Most things Brazilian are hot – from the Copacabana to the carnival. Art is no different. Brazilian artists are known for making sensuous work, like Cildo Meireles and Ernesto Neto, who has a major solo show coming up at the Hayward Gallery in London this summer.
The exhibition, which opens in June, forms part of the Southbank Centre's Festival Brazil. Neto returns to the Hayward after his showing in Psycho Buildings two years ago, for which he created Life Fog Frog, an enormous walk-in fabric dome with bags of spice hanging from it.
Meireles had a major show at Tate Modern in late 2008. But the interest in contemporary Brazilian art also extends to younger, less well-known artists. "It is easy to spot a growing interest in contemporary Brazilian art, as more up and coming artists are being taken on by London galleries," said João Carlos Guarantani, who runs the Brazilian embassy's Gallery 32 in London.
At London's annual Frieze Art Fair, the number of Brazilian galleries represented has nearly doubled in recent years to five. Last year, the Brazilian galleries rocked Frieze's international section. At Galeria Fortes Vilaca, one of São Paulo's most important galleries, hundreds of chess pieces were scattered across a wall forming a strange map of the world, and at A Gentil Caricoca from Rio, Laura Lima did a White Elephant drawing with one arm coming out from a hole in a white wall.
"I've been to Russia, China and Brazil in the last few years and Brazil is the most interesting one of the Bric countries," said Frieze co-director Matthew Slotover. "It has an incredible history of architecture and design through modernism, and that has really fed into the art scene."
Brazil's contemporary art scene, already vibrant, took off after major corporate tax breaks were introduced in the 1990s. Companies can get back up to 100% of their cultural investments in tax rebates. As a result, banks and telecoms companies have emerged as big cultural sponsors.
Among the banks, Itaú Unibanco, Banco do Brasil, Santander and Caixa Econômica Federal have all set up contemporary art centres or multimedia cultural hubs – comparable to London's Barbican Centre – around the country. The state-owned post office group, Correios, founded an important cultural centre in Rio, while telecoms companies Oi, Vivo and Embratel are also major sponsors, alongside the federation of industry and the federation of commerce.
The Lei Rouanet allows individuals and companies to invest 6% and 4% respectively of their tax due in cultural activities. In 2008, more than 1bn reais was invested in culture. But the tax breaks have been criticised for allowing companies to advertise for free and for letting them set the cultural agenda.
The culture minister, Juca Ferreira, said: "How can we consider as patronage such a system by which some corporations benefit from public money and spend it for their own brand goals?"
The government has proposed changes to the law, under which companies will no longer be able to use the tax rebate to invest entirely in their own cultural centres. The government will also gain more influence over where the money is invested to ensure that it is spread around the country and does not only go to the big cities.
Matteo Moriconi, who launched Brazil's first virtual art museum in 1997 with support from the government and Petrobras, believes the tax breaks are a good thing. "I've lived in London for two years and now live in Rome and there is no similar law based on these principles – and it works."
Moriconi, whose father Roberto taught Neto and was part of the avant garde art movement of the 1970s and 80s together with Hélio Oiticica, is trying to get sponsorship from Petrobras and the government for a new project teaching art to children in deprived areas.
Guarantani compared Brazil to Spain, where banks are also funding art centres, for example Caixa in Barcelona. "The most successful projects in Brazil are those where public and private funding is combined," he said. "A publicly funded museum will usually only have a big blockbuster show if it is funded by a big company." There are exceptions, however, for example the giant Centro Cultural São Paulo, which is completely funded by the city.
However, galleries are hamstrung by punitive rates of import tax (36%) and VAT on art, which are among the highest in the world. "This makes it very hard for institutions and private collectors to be a part of the international art market," said Jochen Volz, artistic director at Inhotim.
Deep in the mountain forest in the south-east, one of the most vibrant contemporary art hubs is growing. Inhotim, a non-profit organisation, was opened to the public in 2006 by the Brazilian mining magnate and art collector Bernardo Paz. He is married to one of Brazil's leading contemporary artists, Adriana Varejão, who is represented by the Victoria Miro gallery in London.
The 3,000 acre Inhotim, near Belo Horizonte, houses some 600 works of art by over 100 artists in 14 galleries and pavilions, in the midst of botanical gardens. It has a very international collection, while most other art centres mainly show Brazilian and Latin American artists.
Volz said Inhotim is playing an important role in the decentralisation of the art scene. With hundreds of galleries and museums, São Paulo and Rio dominate the Brazilian art scene, but in recent years Recife and Salvador in the north-east and Belo Horizonte in the south-east have also become important contemporary art hubs. Regional museums and galleries run by city or state governments have sprung up across the country thanks to an increase in public art funding.
Brazil's Ministry of Culture has received its biggest budget to date this year, amounting to 2.2bn reais, up from 1.4bn reais last year. A problem is that not all the money ever gets spent, says Contas Abertas, a non-governmental organisation that monitors the nation's accounts.
Experts say that Brazil has become a much more exciting place for young artists than more experienced ones. Some prestigious galleries have opened experimental spaces. Galeria Fortes Vilaca was one of the first galleries to invest in new talent and experimental projects, but since the death of its founder ten years ago, another São Paulo gallery, Galeria Vermelho, founded in 2002, has taken up the mantle.
There has been a rise in residencies, bursaries and fellowships for young artists around the country. The traditional salons where artists can submit work and compete for prizes are being revamped. In Belo Horizonte, the Museu de Arte da Pampulha, designed by Oscar Niemeyer, is offering young artists scholarships to live and work in the city for one year. In Recife, a salon was used to develop cultural projects with several Indian tribes.
The São Paulo Biennial, which started in 1951 and is the oldest biennial after Venice, has gone through a difficult patch but is trying to reinvent itself with a new focus on video art this year.
The more commercial SP Arte fair, which is held in the Biennial building in São Paulo, has been growing every year since its creation in 2005. It will host 70 galleries, including some from the UK, US, France and Spain, in April.
"If you go to São Paulo," Volz added, "you'd be surprised how many young artists there are who are producing very interesting work."
