The Founder of Brazil's Most Epic Art Garden Is Opening Another One

Brazil's Minas Gerais state is about to get a whole lot more artistic — and botanical. Bernardo Paz, the mining magnate who gifted the world the sprawling Inhotim museum, is at it again. His new venture, the Museu Bernardo Paz, will transform 311 acres into a fresh playground for "art, nature, and community." Mark your calendars for September 2027, when the first phase opens its doors.

Paz, ever the poet, says the museum is all about "unexpected encounters." He's hoping to spark new conversations between art and the landscape, artists and audiences, and the local Brumadinho community with, well, everyone else.

Another Immersive Oasis

Visitors can look forward to over 20 galleries and pavilions, dotted with outdoor installations and sculptures, all nestled within a botanical park and forest. Because apparently, one world-renowned art-nature campus isn't quite enough for some people.

Locals will get their own community center, complete with a library and art studios. There's even a pavilion dedicated to music and dancing, which organizers rightly call "essential elements of Brazilian culture." Because what's art without a little rhythm?

The initial lineup of artists reads like a who's who of contemporary cool: Laura Belém, Sandra Gamarra, Sonia Gomes, Michael Heizer, Anna Maria Maiolino, and Pedro Moraleida are all getting their own pavilions. Plus, large-scale works from Torkwase Dyson, Frida Orupabo, Giuseppe Penone, and Mario Garcia Torres will dot the landscape.

Michael Heizer, the legendary land artist, will have his first permanent Latin American installation here. Prepare for two massive pieces from 1993: Displaced Replaced Mass #3 and Negative Wall Sculpture #1. Which, if you think about it, is both impressive and slightly terrifying.

Artistic director Paulo Miyada is aiming for nothing less than a "renewal of the imagination," promising "intense opportunities for creation, inspiration, and transformation." No pressure.

Expanding a Very Green Legacy

Paz co-founded Inhotim back in 2006, a 700-acre marvel that blended art and nature preserves. Allan Schwartzman, Inhotim's co-founder and a New York art advisor, is also on board for the new museum as chief curatorial advisor. The man knows a good thing when he sees it.

This new Brumadinho campus will boast around 15,000 trees and a million shrubs, cacti, and flowering plants. Its design takes cues from Paz's admiration for 20th-century landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx, featuring fruit and flowering trees that will border the Inhotim Private Natural Heritage Reserve. So, yes, it's essentially Inhotim's very lush, very artistic neighbor.

Schwartzman noted that Paz "opened up unprecedented possibilities" with Inhotim. He expects the new museum to be "astonishing in both scope and imaginative force." And if anyone knows astonishing scope, it's the guy who helped build the first one.

Oh, and a quick sidebar: Paz was sentenced to nine years for money laundering related to Inhotim in 2017, but that decision was reversed in 2020. Because even visionary art patrons have a bit of a backstory.