Galeria Contempo Debuts at SP-Arte
Galeria Contempo is participating for the first time in SP-Arte, one of Latin America's largest art and design fairs, now in its 21st edition. Occupying booth D24, the gallery brings together artists it represents alongside new names, with the goal of exploring the complexity of the art scene and the multiplicity of poetics that characterize contemporary production. The dialogue between generations and diverse approaches forms the core of the project, highlighting the works of Pavel Herrera and Aldir Mendes de Souza, which establish the conceptual tension guiding the booth.
Pavel Herrera (Havana, 1979), a Cuban artist based in São Paulo, investigates insularity and migration processes through painting. Through this medium, he conjectures ways of glimpsing geographical relationships via manufactured images that often appear to be captured by a drone or satellite. He articulates and constructs images centered on migration, communication, desire, and the ideological and political relationships between a system and the people in a global context. Meanwhile, Aldir Mendes de Souza (1941–2007) explored the contrasts in human occupation of space, addressing elements such as the countryside, the city, plantations, and factories. The fundamental challenge of his artistic work is how painting can accommodate the disputes that shape inhabited space, especially those resulting from metropolization. An encounter is thus announced: a young foreign artist and the late São Paulo painter reveal two distinct ways of conjecturing inhabited space. These two different approaches to confronting it denote the plurality of positions regarding the same issue.
Beyond this connection between Pavel and Aldir, Galeria Contempo's exhibition at SP-Arte 2025 highlights artists whose investigations expand the boundaries of painting, sculpture, installation, and other mediums. Greta Coutinho moves between painting and ceramics, creating compositions that explore intimacy and female representation. João di Souza, in turn, translates landscapes into vibrant and sensual images, permeated by an oneiric and festive atmosphere. Luiz Dolino, with his long career, articulates geometric and chromatic references in a dynamic visual game.
The exhibition also features the research of Marina Ryfer, who works with light as a sculptural element, creating works that engage with architecture and spatial perception. Natan Dias, a multidisciplinary artist, investigates the confluence of materials and memory, developing sculptures and interventions that operate at the intersection of tradition and technology. Rubens Vaz Ianelli, meanwhile, presents a path marked by painting, which reflects his family's involvement in the art world.
Rounding out the group of artists presented, Sérgio Guerini brings his experimentation involving photography, watercolor, and easel painting, creating compositions that evoke time and materiality. Thiago Nevs, for his part, explores the visuality of everyday life and popular culture, revisiting truck body lettering, marquetry, and a variety of elements extracted from popular culture. Furthermore, the gallery presents works by three young artists who have recently joined its roster: the painter Uéslei Fagundes (Novo Hamburgo, 1987), Júlio Primeiro (CE, 1983), and Renato Dib (São Paulo, 1973).
