Exploring ARTBO 2026: The Heart of Colombia’s Art Scene

Our 2026 Latin American exploration continues, and we’re revisiting Bogotá, (we’d been once before, in 2022) timed so we could report on ARTBO, (properly called “Feria Internacional de Arte de Bogotá”), Colombia’s signature art fair. In fact, ARTBO is regarded by many as South America’s premier art fair, although SP-Arte in São Paulo and arteBA in Buenos Aires are also mentioned as gaining ground.

Part of this may be ARTBO’s post-pandemic contraction from a peak of 84 participating galleries to a more boutique-scaled 50. The fair has undergone significant changes during and since the pandemic, with both the venue and director being relatively new.

Either way, it was new to us, and we were pretty excited to check it out. Here’s what we found.

What you’ll find at ARTBO

This 22nd edition of Bogotá’s ARTBO was divided into sections. The main “Galerías” section had just under 40 galleries, while the “Galerías Doce” section, mostly younger galleries, had around 10. However, the way the fair fills the Ágora Convention Center makes it feel more substantial, due in large part to its collateral programming, with special rooms dedicated to emerging artists (“Artecámara”), historic masters and other special presentations.

The fair also has the typical section for museums and institutions, and a print section. Notably, this “Encuentro Editorial” section included counter-culture, zine, and related exhibitors which had a heavy, steady crowd of under-40 fans. This seems like a smart move to bring in younger buyers.

In fact, several of the galleries noted that their presentations were geared toward a younger, less-spendy clientele, and we noticed prices under $1000 USD in many of the booths – even in the established galleries section.

That’s NOT to say this is an emerging-artist fair; you’ll also find established regional masters who are known outside the continent, but aren’t considered rockstars, like Edgar Negret, alongside blue-chip names like Fernando Botero, Olga de Almaral, Wilfredo Lam and others with 6- and even 7-figure prices.

Regional & Historical Focus

The artwork offered was almost exclusively by LATAM galleries featuring Latin American artists, which is great if you’re looking to learn and expand your knowledge base beyond the same few hundred artists that are typically shown at fairs in the US.

In particular, roughly three-quarters of the galleries are based in Bogotá, which offered a concise primer on Bogotá’s contemporary art scene (which is more considerable than we’d understood prior). But we’d have liked to see more Medellín in the mix.

There also seemed to be a concerted effort to place works in an historical context. We found this at Pinta Lima as well; fairs in South America seem to be as much about education and reputation as about commerce.

The fair reinforced that observation with the inclusion of two special curated exhibits. “Trayectoria” was a comprehensive solo exhibition for artist Fanny Sanin. Sanin is Colombian-born but now residing in New York City; the section was a retrospective of sorts, featuring her signature geometric abstractions from the 1970s to present, and further connects notable Colombian artists with the global contemporary art world.

There was also a section dedicated to ArtNexus, which originated in 1976 as a Colombian publication called “Arte en Colombia”, and has evolved over 50 years to a worldwide publication and archive.

Both of these sections served to emphasize Colombia’s place in global art.

On the main exhibit floor, ARTBO actually felt a bit muted. The booths didn’t have truss lighting, and everything was lit using down lights or goosenecks, which kept light out of the aisles. But more importantly, artworks in earth tones seemed to dominate.

See what we mean?

You won’t find Kusama’s bright polka-dot pumpkins or paintings, nor the glossy resin works found at fairs like Context in Miami.

This might be a reaction to Bogotá’s siting, at the base of green & brown mountainside, but it’s in stark contrast to the colorful street art and graffiti all over town.

Not to say the art wasn’t lovely, (or to say there wasn’t ANY brightly colored art) we just found it curious. And there were exceptions:

This edition of the fair also didn’t feature much in the way of digital art. We were met right at the entrance by a couple encouraging works from Rolf Art,

…and an interesting piece entitled “Destroyed Word” by Santiago Sierra, with W-Galeria, but digital and video art were relatively lacking.

The fair offered little pure photography; we look forward to seeing the best of Latin American photographers at pintaBAphoto in Buenos Aires in October.

Content & Materiality

As we’ve noticed at ZonaMaco, Pinta Lima and now at ARTBO–in addition to at many of the galleries we’ve visited featuring contemporary Latin American Art– you’ll find both overtly and subtly-rendered political themes such as decolonization, equality, the environment, and particularly in Colombia, the country’s violent history. There was a distinct lack of overtly sexual material.

Ms. ArtNomads noticed quite a bit of fiber art, and I zeroed in on ceramics, in keeping with the materiality we’ve noticed in much of the art we’ve seen here in South America: first Peru, now in Colombia. It tracks with the living, pre-Hispanic material culture we’ve encountered, as well as more global trends we’ve noticed like at the Sharjah Biennial.

Our favorites

As always, we had a few favorites. The first is new work by Francesca Rojas, who blends pre-Hispanic traditional Andean craft with contemporary technological influences. We first met her at Pinta Lima and were delighted to see her and her new work again with Herlitzka & Co at ARTBO. Full interview coming soon.

We also spoke with Vertigo gallery from Bogotá, which had a fairly unique thesis; the gallery originated as a graffiti crew and has evolved into a commercial space focused on “images of the city”. This is the only gallery I know of with such a focus, and the featured artworks were a great blend of “scape” painting and abstraction, which we discovered were essentially magnified bits of graffiti. We interviewed the director, Camilo Lopez, Full interview coming soon.

Overall, we enjoyed ARTBO, but we’d probably put the overall vibe in the “Safe” category. You’re going to learn, and hopefully find something beautiful and meaningful to take home, but it’s unlikely to be particularly challenging.

Collateral Programming

Most art fairs offer some collateral programming, and ARTBO is no exception. There was a Noche de Galerías, which felt a bit muted as well, due to the dispersed nature of the various gallery districts. We managed to walk between a dozen or so (of 20+ participating spaces) in the 3-hour window (there was no provided or coordinated transport), and visited others on different days.

A significant block of the galleries participating at either ARTBO or UN_Fair are located in Barrio San Felipe, and held their own event, OPEN SAN FELIPE, which was a much bigger party and offered the excitement that Noche lacked.

ARTBO also tried to make up for a lack of design objects in the fair by partnering with NC Diseño gallery to offer a “Ruta Diseño” which featured 20 or so Colombian designers/makers – all at the gallery. Some beautiful work, but it did feel a bit self-serving on the gallery’s part. There WAS a complimentary shuttle for this.

Curiously, MAMBO, the modern art museum, posted a website notice that it was closed until the fair concluded. VERY strange, and gone the Tuesday after. Maybe we missed a party?

Should you go to ARTBO?

We’d say that if you’re interested in collecting Latin American art, ARTBO is certainly a must-do. It’s accessible – both in physical terms and in price points.

While not super-tightly coordinated, the combination of ARTBO, UN_Fair, Noche de Galerías and OPEN San Felipe offer a thorough, week-long immersion opportunity for the art lover, without adding in the other museums or numerous Street Art districts.

We’d especially suggest you visit in September 2027, to take advantage of BOG27, Bogotá’s Bienal, and planned extensive programming in honor of the city’s designation as the Ibero-American Capital of Culture for 2027. More on that in a separate article.

Getting To & Around the Fair

ARTBO is mounted in the relatively new, 5-story Ágora Convention Center outside Bogotá’s core. It’s accessible via public bus (figure between 20-40 minutes), or you can cab. There are a couple of the usual convention-center hotels like Hyatt Place and Hilton next door, but we don’t necessarily recommend basing there as it’s too far from anything else you want to do while visiting. And if you like art, you really SHOULD visit Bogotá. More on that here.

The fair itself is mostly accessible, with elevators to each floor. Bathrooms are unisex, and we did NOT notice any large enough for wheelchairs. We’re guessing there are some, but we didn’t see them.

Limited food options and some drink lounges are available. We did not experience a VIP area.

The convention center is located a 30-minute walk from Distrito Grafiti, for you fans of urban & street art (which Bogotá has in spades). We spent around 2 hours there before the fair opened for our second visit on Sunday. See that here.

Note: The fair also introduced ARTBO Conecta this year, a free service intended to help visitors navigate the fair according to their interests and budget, including introductions to participating galleries. We didn’t use it, so we can’t tell you how well it worked. But it’s an interesting experiment—and one worth watching as fairs look for ways to make the collector side of the art-fair experience less intimidating.