20 years of Art Basel Miami Beach: Luisa Strina

Nearly five decades on from its founding, São Paulo, Brazil’s Galeria Luisa Strina is no longer the scrappy space without a telephone that first greeted visitors in 1974. The gallery’s namesake owner, Luisa Strina, is now saluted for her global championing of several generations of Brazilian artists, from the blue-chip concep­tualist Cildo Meireles to younger talents including Fernanda Gomes and Alexandre da Cunha, ensuring their work has become as much of a fixture on the international museum circuit as in Brazil itself. Indeed, Strina’s gallery has become a de facto institution within Brazil’s cultural scene. Yet Strina credits Art Basel Miami Beach – where her gallery has been an exhibitor since its 2002 launch – with helping cement that role.

Was exhibiting at Art Basel Miami Beach important in expanding your international client base to the United States and Europe?

Not only for Europe and the US. I consider it to be the main fair in Latin America, because so many of the clients there are from Latin America.

Are there Brazilian clients you first met in Miami?

Yes! Art Basel has been very important in developing the art market in Brazil. In the beginning, not a lot of Brazilians used to go to Art Basel in Switzerland. But there are many Brazilians who have apart­ments and houses in Miami. Once they started going to the fair there, they were connecting much more with art.

Was it strange to see Brazilians coming to Miami and buy­ing work at your booth who had never before set foot in your São Paulo gallery?

They were not only buying from my gallery, but other Brazilian gal­leries as well. When I started with the fair in 2002, we had two or three Brazilian galleries. When I left the organizing committee 12 years later, we had 14 Brazilian galleries.

Have you seen a change in the dynamics of the fair itself over the past 20 years?

I think, more than the fair changing, it’s interesting for me to see how Miami has changed in those 20 years. It’s a totally different city now, and most of it is thanks to the art fair.

How so?

Well, Miami grew up! There are more museums there now, more col­lectors there now. Before, it was a city we used to visit and there was nothing to do besides going to the beach. Now, the whole city is much more interested in art.

This article was originally commissioned for the Art Basel Miami Beach magazine 2022.

Top image: Installation view of a work by Renata Luca presented by A Gentil Carioca, neugerriemschneider, and Galeria Luisa Strina in the Unlimited sector of Art Basel in Basel, 2019. A dark filter was applied for readability.