New York (KPRENSA) – The reputation and importance of artists from Latin America continues to advance in the modern and contemporary art world. Fifty carefully selected galleries set the pace for this growing trend during the celebration of PINTA, the annual Latin American art fair, that recently concluded in New York.

   PINTA offered visitors the best of the most current and contemporary artistic production of the region. Galleries from Mexico, the United States, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, The Dominican Republic, Cuba, Spain, France, Italy, and Portugal were included in the selected group at PINTA 2011. This fifth PINTA show offered a rich panorama of the history and evolution in modern Latin American art.

   “The Fair featured an excellent artistic program in its 2011 edition, and it included new international galleries,” said Diego Costa Peuser, director of PINTA. “This allowed us to maintain and enhance the quality in such a way that both collectors and the public at large had the chance to continue discovering Latin American artists, which is our main objective.”

   In addition, attendees saw some of the best modern art, including work by masters of painting and sculpture from Latin America such as Fernando Botero, Rufino Tamayo, Wifredo Lam and Roberto Matta; even as geometric abstraction and concrete art have been our signature since the first edition of the fair in 2007. The public was also be able to appreciate the rediscovery of conceptual art from the 1970s and 80s: a movement that curators and specialists are revisiting and doing an in-depth rereading of, and that has been the main focus of interest of museums and private collectors in the last few years.

   Also in its fifth year, the established PINTA Museum Acquisitions Program invited institutions committed to Latin American art to attend the fair. This program, created to incentivize the art market and enhance museum collections, guarantees funds to selected museums for the acquisition of works at PINTA.

   “The creation of the PINTA Acquisitions Program has driven several institutions to add important Latin American artwork to their collections, including works, by Joaquín Torres García, Antonio Manuel, Alexander Arrechea, Arthur Luiz Piza, Fernando Bryce, Gego, Liliana Porter and Elías Crespín,” stated Mauro Herlitzka, PINTA’s Institutional Director, “This year we have invited The Bronx Museum of Art, New York; Newark Museum, New Jersey; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston to participate in the program.”

   PINTA’s growth continues with its European edition next June 2012 in London. “Indeed,” acknowledges Alejandro Zaia, PINTA’s chairman, “Our ultimate goal is to take Latin American art to the most knowledgeable and demanding markets.

   More information about PINTA and modern and contemporary art from Latin America can be found on the Internet at: http://pintaart.com