If Buenos Aires is in the midst of a cultural arts renaissance–as many contend–then arteBA is at the forefront. Now in its nineteenth year, the annual contemporary art festival took over the city last week, attracting more than 100,000 revelers from all over Latin America and beyond. The massive coming together of artists from all parts of the continent was staged at two mammoth pavillions on Buenos Aires’ Rural show grounds (photo above), and was an illuminating representation of the electric art being produced by our friends south of the equator.

Walking into the pavillion on a Saturday afternoon, we were overwhelmed by the sheer amount of art popping off the walls at every turn. Instead of spending a week touring Buenos Aires’ wealth of galleries, we got to experience the best the city has to offer all in one shot. Here, we present five things from arteBA 10′ that deserve a second look:

Carlos Gorriarena. Este Vacío, Thomas Cohn Gallery, Sao Paulo, Brazil

The half-naked woman’s presence among intellectuals obliterates the line between high and low art, and the faceless men lend the piece a nightmarish quality. The only way this could be more self-reflexive is if the word PAINTING was splashed across the foreground.

Cecilia Avendaño. Serie Pride, Sala Cero Gallery, Santiago, Chile

A neck tatoo on a little girl is unsettling enough; make that little girl look like a quasi-alien and we’re entering a whole new level of creepy.

Gonzalo Sojo. Desayuno en los Alpes, Appetite Gallery, Buenos Aires, Argentina

This notoriously in-your-face collective is known for their more abrasive, raunchy pieces, though here the overt sexuality that was present throughout the rest of the Appetite room is toned down. But their melange of classic art and contemporary pop culture is as tongue-in-cheek as ever.

Carolina Antoniadis. Progresión, Del Infinito Gallery, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Some works of art beg for criticism, analysis, and debate. Others are just simple meditations on design, colour and composition, meant only to please the senses. We’d like to think this one is the latter.

Silvia Gruner. Lady Doctor, Garash Galeria, Mexico

Nudity was de riguer at arteBA, but where much of it seemed gratuitous and borderline pornographic, this piece from Mexico is restrained, classic, and modern all at once.

-Daniel Barna