Primitive Modern: A Look at the 20th Century Latin American Art

EVENT DESCRIPTION

ABOUT THE ARTIST / ORGANISER

Axel Stein - Head of Outreach & Development, Oswaldo Vigas Foundation
Axel Stein studied Art History at the University of Brussels.
Upon returning to Venezuela, Stein worked as a Curator at the Museum of Fine Arts in Caracas. In the early 1980s, he became the director of Sala Mendoza, a prominent non-profit contemporary art space in Caracas. In 1990, Axel Stein was appointed as the first director of Sotheby's office in Caracas. By the year 2000, Stein and his family moved to Miami, where he became the director of the Sotheby's office. Later, in 2010, Stein relocated to New York where he became the head of the Latin American Art department at Sotheby's in 2012, overseeing about two dozen Latin American Art auctions (both evening and day sales).
During his tenure, approximately 2,500 lots were sold, with the cumulative net sales over the six years of his management reaching around $250 million. In 2018, Stein left the company and started his own advisory firm. Stein serves as an advisor to the Oswaldo Vigas Foundation and played a key role in structuring the artist's Catalogue Raisonné.

Lorenzo Vigas – Chairman, Oswaldo Foundation
Son of Oswaldo Vigas (1923-2014), Lorenzo Vigas (Venezuela, 1967) became the first Latin American to win the Golden Lion at the 72nd Venice International Film Festival in 2015, for his film "From Afar", which the New York Times called a "masterly feature debut" and The Guardian praised as “intriguing, emotionally painful, and brilliant.” His short film, "Elephants never forget" premiered in the Cannes Film Festival´s Critics Week in 2004 and his last feature film, "The box" (La caja), competed in year 2021 for the Golden Lion in the 79th Venice Internacional Film Festival.
Toward the preservation and divulgation of his father´s artistic legacy, Lorenzo founded the Oswaldo Vigas Foundation, under the directorship of Dilia Hernández. Among many projects carried out, they completed, in year 2022, the first catalogue raisonné of any Venezuelan artist. As part of his involvement with the Foundation, he premiered in the 73rd Venice International Film Festival the documentary about his father, "El vendedor de orquídeas" (The orchid seller).