The new edition of arteba opens this week

Tomorrow and the next day, for invited guests, and from Friday to Sunday for the general public, it opens its doors, featuring works by 400 artists, represented by 67 local and international galleries.
Tomorrow and Thursday, for invited guests, and from Friday, August 29 at noon until Sunday, August 31 at night for the general public, the 2025 edition of arteba will be held. For those interested in the visual arts, it is the main meeting place for works and artists, gallery owners, curators, collectors, and art professionals. It is a fair that is in sync with what can be seen at other important fairs around the world, and even at art biennials, in this sort of relative convergence between fairs and biennials.

With a more federal and global approach, the number of galleries from outside Buenos Aires and those from other countries is increasing. There will be 67 art galleries in total, including the various sections of the fair. The presence of international galleries will be important.

Since the pandemic, fairs and galleries, among other spaces dedicated to the visual arts, have greatly improved their presentations, communication, and curating—among other aspects—which facilitates relationships with the public. In total, works by more than 400 artists will be on display.

The main section—the core of the fair—as always, features the work of established, established galleries.

Utopia, the younger projects section—dedicated to the most recent productions—includes galleries, artist-run spaces, and various art marketing platforms.

According to the organizers: “In a context of global transformation, where technological advances and artificial intelligence are reshaping our ways of life, arteba 2025 puts people at the center. It reclaims art as a unique form of thought, a profoundly human experience that cannot be automated or replicated.”

The selection of the central sector was led by an independent committee, composed of María Casado (director of the gallery that bears her name; Béccar), Inés Huergo (director of Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Paris), Florencia Malbrán (curator, Buenos Aires), Lara Marmor (curator, Buenos Aires), and Pablo de Sousa (director of Aldo de Sousa, Buenos Aires).

This year, the Utopia sector was selected by Juan José Cambre (artist, Buenos Aires) and Santiago Villanueva (artist and independent curator, Buenos Aires), who also provided curatorial support for the participating spaces. This sector will feature galleries and projects from Buenos Aires, Pinamar, Rafaela, Córdoba, Rosario, Tafí Viejo, Guatemala, Bogotá, Santiago de Chile, Barcelona, and Mexico City.

To promote exchanges and collaborations between our country and the international scene, the "International Dialogue Zone" aims to integrate the participation of international gallery projects and a program of talks that articulate contemporary Argentine and Latin American art in a global context. The series of talks "New Cartographies for Latin American Art," curated by Aimé Iglesias Lukin (director and chief curator of Americas Society, New York), will be open to the public. Participating in the series "New Women Cartographers for Latin American Art" are Yina Jimenez Suriel, assistant curator of the 14th Mercosul Biennial (2025), curator of The Current IV (2023–2025) at the TBA21-Academy, and associate editor of Contemporary And (C&) magazine for Latin America and the Caribbean; Raquel Barreto, curator of the Rio Art Museum; Patricia Hanna, curator of El Espacio 23 and the Jorge M. Pérez Collection in Miami, United States (specially invited by the Ama Amoedo Foundation). Also participating in this series are Jorge Rivas, chief curator of the St. Louis Art Museum in Missouri, United States; and Manuel Segade, director of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain.

For the second consecutive year, there will be awards for the best exhibition stands. This year's juries will be curators Florencia Malbrán and Lara Marmor, along with Dotti Peñate Sosa (CEO of Remax). Latam, sponsor of the award). Awards of $6,000,000 and $4,000,000 will be granted.

There will also be recognition for an artist whose work explores the relationship between craft and art, with a prize of $3,000,000. The jury will be composed of Leandro Vainberg, Director of Volf—sponsor of the award—and Lucas Kokogian, Director of Galería Azur.

The "En Obra" Award continues, recognizing emerging artists; organized and coordinated by Abel Guaglianone and Joaquín Rodríguez.

The Visual Arts Award will grant USD 40,000 to the winning project to develop their proposal and exhibit it throughout 2026 in the exhibition hall of the Santander Argentina Foundation (the sponsor of the award). This year's jury is composed of Guillermo Tempesta Leeds (President of Santander Argentina); Lucrecia Palacios (Executive Director of arteba); Gachi Hasper (Visual Artist); Solana Molina Viamonte (Director and Founder of Móvil); and Elena Tavelli (Executive Director of Fundación Santander Argentina).

For the third time, the arteba Foundation is awarding the Collecting Award, which, according to the organizers, seeks to "highlight the dedication and significant impact of the role of collecting, highlighting relevant figures who inspire the formation of art collections and actively contribute to the development of this field." This year's award will be given to Marion Eppinger, who founded and led the Helft Collection, one of the most important private collections in the region, together with Jorge Helft. It was open to the public between 1980 and 1993 at its headquarters on Defensa Street in San Telmo. In previous editions, this recognition went to Eduardo Costantini and Amalia Amedo.

The museum acquisitions program has been running for twenty years and encourages local and international museums to visit the fair and purchase works thanks to an initial fund, with the goal of increasing the visibility of contemporary Argentine art internationally.

The international museums and institutions participating in this edition are the Reina Sofía Museum (Madrid); Solomon Guggenheim Museum (New York); Minneapolis Institute of Art (Minnesota); St. Louis Art Museum (Missouri); Deichtorhallen Hamburg - Viehof Collection (Hamburg); Museo de Arte de Lima; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (Barcelona); Denver Art Museum (Colorado); and Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles).

The local participants will be: Salta Museum of Contemporary Art, Franklin Rawson Provincial Art Museum of San Juan; Buenos Aires Museum of Modern Art; Aldo Rubino Foundation Museum of Contemporary Art of Buenos Aires; Córdoba Culture Agency; Museum of Latin American Art of Buenos Aires; and Federico Jorge Klemm Foundation.

* Arteba opens tomorrow and the next day for special guests and on Friday the 29th, Saturday the 30th, and Sunday the 31st, from 12 to 8 pm, for the general public, at Costa Salguero, Avenida Costanera Rafael Obligado 1221. Tickets are available at www.arteba.org, priced at $14,000; students and seniors - 50% discount; persons with disabilities, with ID: free admission, including one companion; children under 10 - free.
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