Arteba Was Rescheduled, Realigned and Refreshed—But Was It Ready?
Initial reports listed more than 35 works acquired by some 14 regional institutions. On the second day, the fair reported more acquisitions by MCA Chicago, the Guggenheim and other international museums. But that early success masks arteba’s recent struggles, its structural changes and its hasty rescheduling to avoid Pope Leo’s visit, which fell on the original dates.
arteba is unusual in that it is produced by a nonprofit foundation whose founding members include no gallerists. Instead, it was born of an idea thought up by a group of art collectors who wanted to “promote the production, diffusion, and growth of visual arts in Argentina and Latin America, with the primary goal of ensuring that artists can live off their work.”
The fair launched in 1991; by 2015, it had grown into an international powerhouse of nearly 100 galleries from 18 countries, split evenly between international and regional exhibitors. Over the next half-decade, however, a combination of external pressures (including high inflation) and internal debate (around the desire to raise the quality of works on view) led to a steady contraction, which ended with the fair’s cancellation in 2020 due to COVID.
Then everything changed. The cancellation, the lockdowns and the infighting led to what was essentially a coup—one that produced a new board, a new management team and, perhaps most importantly, a new executive director, Lucrecia Palacios, who has helped return arteba to its roots.
The result in 2026 is a smaller fair, in both footprint and roster, with a tighter curatorial focus. At the same time, it gives more space to diverse voices: newer galleries, emerging artists and the LGBTQ+ community, through its revamped Utopia section. That diversity was on display in a wide range of historical and contemporary work, including geometric abstraction and figurative and Surrealist painting near the entrance. A few material-driven works, like Chris Soal’s bottle-cap wall sculpture Torrent (brought by Piero Atchugarry Gallery), were front and center.
Despite that welcome from a South African artist, arteba feels more regional than international. In fact, several participating galleries from Lisbon, London and São Paulo seemed relegated to a corridor along the back outside wall, leaving the center to major galleries from Buenos Aires and Córdoba. Called Zona de Diálogo Internacional and sponsored in part by Mercedes, the corridor showcased works by Argentine artists who now live overseas in a bid to reintroduce these artists and their work to Buenos Aires collectors.
Notably, the regional focus did not equate to “safe.” In variety and content, arteba is a far more adventurous fair than ArtBO or Pinta Lima, and some of the work, particularly the sculpture, might even be considered “edgy.” The fair’s other 65 or so participating galleries were laid out in an unconventional, somewhat chaotic plan, which nevertheless created more interesting sight lines and flow through at La Rural.
A special installation honoring the blue-chip Argentine kinetic artist Julio Le Parc, who died in May 2026, covered the exterior wall of a sizable VIP area. Le Parc’s kinetic and Op art also featured prominently at MC Galería’s stand. Another notable use of real estate was a large section dedicated to books, called Isla de Ediciones. For context, Buenos Aires has more bookstores per capita than any other city in the world. It is also home to one of the oldest continuously operating bookstores and to El Ateneo Grand Splendid, which often tops lists as “the most beautiful bookstore in the world.”
Observer visited the 2026 edition of arteba several times and noticed booths rehung on each visit, some of them significantly. As noted above, numerous institutions made major acquisitions supported by the fair’s Acquisitions Program, which aims to “give visibility to contemporary Argentine art worldwide, enhance the value of works by national artists, and contribute to the institutional heritage of museums.” Funding comes in part from the global insurance giant Zurich and from PromArgentina, the Argentine Investment and International Trade Promotion Agency.
Private collectors also stepped up in the early hours, according to gallery reps. Roldán Moderno sold Breve historia de Emma (1935-1937), a suite of 34 monoprints by Lino Enea Spilimbergo visible from the entrance, to a private collector for $900,000. Julio César Crivelli, an attorney, noted collector and president of the Association of Friends of the National Museum of Fine Arts, acquired an important Antonio Berni painting, Grupo de mujeres con paloma (1951, est. $250,000-500,000), for his personal collection.
Sales to institutions and private collectors at a range of price points continued throughout the fair’s run. By closing, arteba reported 55 permanent-collection acquisitions by 16 regional and 10 international museums and foundations. Rafael Beltrán of Piedras Galería reported selling Josefina Labourt’s Splendid Sutura to LACMA and Liv Schulman’s six-channel video work El Gobierno (2019) to the Reina Sofía in Madrid. Herlitzka & Co. reported three sales to private collectors: an important work by Marta Minujín, Canal de Ormuz (2026), for more than $100,000; an untitled 1965 work by Anita Payró for $20,000; and one of Francisca Rojas’s Quipu works, Porque bajo ciertas luces, en estas tierras de abandono, no hay nada que olvidar sino la idea del recuerdo mismo (2026), for $5,000.
Elsewhere in the Sección Principal, BARRO placed Matías Duville’s Pink Ashes (2024) with the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes for an undisclosed sum. 3+1 Arte Contemporânea sold a wood and steel sculpture by the expat artist Claire de Santa Coloma for $9,000, and Via Margutta Arte Contemporáneo sold several Op art works by Eduardo Mac Entyre for $6,500-7,000 each.
Despite these successes, several gallerists said the last-minute change of dates dampened sales. Dealer Tomás Redrado went so far as to tell Observer that he considered this year’s fair “a failed edition.” Mora Bacal of Ruth Benzacar Galería de Arte described a particularly unfortunate twist: a collectors’ group from MALBA (Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires) had planned to attend the fair on its original dates and was instead in Venice this week for the final weeks of the Biennale.
Over in Utopia, Evelina Lera of Pionera Galería agreed with Redrado, saying that sales this year were “more difficult” than at prior editions, acknowleding that the gallery’s presentation of two Argentine expats was a riskier choice this year but the date change mattered “a lot…it’s super stressful.”
Just up the aisle, however, Satélite Galería reported a good arteba experience, with several sales of expat artist Juan Guggers’s concrete sculptures and wall pieces, priced at $2,000-8,000, to both individuals and institutions.
Dealers, artists and even collectors benefited from the fair in ways beyond commerce. The arteba Fundación and its sponsors gave several financial and honorary awards across a number of categories: the “Premio En Obra” (Best Work) awarded $21,000 across five winners, including Guggers; the $2,000 Premio Jazmín Chebar went to the artist Daiana Rose; “Best Stand” award of more than $8,000 was split between Calvaresi and Moria Galería; and he honorary Premio al Coleccionismo (Collector’s Award) went to Patricia Pearson and Juan Vergez.
Despite numerous macroeconomic, geopolitical and internal challenges, most of the dealers we spoke with felt that this edition of arteba was “right-sized” and realigned with its original mission. Heeding its dealers’ concerns about timing, however, arteba’s organizers ultimately moved its next edition even earlier in the year to September 8-12, 2027.
