León Tovar was born in Bogotá, Colombia, and is a prominent curator, expert, and collector dedicated to promoting and disseminating Latin American art worldwide. He has curated numerous exhibitions and collaborated with important international museums and galleries.

"Gallerists at the fair say more collectors are invested in greater gender diversity among their holdings and are keen to invest in art by women... Almine Rech sold two works by Chloe Wise priced between $40,000 and $55,000. Gallerie Gisela placed into private collections works by Gillian Carnegie, Isabella Ducrot, Jadé Fadojutimi and Laura Owens. White Cube sold two Tracey Emin paintings and works by Marlene Dumas, while LGDR sold three works by Lynne Drexler. Leon Tovar Gallery, which presented a stand featuring works exclusively by Latin American women artists, sold a ceramic piece by Venezuelan sculptor Tecla Tofano and a work by Colombian sculptor Feliza Bursztyn."

The Aichi Triennale is an urban international art festival, held every three years since 2010 across a wide region including the Aichi Arts Center and other city venues, and preparations are underway for Aichi Triennale 2022 to build on the achievements of the previous four iterations. The festival will span a wide range of fields, synthetically exhibiting performing art and other forms together with a contemporary art core, and make Aichi Prefecture a beacon of the artistic avant-garde.

Leon Tovar of Leon Tovar Gallery tells the story of the prolific Latin American artist Joaquín Torres-García and the painting Constructivismo (TSF), a composition embodying a union between abstraction and figuration.

The Colombian León Tovar, one of the most recognized promoters of Latin American art and who has his gallery in New York, told EFE that during the pandemic there was no choice but to "learn to sell online – but people want to touch and look."

Tovar, who has presented at TEFAF New York since its inception in 2016 and also for several years in Maastricht, highlighted the "demanding" process to be an exhibitor, in which a committee of 200 experts evaluates the selection offered before giving the green light.

Four fairs anchor the inaugural New York Art Week, an initiative involving galleries, museums, and auction houses that offers art lovers three boroughs’ worth of programming and exhibitions. The fairs making up the backbone of this new entry on the New York art calendar present a diverse array of works, ranging from the ancient to the hyper-contemporary, the blue chip to the cutting edge. Below are the standout booths from each.

The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) has announced the 91 exhibitors that will take part in its upcoming New York edition, scheduled to run at the Park Avenue Armory May 6–10, with a VIP preview day on May 5. This will be the fair’s first New York iteration since 2019, as TEFAF had been forced to cancel ones in 2020 and 2021 because of the pandemic.

"New Acquisitions and Old Friends" exhibition brings together a large number of works new to the museum—many on view for the first time—alongside others that have been visitor favorites for decades. Ranging in date from 1948 to 2020, they represent a striking diversity of artistic backgrounds, techniques, and approaches.... Several of the artists represented—including Johnny Coleman, Kathleen Gilje, Philip Koch, Michelangelo Lovelace, Mary Beth McKenzie, John Newman, Douglas Sanderson, Sue Jane Mitchell Smock, and Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown—have significant connections to Oberlin, Cleveland, or Ohio, a testament to the museum’s longstanding relationships with alumni artists and donors and its commitment to highlighting the artistic talents in our region. Gifts in celebration of the museum's 2017 centennial from artists Jim Dine, Jasper Johns, Martin Kline, and Frank Stella are also on view, as are recent acquisitions by Josef Albers, Sam Gilliam, Jacob Lawrence, Agnes Martin, Tom Palmore, José Rodríguez, Betye Saar, Fanny Sanín, and Francisco Toledo, among many others.

“You cannot talk about geometric abstraction without Carlos Rojas, Carmelo Arden Quin, Lucio Fontana. You cannot talk about Impressionism without Armando Reverón, Andrés de Santa Maria, because they were Impressionist artists also. If you are a landscape collector, you go to the School of Barbizon, but you also need to see the School of Quito. The light in Bogotá is the same light in Biarritz.” —Leon Tovar

Leon Tovar recently spoke with the ADAA in a far-reaching conversation that touched on topics including the art market and the importance of cross-cultural artistic connections. Currently in our 30th year of operation, it is a joy to reflect on the history of the Gallery, from its origins in Bogotá to its current home in New York.

Photo: Leon Tovar with Bernar Venet, New York, 1992

In the fall of 2019, Leon Tovar Gallery launched a major exhibition on the work of the Argentinian artist Marcelo Bonevardi. Titled "When the Cedar Bar Met the School of the South: Reconsidering Bonevardi," the show focused on the artist's practice during his time living in New York, and featured many seminal paintings presented in Bonevardi's 1980 retrospective at the Center for Inter-American Relations. Click the image for a recently published review in ArtNexus.

Fanny Sanín’s meditative "Acrylic No. 1” of 1984 was recently on view in the US Embassy in Bogotá as part of Art in Embassies' exhibition programming. On loan from the Gallery, the painting’s soft, earthen tones are rendered with Sanín’s characteristic precision and arranged according to her unwavering devotion to compositional symmetry. Like the “Colorhythms” of Alejandro Otero, or the compositions of Wassily Kandinsky, Sanín masterfully translates color into sonorous rhythm. “Acrylic No. 1” is powerfully featured on the cover of the recently published exhibition catalogue.

Equal parts sinister and sensual, a portfolio of Agustín Fernández's haunting collages is currently on view in MUSA's virtual exhibition, "Fernández, Irizarry y Silveira: Gráfica y Abstracción Geométrica." Published in 1972, this suite of prints is housed in the Mayagüez University Collection, with all 20 folios available to view in all their uncanny detail on the exhibition's website.

Leon Tovar Gallery is delighted to announce a Zoom panel discussion hosted by the ICA Miami to celebrate the publication of “Agustín Fernández: Armaduras.” We were delighted to provide support in the realization of this important catalogue, and look forward to an informative conversation on the artist’s enigmatic, surreal “Armor” paintings. Panel members include Jonathan D. Katz (Historian), Susanna Temkin (Curator, El Museo del Barrio), and Gean Moreno (Director, Knight Foundation Art + Research Center, ICA Miami). The event starts at 2pm on Thursday, January 21.

"Latinx Abstract" will open January 21, 2021, at BRIC in Brooklyn. Curated by Elizabeth Ferrer, the exhibition brings together an intergenerational selection of artists, each with their own approach to abstraction. Featured in the exhibition will be Fanny Sanín's 2018 painting "Acrylic No. 1," on loan from the Gallery.

Leon Tovar Gallery is delighted to share the most recent contribution to scholarship on the inimitable Agustín Fernández. Published by the ICA Miami, “Agustín Fernández: Armaduras” commemorates the artist’s solo exhibition at the institution, which opened in December of 2019. Featuring texts by curator Gean Moreno and art historian Jonathan Katz, the catalogue is an illuminating look into one of Fernández’s most iconic series—the “armor” paintings. As the representative of the artist's estate, Leon Tovar Gallery was thrilled to have the opportunity to provide support in the realization of this important project.

The Blanton Museum's current exhibition "Expanding Abstraction: Pushing the Boundaries of Painting in the Americas, 1958–1983" is a refreshing look at twentieth-century painting practices through an international lens. Including works by artists from the United States and Latin America, the exhibition cultivates stimulating conversations and connections that rethink traditional art historical categories. Featured in the show are Gallery artists Agustín Fernández and Marcelo Bonevardi, as well as a rich selection of their North American and Latin peers, including Sam Gilliam, Richard Tuttle, Morris Louis, and Jesús Rafael Soto. "Expanding Abstraction" is on view through January 10, 2021.

Photo: Christian Wurst

Purchased by Alfred Barr in 1956 for the permanent collection of the MoMA, Eduardo Ramírez Villamizar's "Black and White" is currently on view at the institution's recently opened exhibition "Degree Zero: Drawing at Midcentury." Running through February 6, 2021, the exhibition brings together a diverse, international cohort of artists who sought to reexamine the medium of drawing in the aftermath of WWII. Villamizar's crisp, geometric composition is emblematic of a specific penchant for “cool” abstraction that developed during the postwar context. As noted in the show’s press release, “The development of this visual vocabulary—seen in works by Eduardo Ramírez Villamizar ("Black and White," 1956), Ellsworth Kelly ("Study for 'La Combe II,'" 1950), and Alfredo Volpi ("Geometric Composition," c. 1957)—relied on a network of international exchange between Latin America, Paris, and New York.”

On March 12 of this year, Thames and Hudson released the 3rd edition of Edward Lucie-Smith's seminal book Latin American Since 1900. As a gallery that has at its core the idea that Latin American art is fundamental to the history of Modern art, we were delighted to collaborate on this important publication.

From the Gallery’s early days in Bogotá to our current home in New York, Leon Tovar recounts the history and mission of the Gallery in this latest featured video from TEFAF's “Meet the Experts: All Access” series.

Design Historian Libby Sellers takes readers through some of the most important pieces included in her exhibition Color and Production: From the Atom to the Void​, accessible online as part of Frieze New York's digital programming. Included in her selection is Uruguayan artist Carmelo Arden Quin's untitled painting of the mid-1980s, a piece whose colors, materials, and textures are emblematic of his "Plastique" series. "Rebelling against the spatial and ideological constraints of the traditional rectangular or square canvas," Sellers writers, "[Arden Quin's] mutable sculptures and paintings of irregular shape with moveable components (coplanals) embraced a range of modern transparent, translucent, and illuminated materials." Color and Production: From the Atom to the Void is on display in the Frieze Viewing Room through May 15.

As galleries large and small continue to find their footing during the pandemic, Sales Director Isabel Suarez spoke with Barrons about the specific steps Leon Tovar Gallery has taken to maintain our commitment to our artists, community, and clients.

Writing for Toute La Culture, Anne-Sophie Bertrand highlights the work of Marcelo Bonevardi presented in our booth at TEFAF Maastricht 2020. On view by the artist is an early "painting-construction" from 1965, as well as a rare example of Bonevardi's freestanding sculpture.


Photo: Guy Houben

Among the works featured in the Gallery's presentation at TEFAF Maastricht 2020 was Tarsila do Amaral's sketch of her now famous "Abaporu" figure. The piece, with its graceful sweeps of ink and iconic imagery, was highlighted in Casa Vogue Brazil's coverage of the fair.

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Photo: Guy Houben

"Also notable is the limestone sculpture Head, by the Argentinean Marcelo Bonevardi, exhibited in the gallery of the Colombian León Tovar, based in New York and specializing in Latin American art."

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Photo: Guy Houben

"An interesting aspect of this platform is the evolution it has had in recent years, with a marked interest in American art. In the words of art dealer León Tovar, from León Tovar Gallery—which focuses on modern Latin American art— 'One of the most recognizable changes is the internationalization of the fair and the approach it has had towards North and South America, specifically in the area of modernism […]. The most interesting is the type of collectors that go to TEFAF. They know what they want. They are real collectors, looking for pieces without thinking about how they are going to resell or do business or invest.'"


Photo: Guy Houben

Leon Tovar Gallery is pleased to have received the award for Best Gallery from the Asociación Española de Críticos de Arte (AECA) at ARCO Madrid 2020. As a consistent exhibitor at the fair, we are humbled to have received this distinction and understand it to be a reflection of the quality of Latin America’s most important artists. The Gallery looks forward to continuing its program of underscoring the accomplishments of these often under-recognized artists, and advocating for their increasing visibility within the international canon.

“This time, more than half of the fair will be dedicated to individual presentations, including 15 by female artists, in addition to vibrant thematic and group exhibitions, highlighting Latin American creators who contribute to today's art scene. Among these individual presentations will be that of the self-taught Martín Ramírez whose work reflects the confined space in which he carries out his work, as well as Leon Tovar Gallery's debut in The Art Show 2020, which recounts Latin American artists who lived and worked in New York. ”

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Photo: Daniel Chen

“The Art Show is committed to focusing on individual artists with over half of the booths presenting solo exhibitions this year. While some dealers dedicate their booths to well-known modern and contemporary artists like Pablo Picasso, Sam Gilliam and Tony Cragg, others highlight artists that are deserving of greater recognition, like Eritrean artist Ficre Ghebreyesus and constructivist Marcelo Bonevardi.”


Photo: Daniel Chen

“Among our first-time exhibitors are ADAA members who have joined the Association recently, including David Kordansky Gallery, Andrew Kreps Gallery, McClain Gallery, Gallery Wendi Norris, Franklin Parrasch Gallery, Ricco/Maresca Gallery, and Leon Tovar Gallery, whose programs span a wide range of genres, media, and periods of art history. I’m particularly looking forward to Leon Tovar’s presentation of Marcelo Bonevardi’s “painting constructions” from the 1960s and 70s, and Gallery Wendi Norris’s dual presentation of works by Leonora Carrington and Remedios Varo, exploring the artistic partnership of the two female Surrealists.”

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Photo: Daniel Chen

The latest exhibition of the New York–based painter Fanny Sanín examines the profound changes in her artwork that coincided with her move to the city. While working in an abstract language of sumptuous color adjacent to the likes of Barnett Newman, Ellsworth Kelly, and Frank Stella, Sanín developed a singular style during the 1970s that garnered international acclaim. New York: The Critical Decade, 1971–1981, opens at the Institute of Fine Arts at NYU on February 18, 2020.

Marcelo Bonevardi's Untitled (1977) was featured as part of Leon Tovar Gallery's presentation at Master Drawings New York 2020

"Agustín Fernández: Armaduras will focus on a series of paintings Fernández produced in the early 1970s alongside related drawings and collages. Known collectively as the “Armadura Series” (“Armor Series”), these paintings employ black heraldic forms and draw a link between shapes that can be associated to Medieval life and mysticism and suggestive anatomical references that relate to contemporary erotic practices. While never giving up on figuration altogether, Fernández’s iconography is endowed with an uncanny referential dimension that prevents it from being defined by first impressions or art historical precedent. Instead, his imagery links eroticism and violence in such a way as to speak to the very power of pictorial forms to impinge on the common-sense structures of everyday life."

"Leon Tovar Gallery, which has always been the best [...]brought us the Maquette for the Delta Solar"


Photo: Mateo Saenz

On the occasion of ARTBO 2019, Gallery Director Leon Tovar participated in a panel discussion on the rapid rise of Colombian art onto the international stage. Click the image for a link to the video.

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PANEL

Leon Tovar (Leon Tovar Gallery, New York)

Ana Sokoloff (Sokoloff + Associates, New York)

Luis Javier Castro (Collector)


MODERATOR

Alejandro Santos (Director, Semana Magazine)

It is with great sadness that the Gallery shares the passing of renowned artist Carlos Cruz-Diez on July 27. Born in Caracas in 1923, the artist moved to Paris in 1960 where his bold experiments in the field of color perception were a unique and invaluable contribution to the field of mid-twentieth century kinetic art. Deeply committed to accessibility, his seminal practice prioritized the viewer's own movements and perspectives, a shift that replaced the work of art's ideal vantage point with an innumerable multiplicity. There is, therefore, no singular position from which to view the artist's pathfinding artworks and large-scale architectural interventions—the colors, the geometric compositions, all change depending on the spectator’s angle of vision. By creating an expansive body of work that challenges our normal relationship to color, and instead focuses on the physiological and phenomenological act of color perception, Cruz-Diez opened the door to, in his own words, “another ‘relationship of knowledge.’”


Photo: © 2019 Cruz-Diez Art Foundation

Leon Tovar Gallery is among the eight new members accepted into the Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA) for the 2019 term. We are honored to be among the distinguished class of member galleries, and look forward to providing continued support to Latin America’s pathfinding Modernists. For the occasion, Mr. Tovar issued a statement: “To receive recognition from the ADAA is one of the highest honors of my career as a gallerist. For nearly three decades, the gallery has been steadfast in its belief that art from Latin America is worthy of wider recognition, and that its artists should be included in the same discourses as their North American and European peers. We are honored not only to have earned admission into this prestigious organization, but also to witness further recognition of the increasing stature of Latin American art.”


Photo: Peter Baker

Art Historian Carol Damian reviews the latest exhibition of the enigmatic and eclectic work of Marcelo Bonevardi. Drawing inspiration in equal measure from contemporary trends in the New York art world, movements within the history of abstraction in Latin America, and indigenous art, Bonevardi developed a syncretic and highly personal artistic language. "Infused with a personal lexicon of symbols and visionary spirit, the works express a fascination with mathematics, architectonic constructions, astronomy, rituals and metaphysics, and ancient art, among other intellectual pursuits," writes Damian. Marcelo Bonevardi: Magic Made Manifest is on view at the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, from February 21–May 26, 2019.

Ángela León Cervera of Luster Magazine speaks with Leon Tovar about the history of the Gallery, the collectibility of art from Latin America, and how he got his start.


Image: Leon Tovar in the studio of Eduardo Ramírez Villamizar.

On the occasion of TEFAF New York 2019, Gallery Director Leon Tovar participated in a panel discussion on the terminology used to speak about art produced by Latin American artists. The group explored the complexities of the term "Latin American Art" in both its limitations and potential uses, as well as its application to contemporary artists of a younger generation.


PANEL

Pablo León de la Barra (Curator at Large, Latin America, Guggenheim Museum)

Margaret Carrigan (Deputy Art Market Editor, The Art Newspaper)

Leon Tovar (Leon Tovar Gallery)

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MODERATOR

Natasha Degen (Professor and Chair, Art Market Studies, FIT)

As more artists from Latin America are beginning to achieve recognition on the international stage—in many instances long overdue—the term "Latin American Art" becomes increasingly difficult to justify. Just in time for the opening of TEFAF NY Spring 2019, Gallery Director Leon Tovar spoke to The Art Newspaper's Margaret Carrigan on the potential problems and errors inherent to the term.


Photo: Peter Baker

Those who come to TEFAF Maastricht, Leon Tovar tells Infobae, "are true and high level collectors: there are no beginners." Follow the link for more of our Gallery Director's comments on the fair and our 2019 display.


Photo: Guy Houben

As ARCO Madrid 2019 comes to a close, Mr. Tovar reflects on the fair's latest edition with El País.

Photo: Carlos Martínez Delgado

Drawing New York hosted Fine Art Tours during Master Drawings, New York. Here is a short video of the tour at Leon Tovar Gallery where we heard about the work of Agustín Fernández.

Interview with Leon Tovar on the occasion of the Gallery's participation in the 2018 iteration of ArtBO.

In the 2018 edition of the Fair, the Referentes section presents the exhibition "Dialogs through time", under the curatorship of Pilar Tompkins. The selection has the work of the artist Fanny Sanín, which has been influenced by travel and the places where she has lived. First Bogotá, then Mexico, then London and finally New York, where she currently resides.

Artist and critic Joseph Nechvatal reviews Agustín Fernández: Paradoxe de la Jouissance at the Mairie du 4e arrondissement, Paris.

"Leon Tovar Gallery smartly countered Lévy Gorvy's showing of modern and contemporary masters with its own sophisticated selection of post-war Latin American art by artists including Jesús Rafael Soto and Carmelo Arden Quin."

“Amid all the works by familiar white male modernists on view at the plush and posh fair, there are many superb pieces by women and artists from Latin America…Leon Tovar Gallery is offering a robust sampling of Latin American modernism featuring works by Venezuelan avant-gardists Carlos Cruz-Diez and Jesús Rafael Soto, Colombian artist Jorge Riveros, and Argentina-based Manuel Espinosa.”

This panel of international experts debates how museums and other cultural institutions have responded to a re-imagining of the history of Modernism and what effect that has on the acquisition and display of Modernist art.


PANEL

Layla Diba (Independent Curator, Pre-Modern and Modern Middle Eastern Art)
Kevin Dumouchelle (Curator, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution)
Boon Hui Tan (Vice President, Global Arts and Cultural Programs, Asia Society; Director, Asia Society Museum)
Leon Tovar (Leon Tovar Gallery)


MODERATOR

Marc Pachter (Director Emeritus, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution)

“Modern and contemporary painting and sculpture dominate the spring fair, but antiquities, ethnographic objects, design and furnishings are in the mix…You might learn the most about Latin American modernism at León Tovar, whose dark gray walls are hung salon style with bright, geometrically shaped paintings by the Venezuelans Francisco Salazar, Carlos Cruz-Diez and Jesús Rafael Soto; the Argentines Manuel Espinosa and Rogelio Polesello; the Colombian Jorge Riveros, and Carmelo Arden Quin, an Uruguayan artist.”

"This year, Tefaf Maastricht has 16 new exhibitors. More than half of them are devoted to contemporary and modern paintings, works on paper or design, including ... Leon Tovar Gallery of New York, representing modern Latin American art."

Photo: Guy Houben

Curator, collector, and independent scholar Estrellita B. Brodsky considers the enigmatic "painting-constructions" and drawings of the Argentinian-born artist Marcelo Bonevardi. Concerning the symbols and objects that Bonevardi brings together, Brodsky writes, "Their meaning is never clear. Rather, Bonevardi presents the viewer with architectural spaces, tangible objects and their perceptible traces or absence. Ultimately, one is invited to confront these elements and enter at one’s own risk into an exceptional yet common world."

“ArtBo has called our attention due to the many expressions and events the fair brings together… A Soto presented by Leon Tovar Gallery showcases the quality and projection of the artist’s optical geometric art. The interaction of the viewer and the work is unavoidable…”

“…the Fair has contributed in the development of a more dynamic art market in Bogota… In the last two decades, art fairs have expanded around the world and are now one of the most important models to showcase and commercialize art…”

"Leon Tovar Gallery was responsible for the installation of Media Esfera Roja (1988) from the kinetic Venezuelan artist Jesús Rafael Soto at the 13th edition of ArtBo. Soto is considered one of the mayor representatives of kinetic and optical art in Latin America. Since the ’60s, Soto has experimented with linear constructions made of industrial and synthetic materials (nylon, acrylic, steel). This monumental installation greets the fair’s public as they enter the venue."

The meticulous practice of Colombian painter Fanny Sanín is on full view in the artist's one-person show at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. By bringing together examples of Sanín's patiently rendered sketches alongside her exquisitely finished paintings, viewers will have the rare opportunity to access the artist's creative process. The exhibition will be on view though October 29, 2017.

"Leon Tovar Gallery's presentation at TEFAF NY Spring 2017 was selected among the 8 most fascinating booths."

PANEL
Iria Candela (Curator, Modern and Contemporary Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Gabriela Rangel (Director, Visual Arts, and Chief Curator, Americas Society)
Leon Tovar (Leon Tovar Gallery)
Christian Viveros-Fauné (Journalist)

MODERATOR

Ana Sokoloff (Founding Partner, Sokoloff + Associates)

"The sense of history pervades even galleries with a focus on modern and contemporary artists, such as Leon Tovar Gallery, whose two New York locations represent artists from Latin America."

During Leon Tovar's appearance on CNN Español's GloboEconomía with José Antonio Montenegro, the Gallery's Director provided his perspective on the ever-growing stature of Latin American art within institutions. "Latin American art has made great strides in the last decade in its consideration by the academic world and museums," Tovar stated, "but now it needs to gain ground in the market."

Interview with Leon Tovar on the occasion of ArtBo 2015

"Veteran design dealer Cristina Grajales and Latin American art specialist Leon Tovar have joined hands in a new venture, which is based in New York's trendy NoMad. Their 6,000 sq ft premises constitutes a new business model in that each has their own dedicated gallery as well as a joint space set aside to curate groundbreaking exhibitions."

Leon Tovar Gallery's presentation is highlighted in Martha Schwendener's review of the 2015 Armory Show in New York.

Leon Tovar Gallery is pleased to offer its support in the production of Waterweavers: The River in Contemporary Colombian Visual and Material Culture, on view at at the Bard Graduate Center Gallery in New York City from April 10 to August 10, 2014. Curated by José Roca with Alejandro Martín, the exhibition will also be presented at the Centro Cultural Conde Duque, Madrid (February 25–April 12, 2015), and the Art Museum of the Americas, Washington, DC (June 24–September 22, 2015).