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Miami, Mar 3 (EFE).- Arteamericas, the world's most important showcase of Latin American painting and sculpture, kicks off here Friday with the participation of more than 200 artists, including renowned creators and rising talents.
Fifty galleries are represented, most of them from Spanish- or Portuguese-speaking nations of the hemisphere, but also hailing from the United States, Spain, Canada and The Netherlands.
"People are investing in Latin American art and up-and-coming artists who have already broken into the mainstream art market," said Carol Damian, president of the Arteamericas Advisory Board.
The exhibition, with more than 700 works are on show at the Coconut Grove Convention Center, has become a Latin American art festival in the United States where quality and variety rule, Damian told EFE.
To gloom-and-doom critics who foresee a bleak future for painting, Damian said categorically that "painting is not dead."
"This is a great year to buy and invest in paintings," she said, enthusiastically pointing out "the rich art activity" of five countries that have "great galleries" here: Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina and Mexico.
She said that Arteamericas is a placed to wonder at the historic Mexican avant-garde of "muralists like Jose Clemente Orozco or Diego Rivera, together with the paintings of Frida Kahlo."
Nor is there any lack of present-day artists who are much in demand like the Colombian Fernando Botero or the Chilean Claudio Bravo.
Damian, who is also a professor at Florida International University (FIU), gives the trendier tendencies their place in the festival with styles like hyperrealism "which continues to fascinate people," represented by the works of Cuban-born Tomas Sanchez and Claudio Gallina.
"The festival is a gem and shows that paintings are coming back as a serious investment," said gallery owner Dora Valdes-Fauli.
"The U.S. art market is doing well. This is a good time to buy paintings and discover Colombia's conceptual art, or Mexican art which is more figurative," Valdes-Fauli said.
Asked about characteristics that distinguish Latin American art from Anglo art, Valdes-Fauli cited the "more emotional" aspect of the former, an artistic expression related to concepts like "beauty, the family, or socio-political themes."
One of the more attractive novelties here is the work of the 35-year-old Cuban sculptor Kcho, "who is doing very contemporary and conceptual things," such as the "Infinite Column" (at the Venezuelan Juan Ruiz gallery), made of rubber tires, wood and glass, the gallery owner said.
Examples of emerging talents well worth seeing, Valdes-Fauli said, include the Argentine Sebastian Spreng, or "a painter of light and interiors like Ricardo Cordova."
With regard to prices, among the costliest are the Boteros to be found at the Colombian gallery El Museo which can easily be in the $1 million range, along with sought-after works by Mexicans Kahlo and Rufino Tamayo, the Cuban Wilfredo Lam and Venezuela's Jesus Soto.
On the more affordable side, there are also galleries that offer paintings for around $2,500.
Brian Sepe, regional director of Merrill Lynch for South Florida which sponsors the exhibition, expressed the conviction that "the 20,000 visitors that came to Arteamericas last year, many of whom have come back, confirms the quality of Latin culture on show here."
The Arteamericas festival runs through Sunday. EFE
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