Almeida & Dale Shakes Up Brazil’s Art Market by Purchasing Storied Millan Gallery

São Paulo–based gallery Almeida & Dale will officially acquire Millan, a stalwart of Brazil’s contemporary art scene. This move will consolidate a top primary dealership, Millan, and a major secondary one, Almeida & Dale, reflecting a growing trend as the new enterprise aims to remain dynamic and competitive in the global art market.

As part of the deal, Almeida & Dale will take over the management of Millan’s three exhibition spaces in Pinheiros, one of São Paulo’s most sought after neighborhoods, as well as its full artist roster. Additionally, Millan’s associate director João Marcelo de Andrade Lima and general director Hena Lee will become executive partners at Almeida & Dale, alongside that gallery’s founders, Antônio Almeida and Carlos Dale. Millan’s two cofounders, André Millan and Socorro de Andrade Lima, will take on the strategy-focused roles of artistic director and commercial director, respectively.

For Antônio Almeida, the art market needed a change. “By combining Millan’s keen artistic eye and its team of artists with Almeida & Dale’s expertise and portfolio, we will be able to expand the power of Brazilian and Latin American art around the world, and this is positive for the market, for artists, and for collectors,” he told ARTnews.

The merger will go through on March 29, with the opening of the exhibition “Nossa Senhora do Desejo” at one of each gallery’s spaces, placing the work of Pedro Moraleida Bernardes (1977–99), who during his short but prolific career created an expansive oeuvre that criticized aspects of contemporary Brazilian society, in conversation with the work of 20 Brazilian and international artists, including Cinthia Marcelle, Sara Ramo and Guerreiro Do Divino Amor.

Traditionally, there has been a clear distinction in Brazil between galleries operating in the primary market (new and recent work by contemporary artists) and the secondary market (historical work by deceased or established artists). This move now allows them to put an artist like 17th-century Dutch painter Franz Post in an exhibition alongside Alex Červený,  a contemporary Brazilian artist whose work draws from Medieval art, Renaissance altarpieces, and Surrealism, according to Almeida.

The complete merger doesn’t come as much of a surprise within Brazil, as the two galleries began a partnership in 2019 in which they shared collections, promoted the exchange of works and developed joint projects. Up until this year, however, they have maintained parallel trajectories and independent structures. The merger is expected to create one of Latin America’s largest galleries by exhibition space and number of artists represented.

“We aim to strengthen the international market for our artists,” Socorro de Andrade Lima, of Millan, said of her gallery’s acquisition by Almeida & Dale, which she described as having a “very strong know-how in the secondary market.”

For Millan’s Hena Lee, the strategy is to integrate the primary and secondary markets in the same project, promoting the legacy of emblematic artists and boosting contemporary production in the national and international scenes. “Our commitment is to collaborate with artists from diverse backgrounds, increasingly becoming a platform for multiple voices, with broad representation in our portfolio,” she said.

Almeida & Dale: A Pillar of Brazilian Art

Founded in 1998, Almeida & Dale has established itself as one of the most influential galleries in the country, promoting the legacy of artists who are fundamental to the history of Brazilian art and including their works in important institutional collections, both nationally and internationally.

“When we come across stories and artists that interest us, we work for five or ten years to promote this artist and leverage his or her relevance,” Dale said. “We map all of his or her works, establish a relationship with the family, and close the deal with the estate’s representation.”

Their strategy involves bringing well-respected curators to the project, mounting exhibitions and publishing accompanying exhibitions, taking the works to international art fairs, and donating the work to museums. In recent years, the gallery has revisited the work of important if underknown Brazilian artists such as Emiliano Di Cavalcanti, Flávio de Carvalho, Mestre Didi, Alberto da Veiga Guignard, Alfredo Volpi, Jandira Waters, José Leonilson, Rubem Valentim, and Lygia Pape. That support in turn has risen the profiles on several of these artists on the international stage. Di Cavalcanti, Volpi, Valentim all featured in the 2024 Venice Biennale, while de Carvalho, Volpi, and Valentim are currently part of an exhibition focusing on Brazilian modernism at the Royal Academy in London. Mestre Didi is the subject of a just-opened survey at El Museo del Barrio in New York.

Almeida said that Brazilian collectors increasingly know that their holdings cannot be made up of only modern art, but also include the work of historical Brazilian artists alongside that of recent contemporary art. The merger now “allows our collectors to have access to young artists first-hand,” he said. Dale added that Millan brings with it “a 35-year tradition in the market, an extremely diversified portfolio, and artists with high potential for internationalization.” It helps that the two galleries share several collectors.

And the new partnership will be mutually beneficial for the artists joining Almeida & Dale from Millan. “When we proposed this merger,” Almeida said, “the artists saw the possibility of starting to exhibit in other museums outside São Paulo. This greatly strengthens the artist’s work and strengthens the gallery to commercialize their work and gain access to other markets.”

Millan: A Legacy in Transition

Since its founding in 1986, Galeria Millan has become one of the most influential and powerful Brazilian galleries both within Brazil and on the international art scene, establishing itself as reference for its commitment to its artists and raising their profiles. Its artists include Tunga, Miguel Rio Branco, Maxwell Alexandre, Feliciano Centurión, and Jaider Esbell, who have shown in museums and biennials around the world.

“Our goal is to bring even more opportunities for growth and impact to the artists we represent,” Lee said. “The idea is to exponentially boost the work of our artists, with management expertise and global strategy.”

Tunga, who died in 2016 and whose estate has continued to work with Millan, has been among Millan’s most important artists in particular. A leading figure in Brazil, his career was capped by a 2005 exhibition at the Louvre, making him the first contemporary artist to show at the storied Paris museum. “The installation spoke precisely of this union of the old and the modern, ‘light between two worlds,’” Andrade said.

That each of the 42 artists and estates Millan represents agreed to join Almeida & Dale speaks to nature of the gallery’s artist relationships that its partners have cultivated over four decades. The partners called each artist individually before going through with the merger, and “all the artists agreed to come with us to Almeida & Dale,” Andrade said, adding that she and Millan will stay on the board “for as long as necessary.”

As executive partner at Almeida & Dale, Lee said she will focus on co-building the newly merged gallery’s vision and strategy. “Our dream is big, we want to expand our national and international presence, becoming one of the largest and most relevant galleries in the world,” she said. “To achieve this, we know that the most precious things we have are our artists, the collectors, clients, and partners who have been by our side for so many years, and the people who build this gallery with us every day.”

Ever Growing

The Millan acquisition is just one part of Almeida & Dale’s strategy for its future. The partners state they want to grow the art market within Brazil, as it is a massive country geographically, with 27 states and enormous potential. The country’s art market has long been concentrated in São Paulo, but they hope to change that.

“Galleries from Porto Alegre, Curitiba, and Rio de Janeiro come to São Paulo,” Almeida said. “We are doing the opposite, leaving São Paulo for other states.” Over the past few years, Almeida & Dale has established related gallery ventures in other cities with various partners in those cities. Flexa operates in Rio de Janeiro, which has been in business since 2024 and is run by three additional cofounders, while Cerrado Galeria, established in 2023, has locations in Brasilia and Goiânia, Goiás, a state in the Central-West region of Brazil that “has an absurd potential for art, but there are no galleries doing work in the area. So, we went there with the intention of building an art market there,” he added.

And the gallery is growing in São Paulo, too. Prior to the merger, Millan purchased a third building in Pinheiros, which it has been renovating. When that opens, it will more than triple Millan’s original footprint. Combined with Almeida & Dale’s current space in the Jardins neighborhood and a forthcoming nearby space, the new gallery will become one of the biggest galleries, by exhibition space, in Latin America.

This continued growth is part of what made Andrade and Millan confident in handing over the stewardship of their gallery program to Almeida & Dale. “Millan’s name will disappear,” Andrade said, “but the gallery’s story will remain. Almeida & Dale will carry on Millan’s story.”