In this text, North American curator Dan Cameron asserts that it is difficult to take stock of the vast work and public role of São Paulo-based gallerist Marcantonio Vilaça. The text holds that Vilaça performed a crucial mission in forging a cohesive international culture. To satisfy his curiosity, he collected a range of works that reflected the breath of his tastes and interests. He eventually discovered that works from different contexts can have a similar sensibility. Cameron calls the gallery Vilaça opened in the Vila Madalena section of São Paulo the first “trans-Latin” gallery. The project demonstrated that Brazilian artists were forming a powerful hybrid culture. Vilaça’s critical yet sensual vision determined which artists he chose to work with: Lygia Clark, Hélio Oiticica, Lygia Pape, Cildo Meireles, Tunga, Waltércio Caldas, and Mira Schendel. The artists from the next generation with whom he worked include Vik Muniz, Leonilson, Ernesto Neto, Jac Leirner, photographer Rio Branco, Adriana Varejão, Beatriz Milhazes, Iran do Espírito Santo, Rivane Neuenschwander and José Damasceno, all of whom benefitted from Vilaça’s ability to bring their work to the international scene. In other words, Vilaça’s work evidences, in Cameron’s view, that an individual is capable of changing the direction of the “taste” that circulates internationally, thus facilitating knowledge of the thought process that underlies a collection.