and director of Almeida & Dale. “This evolving landscape is reflected in the fair, where diversity has become increasingly prominent.”

The gallery—one of the leading names in Brazil—has three locations in São Paulo and recently made waves in the Brazilian art world by purchasing Millan, another Brazilian stalwart gallery with three exhibition spaces in the city. It has two booths at the fair. One, just past the entrance, features works starting at US$125,000, with highlights including a 1972 piece by the late Brazilian sculptor Sergio Camargo priced at US$2.2 million. On the second floor, works range in price from US$5,000 to US$50,000.

“After the impact of the Venice Biennale, it’s easier for us to present new artists or those from less represented regions,” explained Tomás Toledo of local gallery Galatea. For this gallerist, the typical SP-Arte collector is mostly local and traditional, but “there’s an emerging scene of younger collectors from the financial sector who are looking for more contemporary artists.”

The gallery’s booth is staged to resemble a home, including a bedroom, living room, and office decorated with artworks and designer furniture, including pieces by renowned architect Lina Bo Bardi, designer of the MASP museum (which has just completed a major expansion). Also highlighted are works by Allan Weber, an artist living in a Rio de Janeiro favela who reuses materials from tents used in local funk parties. Prices at the booth range from R$8,000 (US$1,500) to R$8 million (US$1.42 million) for a 1969 painting by Emiliano Di Cavalcanti, a key figure in Brazilian modernism.

Over the past two decades, the fair has been both a witness and a driver of São Paulo’s evolution as an artistic hub of the Global South. It also functions as a thermometer for the Brazilian art scene: The ground floor houses historical artists, the first floor is dedicated to contemporary art, and, for the first time, the third floor is open to the general public, featuring a VIP lounge and a series of talks.

Feitosa noted that the landscape of the fair has changed after the COVID-19 pandemic: The number of international galleries is still lower than before 2020. “This year the fair is 90% national,” she noted. A result of this, however, is an expanded interest in other regions of Brazil beyond the traditional São Paulo–Rio de Janeiro axis, such as Belo Horizonte, Salvador do Bahia, Recife, or Curitiba

As the fair has grown more local, its audience is becoming increasingly international. “We have a record number of international visitors this year,” noted Feitosa. “More than 80 collectors, curators, and advisors from countries like Japan, Australia, Germany, Poland, South Korea, and the United States have come.”

Collector interest was apparent from the start of the fair, gallerists noted. “We’ve already sold several works totaling R$3 million ($533,499),” said Galatea’s Toledo midway through the fair’s VIP day.

Other booths also reported strong sales from local galleries during the VIP day. Nara Roesler sold works by Tomie Ohtake and Abraham Palatnik for US$180,000 apiece, along with works by Jim Lambie for US$80,000, Marco A. Castillo for US$75,000, and Cristina Canale for US$36,000. At Casa Triângulo, works by Vânia Mignone, Marina Hachem, and Sandra Cinto sold out. At Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel, over 70% of the booth was sold, including pieces by Erika Verzutti, Leda Catunda, and Sarah Morris. “We had an excellent first day,” reported partner and director Alexandre Gabriel.

At local powerhouse Mendes Wood DM, works by Lucas Arruda, Sonia Gomes, and Guatemalan artist Edgar Calel were among the luminaries receiving strong attention. “We’ll have to make a lot of changes to the booth for tomorrow,” said Isadora Ganem, a director at the gallery. Mendes. “It’s been a great day, with sales ranging from US$10,000 to over US$100,000.”

Indeed, this positivity was shared by several gallerists across the fair. For Paulo Kasaab, director of Galeria Lume, this edition of SP-Arte is signaling a renewed interest in Brazilian artists who, ten years ago, were considered creators of “popular art.” The gallerist was pleased to see more artists from different states of Brazil represented at the fair and highlighted the work at his booth of young Barra do Garcas-born artist Hal Wildson, who explores the theme of memory through photographs printed on school erasers. Also of note, he pointed out, are works by São Paulo–based artist Nazareno, which are priced up to $84,000.

While painting appears to be the dominant medium across the fair, a strong presence of ceramics and textiles is also notable. Also prominent are references to Indigenous cosmologies and decolonial narratives linked to the African diaspora.

Julia María, artistic director of Galeria Mitre (Belo Horizonte), noted an appetite among collectors to take a discerning approach to new artists and artworks. “Visitors want to understand the discourse behind the artworks, especially this year, as the 36th edition of the São Paulo Bienal takes place in September,” she said. Her booth features artists like Manauara Clandestina, Éder Oliveira, and Pedro Neves, with works priced between US$3,500–US$12,000 apiece.

Among the most unique proposals at the fair is from the new gallery Yehudi Hollander-Pappi, which opened a mere week ago in Jardins, an elegant neighborhood of São Paulo. Convinced that there is an oversaturation of digital imagery, the gallery has no social media presence. Its focus is on video and performance, with a group of artists who are, as founder Matheus Yehudi Hollander puts it, “art history nerds.” Highlights here include a work by Gabriel Massan that presents a video game installation weaving together queer and decolonial perspectives. It is priced at around US$40,000, and during the fair’s VIP day, the gallery had already sold works to private collections in Los Angeles and to local institution Pinacoteca de São Paulo.

The presence and demand for works by women artists also continues to grow at SP-Arte. “The fair is a party,” said Brazilian collector Ana Paula Cestari, who focuses mainly on women Brazilian artists. “I meet friends, talk to gallerists, see what artists are producing. It’s important to arrive early: When I got here at 11 am, a piece I wanted to inquire about by Marina Rheingantz had already sold,” she added.

Cestari said that she would—if she could—purchase works by Lygia Pape, Lygia Clark, or Adriana Varejão. In a group chat with other collectors, they share anecdotes and favorites from the fair. “A friend tried to buy a work by Daniel Senise, but when he arrived, it was already being negotiated with a local museum.” She noted that the growth of international interest for Brazilian art is only strengthening her passion for ‘brasilidades,’ a concept referring to the country’s unique cultural identity.

Since its founding in 2005, SP-Arte has not only consolidated a scene—it has helped build a market. “People often say there is a Brazilian art market before and after SP-Arte,” said Feitosa. “Because it’s held in April, it sets the tone for the year to come.” And at a time when Latin American art is in the global spotlight, the diversity and quality of Brazilian production on view here will only go further in positioning the country as a key player on the international art circuit.