In l976, Carmen Alemán Healy graduated in Art History from Massachusetts’ prestigious Smith College in the USA. Just a few months after she returned to Panama, Alemán was approached by Graciela Eleta and Panarte’s Board of Directors to establish a gallery which would fulfill two simultaneous objectives: firstly to display the polychrome ceramic works produced by the Taller Las Guabas founded by Guillermo Trujillo and also to show the works of individual young artists. So Panarte’s Sótano (cellar) was born and it played host to a score of exhibitions in her two years as the gallery’s director.

Impressed by the quality and variety of the work of Latin American artists exhibited in Panarte’s main gallery, in l979 she decided to branch out on her own in order to get more experience of this emerging market. She established Arteconsult as the vehicle for this new venture, starting out in a small location on Justo Arosemena Avenue, where she worked as a consultant and operated a gallery showing individual exhibitions of works by Guillermo Trujillo and the young artists Tabo Toral and Isabel de Obaldia. At this time she also began to travel to New York and a number of other destinations in Latin America to extend her knowledge of this field.

Two years later she linked up with architect Mariela Sagel and made plans to move to a new location on Ricardo Arias Street, where she had enough space to put on three important exhibitions in association with the Signs Gallery of New York and Miami’s Forma Gallery: “Arte Contemporáneo de Panamá” (1981), “Arte Cubano” (1982) and an individual exhibition of the work of Fernando De Szyszlo (1983). These exhibitions were the springboard for her international career leading her to establish Alemán Galleries in Boston (1984-1987).

In l984 she began holding a series of exhibitions in the Olivella Building, on Samuel Lewis Avenue, where she worked as co director with the late Irene Escofferi, and since then she has been importing Latin American art works into Panama and exporting the works of artists from Panama and the rest of Latin America to the USA, Europe and many international exhibitions.

In l989 Arteconsult moved its international business from Boston to Miami and began the Tower Collection, a program of exhibitions showing investment quality works for Tower Bank, Miami. At the same time she was promoting Latin American and Panamanian artists to the Florida market in collaboration with Sylvia Karman Cubeña. Born out of this new venture, The Americas Collection gallery was established in Coral Gables, Florida in 1991 jointly by The Art Trust Fund and Dora Valdes Fauli. The gallery represents a number of artists including Baruj Salinas, Connie LLoveras, Sebastian Spreng, Ignacio Espla, Gabriel González and Lina Binkele among others.

In 2005, in collaboration with Diana Grimberg, the Panama gallery moved to its fourth and current location in 50th Street, San Francisco. In December, the gallery will play host to a Collective Exhibition celebrating 30 years of the work of this renowned gallery proprietor and Latin American art curator.