About the Institute

Bárbara Wagner, “Mestres de Cerimônias”, 2016, Mineral pigment on cotton paper, 80 x 120cm

Mission
To support, promote and help document Brazilian contemporary art and artists. Our goal is to be “The Window into Brazilian Contemporary Art”.

The Institute was established in 2010 with three main objectives:

  • To help creating an alternative path in the Brazilian art circuit that motivates and promotes the artists and art as a profession; to collaborate with the sector’s organization and generate a greater insertion of Brazilian art in the global scenario.  
  • To develop a blueprint for an efficient NGO, where most of the financial resources are destined to fulfill the Mission of the Institute.
  • To help the Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro (MAM Rio) build a selected collection of contemporary art. From 2010 to 2018, in an association between PIPA and the Museum of Modern Art of Rio, the finalists’ exhibitions were held at the museum. The finalists of each edition donated an artwork to MAM-Rio, allowing the expansion of  the museum’s collection, with 36 works added to the Brazilian contemporary art collection.

PIPA Institute’s first action was the PIPA Prize, which has been held annually since 2010. In 2019, the Prize’s exhibition was held at Villa Aymoré and, in 2021, at the Paço Imperial, both located in Rio de Janeiro.

Other actions have been promoted by the Institute, such as: acquisitions of works for the collection, commissioning, exhibitions of the collection, PIPA em Casa, Closer to PIPA, Podcast, critical texts and video interviews.

Learn more about the history of the PIPA Institute by checking below the links to the texts in pdf, written exclusively for the book celebrating the Institute’s 10 years in 2019.