ARCO Lisboa is a relatively young and smaller-sized art fair located at a distance from the global art market centers. The number of its participants does not exceed a hundred, and among them, you will not find mega-galleries like David Zwirner or Hauser and Wirth. Yet, the project has been gaining traction. On May 26, the fair successfully concluded its seventh edition, attracting a steady flow of approximately 13,000 visitors.

How ARCO Lisboa Started and What Drives Its Market

ARCO Lisboa was launched in 2016 by the Spanish consortium IFEMA, which is responsible for ARCO Madrid, one of the most influential art fairs in Europe. This initiative was initially met with some skepticism. Lisbon was not considered a major location for the art market, and its proximity to Madrid raised doubts about the Iberian region's ability to support another art fair. In addition, at that time, Portugal was still recovering from a prolonged economic crisis that had a negative impact on the art community.

However, during this period, a new audience with potential interest in such events began to mature in Portugal. The country attracted a new class of affluent expatriates, drawn by the pleasant climate, affordable real estate, European location, and incentives like the “golden visa” program that started in 2012. This influx has transformed Lisbon, enhancing its international appeal and creating fertile ground for ARCO Lisboa.

According to James Steele, co-director of Lisbon-based 3+1 Arte Contemporânea gallery: “Lisbon is a city that has demographically changed over the last 10 years, attracting more outsider investment and attention. The art market here tended to be quite nationalistic in terms of what the collectors buy. This has changed in recent years as it seems to be a combination of commercial galleries having a more international program, several foreign galleries opening up here, and many more foreigners living here. The market has diversified significantly, and this dynamic shift is very important for us, as it allows us to be more positive about the security of the art market and its future.”

Matteo Consonni moved to Lisbon from Italy and opened Madragoa gallery alongside ARCO Lisboa's debut in 2016. He explains his decision: “It was not because of the market. There were not many galleries in Lisbon working with the international model such as Madragoa’s. I decided to open a space here because I knew I would have more visibility and the rent was cheaper. Lisbon is a perfect base for a gallery. And if I want to expand, I can do it through art fairs, special projects, and I can travel. After all, we are in the European Union, as I constantly say. Let’s forget about this ultra division by countries and talk about the EU art market.

There are a few Portuguese collectors based in town. Some of them have exclusively Portuguese collections, while others have quite significant international ones. There are also expats who come here to live. And little by little, instead of buying in Paris or London, they are discovering a scene here that they find attractive. Of course, Lisbon is not comparable to bigger art hubs, but it is becoming increasingly interesting and is evolving into a true international European capital.”

The opening of a Lisbon location of a Chicago-based gallery Document falls within this tendency. Gallery owner Aron Gent recalls falling in love with Lisbon and its art scene during a visit, which led him to open a space here. “Lisbon is not a central art market, and I find it to be a very artist- and curator-forward city. It reminds me of Chicago and is speaking my language,” he says. “As far as I know, Document is now the only American gallery in Portugal. In the USA, the Portuguese art scene is not very well known, but people are curious about it. I am planning not only to bring international artists to Lisbon but also to show more Portuguese artists in Chicago. Right now in Lisbon I am kind of focusing on clients from the USA and Europeans who are spending time here, whether it is visiting or purchasing property. But you know, at ARCO Lisboa last year we sold Kazuhito Tanaka and Paul Mpagi Sepuya’s works to Lisbon collectors. So I think local collectors are branching out, though it is going to take time.”

According to participating galleries, ARCO Lisboa now successfully engages local audiences, newcomers, and foreign visitors. Matteo Consonni adds: “Many art fairs, especially those that do not belong to Art Basel and Frieze families, always have a double job. They bring together the local scene and put that local scene on a podium for foreigners to come, see, and experience it. This is also true about ARCO Lisboa. And from edition to edition, the quality of the projects presented at the fair and its recognition outside of Portugal are growing.”

ARCO Lisboa is recognized by both the government and businesses as a driver of the local market and a key event for the city's internationalization. Supported by many sponsors, including the Portuguese Ministry of Culture, it's co-organized by Lisbon's municipal government.

What is on View at Arco Lisboa?

ARCO Lisboa’s moderate scale and emphasis on curating and the quality of the projects have shaped its identity from the beginning. It started with only 45 galleries in its inaugural year, while in the same year, ARCO Madrid showcased more than 200. By 2024, the scope of ARCO Lisboa has almost doubled to 84 participants, but it remains compact and regionally oriented. Although the current edition of the fair includes participants from 15 countries, most of the galleries come from Portugal and Spain or have their spaces there.

While hyper-expensive pieces and blue-chip artists are not the focal point of the fair, the 7th edition does include some well-known names. One could spot works by Thomas Demand, Candida Höfer, Elmgreen & Dragset, Isaac Julien, and Santiago Sierra Helga de Alvear gallery, Madrid), Richard Serra (CarrerasMugica gallery, Bilbao), Joan Miró (Mayoral Gallery, Paris and Barcelona), Antoni Tàpies (Mayoral Gallery and Leandro Navarro Gallery, Madrid), and an impressive installation by Joana Vasconcelos (Baro Gallery, Palma).

ARCO Lisboa director Maribel López states that the fair prioritizes its individuality over becoming another massive mega art-fair. Its growth comes not from scaling up but from careful programming, development of curated sections, and attention to the needs of its participants, which is in part possible thanks to the moderate size of ARCO Lisboa. While giving a comment to the press, Luiza Teixeira de Freitas, co-curator of the Opening section for younger and more experimental galleries, emphasized the importance of curatorial support. She said: “My work does not end with the selection of participants in the section, I work closely with them throughout the preparation for ARCO Lisboa. As a curator, I have a responsibility not only to the fair but also to the galleries and artists to ensure they get the best possible experience from their participation.”

Lisbon-based gallery Nave is among the participants of the Opening section. Nave director Mercedes Cerón describes her experience: “For me, this section is challenging and follows a curatorial line with which the NAVE gallery intently identifies. The proposals are fresh and at the same time intrepid because the artists also belong to the ultra-contemporary generation. Opening allows us to show no more than two artists at a booth. Our proposal this year featured the sculpture of the German artist Birte Bosse and the photography of Jon Gorospe who is from Spain. The artists come from different countries and artistic contexts, but at the same time have a complementarity of language and diversity of materiality and mediums. Young artists, including those in Portugal, often find it difficult to achieve visibility, which is why we are investing in making NAVE more international. ARCO Lisboa is the ideal place to meet foreign collectors, and they are our focus at the fair.”

In 2024, the Opening at ARCO Lisboa became the most international section, featuring 17 galleries from Portugal, Spain, Georgia, Romania, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Austria, Lithuania, Slovenia, and France. Tbilisi-based gallery 4710, which showed surrealist works — ceramics by Merab Gugunashvili and watercolors by Tamar Nadiradze — was awarded by the jury as the best gallery of the Opening section.

The overall impression from the projects at ARCO Lisboa conveys the intention of its participants to put together booths that are not just commercially attractive but curatorially elaborate. While many booths allow for enough room and space between works so they can “breathe,” there's also a wide variety of media, including paintings, works on paper, objects, installations, videos, textiles, ceramics, and performance documentation. This year, 3+1 Arte Contemporânea’s booth included objects by João Ferro Martins (Portugal) and Nuno Sousa Vieira (Portugal), textiles and ceramics by Evy Jokhova (Portugal/Estonia), and paintings and works on paper by Gabriela Machado (Brazil). While Martins and Vieira employ handmade paraphernalia, Jokhova and Machado forage in the natural world in their narratives. James Steele comments: “Our strategy is to highlight the best examples of the artists that we will present within a strong curatorial framework which we hope generates discussion and entices new/renewed perspectives and enthusiasm. Hence showcasing a different group of artists or solo presentation each year.”

Lisbon-based galleries find it crucial to ensure the exposition of the booth represents the identity of the gallery and its positioning on the local art scene since ARCO Lisboa is their “home” art fair. Matteo Consonni notes: “ARCO Lisboa is an amazing moment for us because, apart from being at a fair, the fact that this fair happens here allows us to showcase what we do best, which is the projects at the gallery. This year during the fair, we have Joanna Piotrowska’s solo show at Madragoa, she is a very important artist right now. Of course, there are art fairs that are, you know, giving us way more economic possibilities and way more exposure than ARCO Lisboa, but Lisbon is where Madragoa itself happens, nothing is comparable to that. At the booth, we are showing a Spanish artist Belén Uriel and a young Portuguese artist Gonçalo Preto, as well as an Italian classic Enzo Cucchi. Culturgest Foundation in Lisbon is currently hosting Cucchi’s large solo exhibition, so it is a good link.”

For the second time, Madragoa collaborated with Document Gallery to share a booth at ARCO Lisboa and create a dialogue between the two galleries. Document presents paintings by Portuguese artist Pedro Vaz and minimalist sculptures by Dutch artist Anneke Eussen, both addressing the subject of the construction of memory. According to Aron Gent, the choice of these artists also reflects the gallery's curatorial focus, which is photography and sculpture.

The Forms of the Ocean

Since 2019, ARCO Lisboa has been developing a curatorial section to expand the representation of artists from Africa and the diaspora. This year, the section brought together eight galleries under the concept The Shapes of the Ocean, which refers to the conceptual, historic, and social connections between Africa, South America, Europe, and the USA through the Atlantic Ocean. At the same time, section curators Paula Nascimento (Angola) and Igor Simões (Brazil) warn against categorization and the misleading concept of African art. They emphasize the diversity of the artistic practices in Africa and seek to represent this diversity in the section.”

The discussion of the colonial past is gaining momentum in Portugal right now. Nascimento and Simões see their curatorial work at ARCO Lisboa section and discussion program as another opportunity to support this agenda. “This discourse is now developing in Portugal, with more and more institutions seeking to work with artists from former colonies or diaspora. The President of Portugal publicly speaks of the responsibility for the crimes committed during transatlantic slavery and the colonial era; it is very important,” commented Nascimento during the press meeting.

The founders of Coletivo Amarelo, Stephanie Wruck and Gabriela Albuquerque, talk about their experience in the section: “We first operated as an online platform and opened a space in Lisbon just a year ago. This is our inaugural experience at ARCO Lisboa, and we are honored to be selected for this curated section. We are originally from Brazil, so we primarily collaborate with Brazilian artists but not exclusively. Our mission is to support emerging artists who already have a convincing practice but are still underrepresented. At the fair, we showcased the works of Brazilian-Japanese artist Juliana Matsumura and Mozambican artist Osias Andre, whom we have collaborated with since the inception of Coletivo Amarelo. Both Matsumura and Andre explore themes of ancestry, migration, and displacement, aligning perfectly with the section's agenda. At Coletivo Amarelo, we focus on artists who share experiences of migration and relocation, living within foreign cultural contexts. This dialogue is very important for us. Lisbon's vibrant atmosphere, abundant artistic community, and international appeal make it an ideal setting for our work.”

Why Visit ARCO Lisboa?

ARCO Lisboa is an art fair with its own distinct character. It is known for its emphasis on art from the Iberian Peninsula and former Portuguese colonies, making it a natural place for exploration and discussion of this scene. Additionally, it showcases intriguing and sometimes overlooked artists from other regions, ensuring it maintains relevance and avoids being sidelined.

Its historic venue, a mid-18th-century industrial building with a tiled roof, wooden beams, and a cozy courtyard, offers a unique and intimate setting, contrasting with the sprawling layouts of larger fairs. Unlike many mega art fairs, ARCO Lisboa provides the opportunity for more leisurely exploration. The entire space can be explored in a couple of hours without losing strength and focus and is located in close proximity to the city center.

Crucially, ARCO Lisboa is perfectly timed, falling right between Frieze New York and Art Basel. It also takes advantage of Lisbon's charm during this period, making it even more appealing.

ARCO Lisboa showcases a fair that effectively utilizes its resources and communicates a clear vision, yet retains a regional focus. The hope is that in the future, ARCO Lisboa will maintain its unique character while evolving into a must-see international event, thereby contributing to the internationalization of Portugal's yet mainly locally oriented art scene.