The 12th edition of Uruguay's Este Arte fair took place last week in José Ignacio, featuring 14 exhibitors and attracting 5,000 visitors over four days. Notable works included Vanderlei Lopes's aluminum installation resembling a silver leak, Germán Tagle's liquid landscapes paired with altered New York Times front pages, and Diego Bianchi's chimeric sculptures. The fair favored abstraction, with strong sales reported across galleries such as Almeida & Dale, Aninat Galeria, Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Piero Atchugarry Gallery, and Black Gallery.
This edition matters because it highlights how a small, resort-based art fair can engage with pressing environmental and sociopolitical issues specific to South America, such as consumerism, ecological waste, and geopolitical tensions. The fair's success in selling most works underscores the resilience of regional art markets and the continued relevance of abstraction in Latin American art, while also fostering a productive dialogue between its idyllic setting and conceptually charged artworks.