Bienal de São Paulo Names Amanda Carneiro and Raphael Fonseca as 2027 Chief Curators
The Bienal de São Paulo has chosen Amanda Carneiro and Raphael Fonseca to lead its 2027 edition, placing two Brazilian curators at the center of one of Latin America’s most closely watched art exhibitions. The theme for the 37th Bienal will be announced in the coming months.
Held at the Oscar Niemeyer-designed Pavilhão Ciccillo Matarazzo in Ibirapuera Park, the Bienal is the largest exhibition of its kind in Latin America and a major platform for contemporary art in the region. The appointment signals continuity as much as change: according to Andrea Pinheiro, president of the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo, this is only the second time the institution has entrusted the artistic leadership of an edition to two Brazilian curators working together on equal footing.
Pinheiro described the selection as the result of a careful collective process and said it reflects confidence in a curatorial generation in Brazil with the experience and vision to keep the Bienal at the center of current artistic debate. The choice also arrives as biennials continue to function as key sites for testing how institutions frame global contemporary art through local expertise.
Fonseca is among the most visible Brazilian curators working internationally. He previously served as curator of modern and contemporary Latin American art at the Denver Art Museum, where he is now curator at large, and is currently based in Lisbon as visual arts curator for Culturgest. Before that, he worked at the Contemporary Art Museum of Niterói. His recent and upcoming projects include chief curatorship of the 2025 Bienal do Mercosul, co-curatorship of the forthcoming 3rd Counterpublic Triennial, and a co-curatorial role in the 2023 SESC Videobrasil Biennale. In Venice, he will organize the Taiwan Pavilion.
Carneiro is a curator at the Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP), where she has organized exhibitions for artists including Santiago Yahuarcani, Hulda Guzmán, Serigrafistas Queer, Kang Seung Lee, Madalena Santos Reinbolt, Abdias Nascimento, Beatriz Milhazes, Leonor Antunes, and Sonia Gomes. She also served on the curatorial team for the 2024 Venice Biennale’s main exhibition, “Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere,” organized by MASP artistic director Adriano Pedrosa. Before joining MASP, she worked at Museu Afro Brasil Emanoel Araujo in São Paulo.
Carneiro said the appointment is “a joy, a challenge, and a responsibility,” adding that she looks forward to working with artists in São Paulo and collaborating with the Bienal team on the new edition. With the theme still to come, the announcement sets the stage for a 2027 Bienal likely to draw close attention well beyond Brazil.
