New Paraíso fair brings Latin American art to London Frieze week

London has a new fair devoted to Latin American art, and its centrepiece is a set of letters that almost went unseen for ever.

Paraíso, a smaller fair timed to coincide with Frieze, the big contemporary art week in London, opened its first edition at Ambika P3, a subterranean former concrete testing hall at 35 Marylebone Road in central London. It runs from 15 to 18 October and brings together 22 exhibitors, according to The Art Newspaper.

The fair was founded by Javier Calderón, who also launched Somers Gallery in London, a space focused on Latin American art. It is the first fair in London dedicated to art from the region since Pinta ended its London edition in 2015.

The headline show is Felipe Ehrenberg: 26 Maculate Letters from Mexico | An Unfinished Conversation. It presents previously unseen works by Felipe Ehrenberg, the late Mexican conceptual artist and mimeographer, a printmaker who worked with a stencil duplicating machine.

Ehrenberg lived in exile in England in the late 1960s and early 1970s. His fascination with the British postal service fed his mail art, small-scale works made to be sent through the post, often collaged, stamped and scribbled on.

The works are shown on the Somers Gallery stand. They are curated by Fortunata Calabrò, a researcher and friend of the artist who was the original addressee of the letters.

The letters, cards and envelopes were due to go on show in 2016. That exhibition was cancelled when Ehrenberg’s health declined. He died the following year.

The revived Paraíso display draws on that postponed project. It includes archival documents and photography linked to the planned 2016 show, earlier hand-collaged mail pieces, and a new artist book produced in a numbered edition.

Beyond that focus, the fair leans strongly toward Mexico while pulling in galleries from Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Peru and Bolivia, alongside UK-based galleries with a Latin American programme. Mexico City gallery Acapulco 62 is offering a large-scale wooden carving by Germán Venegas for £64,000. Cecilia Brunson Projects, a London gallery, is staging a solo presentation.

Paraíso says its aim is to show contemporary Latin American artists alongside Modern and Postmodern masters from the region, according to Paraíso.

For visitors, this means a compact route into a scene that rarely gets its own room during Frieze week. One stand holds a personal postal archive finally delivered. The rest offer a quick tour across six countries in one basement hall.