The 12th edition of Noche de Galerías, promoted by the Association of Art Galleries of Paraguay (ASGAPA), marks a turning point in the country's visual arts market. For the first time, the event opens up to galleries that are not formally part of the association and extends its activities to entities located outside Asunción, adopting diversity as a fundamental principle.
Ticio Escobar, art critic and director of the Centro de Artes Visuales/Museo del Barro, says the decision establishes a watershed in the Paraguayan gallery tradition. “Diversity does not merely refer to geographic location and institutional reach, but to the consideration that contemporary art takes on different modalities, practices, and styles of creation, experimentation, and expression,” Escobar writes in a text accompanying the event's opening.
ASGAPA, the most consistent entity in Paraguay's visual arts market, reinforces its commitment to the creative and productive dimension of galleries, which act as cultural dissemination points in the non-governmental public sphere. In this edition, the association intensifies theoretical training programs, including conferences, roundtables, and colloquial discussions on contemporary art management.
Within the framework of this inter-institutional vocation, the 6th edition of the ASGAPA Prize for the Promotion of Young Critical Writing will be held, in alliance with the International Association of Art Critics (AICA), Paraguay Chapter, and the Instituto Superior de Arte – FADA/UNA. The program aims to encourage critical writing and thinking about visual arts among emerging sectors.
Diversity is also reflected in the range of techniques and procedures covered: painting, installation, drawing, printmaking, ceramics, sculpture, object, photography, and various experimental procedures. The works address issues such as the position of women in different contexts, environment, territory, identity, the presence of materials and technology, history, and the confrontation between the public and the private.
“It is certain that this bold and generous bet by ASGAPA constitutes a starting point to intensify this experience and bring new ways of conceiving cultural institutionality,” Escobar concludes, highlighting that the initiative seeks to overcome the dispersion of initiatives and promote articulations capable of leveraging previously isolated endeavors.