This year Art Madrid wants to highlight the work involved in designing and installation the booths. Thus, the effort and dedication by the gallerists and artists participating in this edition will be recognized with two special awards for two of the best booths granted by the organizers of the fair.

Samuel Salcedo

Peace 1/2/3 (cada pieza), 2018

Resina de epoxy

70 x 60cm

Many visitors would be surprised to know the great work hiding in "the booth installation", work prior to the celebration of the fair that also requires updating in the event of purchases of the artworks that form it. While it is true that it is an ephemeral work, since it only lasts the days of the fair, it is also true that the exhibition design determines the way in which we perceive the pieces. In addition, and with the exception of stands dedicated to the One Project program, designed for each artist having his space, the works of different artists coexist in the General Program booths, between three to twelve creators. Creating dialogues between these works, composing the spaces in a harmonious or pleasant way, getting the best lighting, arranging the pieces in such a way that the audience can circulate without involving any danger to the booth... Many details that define the style of the gallery and condition the way in which the public approaches the expository proposals.

Gorka García

Art 58, 2018

Mixed technique

200 x 200cm

Jordi Alcaraz

Untitled, 2018

Mixed media

80 x 100cm

Leticia Felgueroso

Gran Vía edificio Rolex amarillo, 2018

Photography

108 x 130cm

This year, some of the displays especially stand out. These are 3 Punts Galeria, which presents works by Alejandro Monge, Gerard Mas, Kiko Miyares, Samuel Salcedo, Silvio Alino, Nick Veasey, Ramon Surinyac and Okuda San Miguel; the Gallery BAT Alberto Cornejo, with pieces by Gustavo Díaz Sosa, José Ramón Lozano, Lantomo, Mária Švarbová, Carlos Albert, Leticia Felgueroso, Marta Sánchez Luengo, Rafael Amorós, Fernando Palacios, Carlos Iglesias Faura and Rubén Martín de Lucas, Guest Artist of this edition. Equally, we also can outline the display of the gallery directed by Aurora Vigil-Escalera, which offers in its booth a selection of works by Juan Genovés, Herminio, Pablo Armesto, Gorka García, Ismael Lagares, Rafael Macarrón, David Rodríguez Caballero, Santiago Picatoste and Marcela Lobo. Also, the Miquel Alzueta booth (Barcelona) stands out and in their space you can find works by the artists Jordi Alcaraz, Edgar Plans, Maria Yellletisch, Hugo Alonso, Andrea Torres and Lídia Masllorens.

Javier Victorero

En el jardín VI, 2018

Acrylic on canvas

310 x 294cm

Outstanding booths are also those of MH Art Gallery, with works by Joo Eun Bae, Monica Dixon, Estefanía Urrutia and Thilleli Rahmoun; those of the Cornión Gallery, which presents works by Miguel Calano, Javier Victorero and Amancio; as well as the Luisa Pita gallery new selection with the works by María Ortega Estepa, Maríajosé Gallardo y Darío Basso.

Likewise, the space designed by the Zielinsky gallery is one of the most interesting, and in its booth you can see the work by the artists Joaquín Lalanne, Yamadú Canosa, Eduardo Marco, Pachi Santiago, Daniel Orson Ybarra and Juan Fielitz; the booth of the Bea Villamarín gallery, with works by the artists Mònica Subidé, Carlos Tárdez, Patricia Escutia, Candela Muniozguren and Alejandro Quincoces; or that of Víctor Lope arte Contemporáneo, a booth in which spectators will be able to see the pieces by Kepa Garraza, Jacinto Moros, Patrik Grijalvo and Dirk Salz. This gallery has also been responsible for the design of one of the spaces of the One Project program, where it represents the artist Alejandra Atarés. Within this program, the booth designed by RV Cultura e Arte and the artist Manuela Eichner is worth mentioning, as well as that of the About Art Gallery and Nuria Mora or the Contour Art Gallerybooth with Rūta Vadlugaitė.

Guim Tió Zarraluki

Capvespre, 2017

Oil on linen

65 x 81cm

Ernesto Rancaño

Aire, 2018

Printed photography and charcoal on canvas, LED light

114 x 114cm

As for the foreign exhibitors, the Yiri Arts proposals stand out, a Taiwanese gallery that exhibits works by Chen Yun, Guim Tió, Lai Wei-Yu and Mònica Subidé; as well as that of his neighbour at the Galería de Cristal, Collage Habana, gallery which presents a selection of Cuban creators: Andy Llanes Bultó, Daniel R. Collazo, Ernesto Rancaño and Roldán Lauzán Eiras. Other outstanding installations of foreign galleries are those of the North American Lola & the Unicorn, with pieces by Fernando Daza, Bosco Sodi, Isabelita Valdecasas, Juan Genovés and Miguel Vallinas; or the Portuguese Paulo Nunes-Arte Contemporânea, where the works by Ana Pais Oliveira, Manuel Patinha, Mário Macilau and Rui Dias Monteiro are exhibited. In addition, those visitors really interested in buying a piece, have the possibility to discover those works that gallerists also keep in their small and ephemeral warehouses. Also, the organisation highlighted the Robert Drees visual proposal (Hannover), composed by Pepa Salas, Markus Fräger, Michael Laube, Sun Rae Kim and Jürgen Jansen's works.

Patrik Grijalvo

Veles et Vents (Serie Gravitación Visual), 2018

Photograph on Hahnemühle paper

150 x 150cm

Patricia Escutia

Page 51-52, 2018

Wire on canvas

81 x 124cm

This year, the Art Madrid organization awards two special prizes to the two best booths. In addition to this recognition, the prizes consist of a special communication and promotion campaign within the Art Madrid Market, an online sales space where curated virtual exhibitions will be held. Art Madrid has decided to reward the booths of the galleries Víctor Lope Arte Contemporáneo and Bea Villamarín galleries.

Víctor Lope is a Catalan gallery founded in 2009 and located in the centre of Barcelona. From the beginning, it has opted to launch and consolidate the careers of emerging and mid-career artists who have a unique vision of contemporary art. Another feature that defines this gallery is its international character, and in this sense, they make a great effort to consolidate their artists in the European and international art market. In Art Madrid features a thoughtful selection of the wood sculptures of Jacinto Moros, the photomontages by Patrik Grijalvo, the mysterious resin pieces by Dirk Salz and a large drawing by Kepa Garraza, "a Louis XIV" portrait with which the artist appropriates the vision codes of power to launch critical and ironic messages.

Candela Muniozguren

Acid Bang 08, 2018

Lacquered steel

48 x 17cm

Jacinto Moros

FMK100, 2017

Maple wood and formica

132 x 70cm

For its part, the Bea Villamarín Gallery is located in Gijón, one of the Spanish cities with the greatest creative tradition, as well as gallery and collect tradition. This gallery stands out for its involvement in the promotion and promotion of young artists, both national and international. Specialized in advising corporate collectors, the gallery directed by Beatriz Villamarín and Daniel García presents in Art Madrid an interesting dialogue between the abstract writings of Patricia Escutia, the geometric and colorful sculptures by Candela Muniozguren and the much more realistic ones by Carlos Tárdez, together with the paintings of Mònica Subidé and Alejandro Quincoces, natural scenes in the case of the first and urban in the case of the second.

If you want to see these and the rest of the artistic proposals of the more than 40 participating galleries, you can still visit the fair today from 11 a.m. to 9 a.m. in the stunning Crystal Gallery of the Palacio de Cibeles. Today, we celebrate the last day of Art Madrid'19!

Daniel Barrio. Guest artist of the third edition of OPEN BOOTH. Courtesy of the artist.

DESPIECE. PROTOCOLO DE MUTACIÓN

As part of the Art Madrid’26 Parallel Program, we present the third edition of Open Booth, a space conceived as a platform for artistic creation and contemporary experimentation. The initiative focuses on artists who do not yet have representation within the gallery circuit, offering a high-visibility professional context in which new voices can develop their practice, explore forms of engagement with audiences, and consolidate their presence within the current art scene. On this occasion, the project features artist Daniel Barrio (Cuba, 1988), who presents the site-specific work Despiece. Protocolo de mutación.

Daniel Barrio’s practice focuses on painting as a space for experimentation, from which he explores the commodification of social life and the tyranny of media approval. He works with images drawn from the press and other media, intervening in them pictorially to disrupt their original meaning. Through this process, the artist opens up new readings and questions how meaning is produced, approaching painting as a space of realization, therapy, and catharsis.

Despiece. Protocolo de mutación is built from urban remnants, industrial materials, and fragments of history, inviting us to reflect on which memories we inherit, which we consume, and which ones we are capable of creating. Floors, walls, and volumes come together to form a landscape under tension, where the sacred coexists with the everyday, and where cracks matter more than perfection.

The constant evolution of art calls for ongoing exchange between artists, institutions, and audiences. In its 21st edition, Art Madrid reaffirms its commitment to acting as a catalyst for this dialogue, expanding the traditional boundaries of the art fair context and opening up new possibilities of visibility for emerging practices.

Despiece. Protocolo de mutación emerges from a critical and affective impulse to dismantle, examine, and reassemble what shapes us culturally and personally. The work is conceived as an inseparable whole: an inner landscape that operates as a device of suspicion, where floors, walls, and volumes configure an ecosystem of remnants. It proposes a reading of history not as a linear continuity, but as a system of forces in permanent friction, articulating space as an altered archive—a surface that presents itself as definitive while remaining in constant transformation.

The work takes shape as a landscape constructed from urban waste, where floors, walls, and objects form a unified body made of lime mortar, PVC from theatrical signage, industrial foam, and offering wax. At the core of the project is an L-shaped structure measuring 5 × 3 meters, which reinterprets the fresco technique on reclaimed industrial supports. The mortar is applied wet over continuous working days, without a pursuit of perfection, allowing the material to reveal its own character. Orbiting this structure are architectural fragments: foam blocks that simulate concrete, a 3D-printed and distorted Belvedere torso, and a wax sculptural element embedded with sandpaper used by anonymous workers and artists, preserving the labor of those other bodies.

A white wax sculptural element functions within the installation as a point of sensory concentration that challenges the gaze. Inside it converge the accumulated faith of offering candles and the industrial residues of the studio, recalling that purity and devotion coexist with the materiality of everyday life. The viewer’s experience thus moves beyond the visual: bending down, smelling, and approaching its vulnerability transforms perception into an intimate, embodied act. Embedded within its density are sanding blocks used by artists, artisans, and laborers, recovered from other contexts, where the sandpaper operates as a trace of the effort of other bodies, following a protocol of registration with no autobiographical intent.

Despiece. Protocolo de mutación addresses us directly, asking: which memory do we value—the one we consume, or the one we construct with rigor? The audience leaves behind a purely contemplative position to become part of the system, as the effort of moving matter, documentary rigor, and immersive materiality form a body of resistance against a mediated reality. The project thus takes shape as an inner landscape, where floor, surface, and volume articulate an anatomy of residues. Adulteration operates as an analytical methodology applied to the layers of urban reality, intervening in history through theatrical and street advertising, architectural remnants, and administrative protocols, proposing that art can restore the capacity to build one’s own memory, even if inevitably fragmented.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

DANIEL BARRIO (1988, Cuba)

Daniel Barrio (Cienfuegos, Cuba, 1988) is a visual artist whose practice articulates space through painting, understanding the environment as an altered archive open to critical intervention. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts of Cienfuegos (2004–2008), specializing in painting, and later at the Madrid Film School (ECAM, 2012–2015), where he studied Art Direction. His methodology integrates visual thinking with scenographic narrative.

His trajectory includes solo exhibitions such as La levedad en lo cotidiano (Galería María Porto, Madrid, 2023), Interiores ajenos (PlusArtis, Madrid, 2022), and Tribud (Navel Art, Madrid, 2019), as well as significant group exhibitions including Space is the Landscape (Estudio Show, Madrid, 2024), Winterlinch (Espacio Valverde Gallery, Madrid, 2024), Hiberia (Galería María Porto, Lisbon, 2023), and the traveling exhibition of the La Rioja Young Art Exhibition (2022).

A member of the Resiliencia Collective, his work does not pursue the production of objects but rather the articulation of pictorial devices that generate protocols of resistance against the flow of disposable images. In a context saturated with immediate data, his practice produces traces and archives what must endure, questioning not the meaning of the work itself but the memory the viewer constructs through interaction—thus reclaiming sovereignty over the gaze and inhabiting ruins as a method for understanding the present.