2020 promises to be a special year, full of news, action and movement. In Art Madrid, we face with enthusiasm these final steps before the opening of the fair, an edition in which we want to celebrate our 15th anniversary with all of you. Save the dates on the agenda: join us from February 26th to March 1st 2020 at the Crystal Gallery of the Palacio de Cibeles.

Mónica Sumillera, imagen de la pasada edición de Art Madrid

Within emblematic space of Art Madrid in the heart of the city, this year we will count on 41 exhibitors who will exhibit works by almost 200 artists. From emerging creators to mid-career artists, Art Madrid defines as an open and global proposal that offers the perfect opportunity to discover and acquire unique pieces by dozens of artists that cover all disciplines: painting, sculpture, graphic work, photography, video art and installation.

The fair will become a dynamic event where the audience will enjoy an immersive experience in contemporary art thanks to our program of actions outside and inside the fair. The contact with art will become an experience that transcends the limits of the Crystal Gallery and extends its programming to all lovers of contemporary creation, with a proposal designed for all audiences and that houses the most avant-garde and emerging artistic projects of the moment.

On its 15th anniversary, Art Madrid brings together 27 national and 14 foreign galleries from 9 countries. From France, Portugal, Austria, Germany and Italy, through Ecuador and Cuba, up to Taiwan. International participation is consolidated year after year, and today 35% of the fair is filled with proposals, ideas and projects come from other places to live with national initiatives in the intense Art Week of the capital. This exchange generates a great positive impact on the experience of the public and collectors, that each edition can enjoy a renewed, current and accessible fair.

There are 13 exhibitors that come to Art Madrid for the first time: es.Arte Gallery from Marbella, Galería ATC from Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Galerie LJ from París, Galleria Stefano Forni from Bolonia, Kaplan Projects from Palma de Mallorca, Luisa Catucci Gallery from Berlín, MA Arte Contemporáneo from Palma de Mallorca, Más ARTE Galería from Quito, N2 from Barcelona, Offspace | galerie panoptikum from Gilgenberg, Pigment Gallery from Barcelona, Plastic Murs from Valencia y Urban Spree from Berlín.

Among the galleries that visit again the fair there are the national exhibitors Alba Cabrera Gallery and Shiras Galería from Valencia, Arancha Osoro from Oviedo, Aurora Vigil-Escalera and Bea Villamarín, both from Gijon, Moret Art from A Coruña, Galería Luisa Pita from Santiago de Compostela, Galería Espiral from Noja, Kur Art Gallery from San Sebastián, Rodrigo Juarranz from Aranda de Duero; from Barcelona they come 3 Punts, Galería Miquel Alzueta, Víctor Lope Arte Contemporaneo and the Galería Zielinsky, while from Madrid they come DDR Art Gallery, Galería BAT Alberto Cornejo, Galería Hispánica Contemporánea, Galería Kreisler, Marita Segovia and Soraya Cartategui. In the international sphere, they return: Art Lounge Gallery, Lisbon, Collage Habana, Havana, Galeria São Mamede, Lisbon, Norty, Paris, Nuno Sacramento, Ilhavo, Paulo Nunes Arte Contemporânea, Vila Franca de Xira, Schmalfuss, Berlin, and Yiri Arts, Taipei.

Artwork by Jorg Karg

Nor can we forget the ONE PROJECT program. Under the enigmatic title of Salvajes Art Madrid has wanted to go a step further in this curated section turning it into a place of dialogue (but also of conflict) where nine artists will share a face-to-face space presenting new projects specific to the fair. The program is directed by the art critic and independent curator Fernando Gómez de la Cuesta.

For the ART MADRID-PROJECTOR’20 program, Art Madrid once again trusts on Mario Gutiérrez Cru, director of the pioneering video art festival PROYECTOR, who will be the curator of this program dedicated to visual and interactive arts and action art. The goal is to involve the public outside and inside the fair through performative actions, masterclasses, meetings with artists and a cycle of screenings. Soon, we will release all the details of this program that starts on February 12th until March 1st and will have the collaboration of spaces such as Medialab Prado and Sala Alcalá 31.

In the year 2020 in the heart of Barcelona a wandering gallery was born, the same one that in February 2021 would debut at Art Madrid with an exhibition proposal focused on contemporary portraits; with this subject matter it would manage to create a powerful dialogue between artwork and audience and make the seal Inéditad remain in the history of the event that contained it.

Jean Carlos Puerto. Protección. Oil and copper leaf on wood. 60 x 48. 2021. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Since that first time and until today, the wandering gallery has managed to build projects on otherness, has repositioned in the spotlight the discourses on the LGTBIQ+ collective, has consolidated a group of artists who share its principles of resilience and empathy and the best thing is that it continues to bet from the professionalism and commitment to give voice to the difference.

Claudio Petit-Laurent.. El Joven de la Perla. Oil on wood. 30 x 30 cm. 2023. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Inéditad Gallery, thanks to its founder Luis López, its collaborators and the infinite possibilities manifested in the works of the artists it represents, is a gallery that has demonstrated its capacity and courage to stimulate the sensibility of the public through art and seduce a generation that moves between the glass window and the analogical story. Inéditad is a nomadic gallery that has gathered around it a community of artists and has moved the context with exhibition projects that think about LGTBIQ+ art without prejudices.

Pepa Salas Vilar. Las marcas del arcoiris. Oil on canvas. 40 x 50 cm. 2022. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Pride and Prejudice was inaugurated. An exhibition that brings together the works of sixteen artists: Abel Carrillo, Alex Domènech, Carlos Enfedaque, Silvia Flechoso, Jamalajama, Daniel Jaén, Claudio Petit-Laurent, Jean Carlos Puerto, Fernando Romero, Pablo Rodríguez, Pepa Salas Vilar, Jack Smith, Pablo Sola, Bran Sólo, Elia Tomás and Utürüo. Painting, illustration, photography and digital art are the manifestations that bring into dialogue around fifty neatly threaded pieces, in a discursive line that discusses such a latent phenomenon as discrimination. To achieve this, the artists invited to the exhibition question themselves whether: Does discrimination exist within the LGTBIQ+ collective?

Pride and Prejudice Official Poster. Image courtesy of the gallery.

With approaches on and from the body, the proposal invites to celebrate diversity, proposes to question and self-question the prejudices and attitudes of society against the collective. Pride and Prejudice is a space for dialogue about the constructs imposed on us by society. It is also an oasis in which to deconstruct with tolerance and respect the subjectivities that sometimes prevent us from approaching the production of the participating artists, simply because "the beautiful" does not fit in an androgynous body. The subjugation of stereotypes are pressed with determination to find the beauty of diversity in other palpable facets of reality.

Pablo Sola. All men are dogs. Photography. 2014. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Throughout these three years Inéditad has stimulated the vindictive projection towards bad practices, has questioned estates around the LGTBIQ+ body and the most admirable thing, is that these capacities have resurfaced around the dialogue and the visual narrative of the stories that are told from the visual: Artworks that are people, art that is, per se, humanity. Overcome impositions and accept what is different in order to continue fighting against homophobia, biphobia, lesbophobia or transphobia and defend the equal rights that all the acronyms of the collective deserve in our community.

That's Pride and Prejudice: One creature, the happiest in the world. And maybe other projects and other people have said it - or felt it - before, but none so fairly.

Silvia Flechoso. Hola, soy maricón. Oil on canvas. 73 x 54 cm. 2023. Image courtesy of the gallery.

From June 8th until June 22nd you can visit Pride and Prejudice. Carrer de Palau núm. 4. Canal Gallery space. Barcelona.