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The de Torres gallery also red-stickered six other works by Latin American artists, including three by the late Lithuanian/Uruguayan painter Jose Gurvich.

Pop Pillows

The Lila Mitre Gallery of Buenos Aires also was displaying works by Marta Minujin, and her contemporary, Edgardo Gimenez, both of whom played a seminal role in Argentina’s Pop movement in the 1960s.

Minujin and Gimenez revisited and reworked some of their most successful earlier efforts for arteBA. Minujin’s ragged and colorful pillow sculptures were a hit in Paris 40 years ago and proved again to be a crowd favorite this year, even though they didn’t sell well.

“People don’t normally put big pillow sculptures inside their homes; these works are more for museums,” said Alejandra Laurenzi of Lila Mitre Gallery.

Despite not selling the works, Minujin remained as cheerful as ever, telling ArtInfo: “This is a great event because you can show your work to people who really come to buy art.”

Gimenez’s work proved more popular for buyers. Lila Mitre Gallery sold several of his works, including the acrylic sculpture Las Panteras” (The Panthers) for $7,000 and the aluminum and bronze El Saltamonte (The Grasshopper) for $10,000.

New Initiatives

Alan Faena, the Argentine hotel impresario and cultural enthusiast, launched a series of artistic initiatives during arteBA.

The LEA Fellowships (Faena Group Laboratory of Experimental Art) will offer studio space and workshops for emerging artists in Buenos Aires and beyond. The selected artists will work in the El Porteno Art District, a newly christened artistic area in Buenos Aires’ Puerto Madero neighborhood.

In addition to “The Academy”—a gallery and studio inside the Faena Hotel—a new building, Los Molinos, will provide housing and work space on a much larger scale for the development of experimental art in Argentina when it opens its doors in 2008.

Faena also announced the inaugural F-Awards competition that will grant cash prizes to artists in an array of mediums, with an emphasis on technology and new media. The proposals will be judged by panels comprised of artists, musicians, filmmakers and critics and will offer grants of up to $25,000.

Many of these young artists had a strong presence at arteBA. The Barrio Joven (Young Neighborhood) area of the fair featured works from up-and-coming Argentines, many of whom were displaying their works publicly for the first time.

The area included a performance-art area, the “Club del Dibujo,” where artists did live cartoon renderings on a wall. The Black Box/White Cube video space screened video productions by young filmmakers.

Brian Byrnes is a freelance journalist who has called Buenos Aires home since 2001.