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There is a growing number of sources on the subjects of biennials and fairs. Reviewing three recently published books about art fairs and biennials presents us an opportunity to discuss fresh research on openly market-driven exhibitions (art fairs) and ostensibly less commercial ventures (biennials and the large-scale exhibitions). Arguing for the independence of biennials from the art market, and benefiting from a multidisciplinary perspective, the three publications add innovative knowledge to an issue that still arouses some criticism. Double Trouble in Exhibiting the Contemporary: Fairs and Biennials edited by Cristina Baldacci, Clarissa Ricci and Angela Vettese; From Roman Feria to Global Art Fair, From Olympia Festival to Neo-liberal Biennial. On the 'Biennialization' of Art Fairs and the 'Fairization' of Biennials, by Paco Barragán; and Biennials. The Exhibitions we Love to Hate by Rafal Niemojewski, will be here analyzed in terms of their structure and their contribution to the subject., OBOE JOURNAL, Vol. 3 No. 1 (2022): Exhibiting Prints: The Role of Printed Matter in International, Large-Scale Exhibitions

UIDB/00417/2020 UIDP/00417/2020 The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide, and the restrictions imposed by the social distance and the enforced confinement, are having an impact on the art markets globally. The aim of this article is to evaluate the impact of an external shock in the primary art market, using three countries as a case study: Portugal, Spain, and Brazil. These geographies have in common being at the margins in the art market’s main art hubs. It is intended to analyze how agents are responding to the new context, according to the data gathered within the gallery sector. The methods applied in the research are a combination of surveys carried out by the authors, field-based observation, along with an academic literature review, complemented by international and national reports analysis. The study’s main findings allow us to characterize the art market as a very resilient sector that energetically responded to the crisis, able to adapt and overcome challenges imposed by the new pandemic situation. Contemporary art galleries expanded digital activities, kept participating in art fairs hybrid models, continued to focus on internationalization, and pointed to the strengthening of public policies towards the sector and partnerships as key strategies to overcome the crisis publishersversion published

UIDB/00417/2020 UIDP/00417/2020 The aim of this article is to characterise the rise of the Portuguese contemporary art market since the beginning of the 21st century, within the broader context of the global contemporary art market. Against a theoretical backdrop of the globalisation of markets for contemporary art and the concept of the periphery, I will analyse Lisbon’s art scene as a local phenomenon that is looking for an international recognition. In doing so, I am focusing on two working hypotheses. The first relates to the efforts made by the gallery sector to raise the international profile of its artists, giving them sought-after widespread recognition, which encompasses a historical perspective on the situation and a prominent role for the younger generation of gallerists. The second intends to observe the role played by private collectors and their contributions towards boosting the art scene, assembling their contemporary art collections and making them available to the public. I conclude that this has led to an upsurge in the contemporary art market in connection with the growing number of validating structures, museums, and art centres, due mainly to the fact that the shortcomings of the public sector are being made up for by private initiatives. publishersversion published

UID/PAM/00417/201 Figuras de prestígio e de legitimação, os colecionadores de arte contemporânea dinamizam o mercado e contribuem para“acelerar”a história da arte (CABANNE,2004,321), promovendo movimentos estéticos e propagando o gosto, sobretudo através de museus privados. Observa-se uma prática sistemática de colecionar para o domínio público, abrindo museus próprios ou negociando espaços de exibição, que tem diferenciado o colecionismo privado contemporâneo do praticado anteriormente. Através da análise comparativa, é objetivo deste artigo identificar alterações no modo de praticar esta atividade no mundo global, observar persistências na procura da singularidade da coleção e distinguir o poder hoje associado ao colecionismo privado. Figures of prestige and legitimation, collectors of contemporary art dynamize the art market and contribute to “accelerate”the historyof art(CABANNE, 2004, 321), promoting aesthetic movements and spreading taste, especially through private museums. There is a systematic practice of collecting for the public domain, opening its own museums or negotiating exhibition spaces, which has differentiated contemporary private collection from that practiced previously. Through the comparative analysis, it is the purpose of this article to identify changes in the way of practicing this activity in the global world, to observe persistence in the search for the singularity of the collection and to distinguish the power associated nowadays with private collecting. publishersversion published

Regional economic growth in Portugal has mainly been studied from the perspective of convergence with data ending by the early 2000’s. The country as a whole has stopped converging to the output levels of the richest European countries by this period and has also become one of the most unequal EU member-states in terms of income distribution in the meantime. It is thus important to analyze the growth performance at the regional level in a more recent period, 1995- 2007, emphasizing regional disparities in inequality as explanatory factors. This study examines the relationship between inequality and regional growth in Portugal at NUTS III level exploring the explanatory power of earnings and education inequality measures computed with data from the Quadros de Pessoal database. The results point to a positive relationship between initial inequality and regional growth, stronger for education than for earnings inequality, but with earnings inequality measures revealing a higher explanatory power. Moreover, there is evidence that it is inequality at the top end of the distribution that is relevant to explain regional growth, a result that reinforces the higher propensities to save of the richer and the incentives mechanisms of transmission from inequality to growth. Additionally, the evidence on the existence of convergence among Portuguese NUTS III regions during the period under analysis is mixed. These findings are robust to the introduction of most additional control variables and the consideration of alternative measures of earnings and education inequality.