| Circa Puerto Rico 06, the first international art fair in the Caribbean and Central America, will be held at the new Puerto Rico Convention Centre in San Juan. The fair comes on the heels of arteBA in Buenos Aires as well as the Latin American art auctions in New York and will bring the best of modern and contemporary art to a local and international audience of collectors. |  |
The First International Art Fair in the Caribbean
Circa Puerto Rico 06, the first international art fair in the Caribbean and Central America, will be held at the new Puerto Rico Convention Centre in San Juan. The fair comes on the heels of arteBA in Buenos Aires as well as the Latin American art auctions in New York and will bring the best of modern and contemporary art to a local and international audience of collectors.
The fair will feature some 40 exhibitors from Puerto Rico, Latin America, the United States, Europe and Australia. They include Art Nouveau and Pativm of Venezuela, Caleria Botello, Walter Otero, Galerias Prinardi, Galeria Raices and Viota Gallery of Puerto Rico, Casas Riegner Gallery of Colombia, KBK of Mexico and Lyle O Reitzel of the Dominican Republic. The United States will be represented by Hardcore Gallery, Cernuda At, Diana Lowenstein Fine Art, Praxis International, Space Other and Bernice Steinbaum. Others from across the globe include Latin Art Gallery from The Netherlands, Espacio Líquido from Spain, Greenaway Gallery from Australia Schubbe Gallery and Vogues and Partner from Germany. Other participating organizations include Área, Art in General, Desto, El Museo del Barrio, Escuela de Artes Plasticas, Espacio 1414, Exit Art, Museo de Arte de Ponce and Museo Universitario Pio López Martínez.
Circa Puerto Rico ’06 will present several additional sections at the fair including two curated exhibitions. “10×10,” a show of 10 internationally renowned artists, curated by Elvis Fuentes, features Andres Serrano, Charles Juhasz-Alvarado, Nari Ward, Miguel Luciano, Dean Macgregor, Edin Velez, Helga Griffiths, Antonio Martorell, Glexis Novoa and Maria Mencia. The other section, curated by Paco Barragán and entitled “In the Spot: States of Anxiety,” focuses on the anxiety displayed in personal and sexual relationships, the quest for status, architecture or recent history and features the work of several young artists. Each year a new curator will be invited to create a show that interprets this “In the Spot” section differently.
Two additional areas of the fair are District Circa, where museums, magazines and art schools will have the opportunity to present information. Also at Solo the work of 40 independent, contemporary artists will be presented.
In conjunction with the fair, several organizations throughout the country have organized complementary programs. Espacio 1414 will present “Los Usos del la Pintura II,” an exhibition, curated by Julieta González, featuring works selected from the Diana and Manolo Berezdivin private collection.
The Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico (MAPR) will present “El Museo’s: Bienial The (S) Files / The Selected Files.” The fourth edition of “El Museo’s Bienial,” this year’s presentation highlights the most cutting-edge art produced by emerging Latin American artists working in the greater New York area.
Also at the MAPR will be “Allora and Calzadilla: Recent Video,” an exhibition curated by Marysol Nieves that presents two of the most recent videos by acclaimed international Puerto Rican artists Allora and Calzadilla. The works, entitled Amphibious (Login-Logout) and Under Discussion both challenge the fragile line between art, life and politics with wit and conceptual rigor. Additionally, the “Public Art Project,” a monumental public art program encouraged by the State of Puerto Rico, will encourage visitors to view its 75 site-specific art works located throughout the island. Numerous national and international artists have created works for the project.
Fair organizers hope that Circa will act as a leader in the island’s art community and have organized a series of panels, lectures and seminars, to accompany the fair. The panel “Fairs and Biennials” will allow participants to reflect on the ever expanding world of fairs and biennials and their relationship in the contemporary art world. Other symposia include “Collecting Today, Artistic Practices in Puerto Rico” and an event with Maria Bonta of Sotheby’s.
