CIRCA Puerto Rico Arts Festival 2008

CIRCA Puerto Rico is “the first international art fair in the Caribbean and Central America.” If you’re an art lover and a lover of warm, sunny islands, read on.

The festival will be held from April 11 to April 14, 2008 at the new Puerto Rico Convention Center in the capitol city of San Juan, Puerto Rico. CIRCA will host more than 40 commercial galleries from around the globe, with Puerto Rico, Latin America, the U.S., Europe, Canada, and Australia represented.

CIRCA PR ’08 promises to “once again bring the best of Contemporary art to a local and international audience of collectors.” The press release claims this particular festival is the only art fair of its kind located in the Caribbean and Central America. I don’t know if that is true or not, but I think any excuse to visit Puerto Rico is a good one.

In just three years, CIRCA PR has shown its potential to give new visibility to the Caribbean art world where an exciting mix of regional artists, gallerists, institutions, and collectors, together with a selection of international galleries, offered a very personal and dynamic art fair.

Participating Galleries (and locations): 356 (San Juan), Air de Paris (Paris), Altamira (Gijon), Artspace Witzenhausen (Amsterdam), Blow de la Barra (London), Botello (San Juan), Breenspace (Sydney), brot.undspiele (Berlin), Spencer Brownstone (New York), Adora Calvo (Salamanca), Casas Riegner (Bogota), Marta Cervera (Madrid), Contemporary Fine Arts (Berlin), Carmen Correa Contemporaneo (San Juan), CR3MA (San Juan), Dean Projects (New York), Espacio Liquido (Gijon), Henrique Faria Fine Art (New York), Gavlak (West Palm Beach), Alfredo Ginocchio Arte Internacional (Mexico DF), Moti Hasson (New York), Hardcore Art Contemporany Space (Miami), Caprice Horn (Berlin), Jacob Karpio (San Jose, CR), Diana Lowenstein Fine Arts (Miami), Federico Luger (Milan), Katharine Mulherin Contemporary Art (Toronto), Museum 52 (London), Pan Amer ican Art Projects (Miami), Raquel Ponce (Madrid), Walter Otero (San Juan), Point of View (New York), PM Gallery (Toronto), El Museo/Fernando Pradilla (Bogota), Primer Piso (San Juan), Lyle O. Reitzel (Santo Domingo), Samson Projects (Boston), Schuebbe Project (Duesseldorf), Space Other (Boston), Spielhaus & Morrison (Berlin), Spinello Gallery (Miami), Storehouse Group(San Juan), Vane (UK), and Voges + Partner (Francfort).

The Collector’s Program will give you the chance to view the private Rosalia and Ugobono Collection with works by Melvin Martinez, Jonathan Meese, Guillermo Kuitca and others; the Horacio Campolietto Collection, with works by Erwin Olaf and Andres Serrano.

This year’s festival will also feature the opening of Luis Gutierrez Latin-American Photo Collection.

VIP’s will be rewarded with a special visit to the “Country Club” Dorado Beach East to visit the Pepe Alvarez and Carlos Trapaga Collections. In addition, the VIP Program hosts visits to artists’ studios, a gallery walk, museum openings, and parties. Sounds fun to be a VIP.

If you love art and your partner is a golfer (or even if you are a golfer) you can check out the Golf Experience, located at “one of the most celebrated courses in the Caribbean.” The tee off will take place on April 15th, at 7:00am. To book this portion, call (787) 279-7675.

CIRCA is offering special hotel rates at the Normandie Hotel in San Juan. For more information on these accommodations, call (787) 729-2929 or (877) 987-2929 and use the booking code CIRCA ‘08. Normandie guests who book with the group code will receive free transportation between the hotel and the fair (by itinerary).

For more information, visit https://www.circapr.com/ or call (787) 279-7675.