Art Madrid, which will be held from February 23 to 27 at the Galería de Cristal del Palacio de Cibeles, has selected 5 works that will be donated to the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (MMAC), which depends on the Madrid City Council. The selected pieces are: 'Isabel II' by Kepa Garraza; 'Humo VI' by Isabel Alonso Vega; 'Palacio de Cristal' and 'Madrid, Gran Vía, 2018' by Leticia Felgueroso; and 'Flexia 9' by Toño Barreiro. The four Spanish artists have an already consolidated career within the contemporary art scene in our country and with an important international projection. The works are currently on display at the fair and once it is over, this Sunday, February 27, they will be moved to the museum so that they can be admired by all visitors.

Kepa Garraza

Isabel II, 2021

Carbón comprimido sobre papel

100 x 75cm

Las piezas elegidas son:

"Isabel II' by Kepa Garraza made in compressed charcoal on paper in 2021. The works of Kepa Garraza (Berango, Vizcaya, 1979) reflect on the nature of the images we consume every day. Through fictitious scenarios where a parallel reality is recreated, he invites the viewer to question issues related to identity and the manipulation of information. His work questions official discourses, and questions the processes of institutional legitimization. His ironic and acid look offers alternatives to the reality we know and proposes a healthy exercise: to always doubt the official version. This piece can be seen at Victor Lope Contemporary Art Gallery.

Isabel Alonso Vega

Humo VI, 2018

Fumes and methacrylate

50 x 50cm

'Humo VI', exhibited at Hispánica Contemporánea gallery, is Isabel Alonso Vega's sculpture created with smoke and methacrylate in 2018. The works of Isabel Alonso (Madrid, 1968) speak of the intangible, of that which is there but can hardly be seen, it is almost impossible to touch, let alone catch. The intangible becomes present and presents itself enclosed, but not immobile, since the forms have their own life and change according to the lighting and the perspective from where you look at them.

Leticia Felgueroso

Madrid, Gran Vía 2018, 2018

Fotografía y gelatina de plata sobre papel RC

150 x 205cm

The photographs 'Palacio de Cristal' and 'Madrid, Gran Vía 2018', exhibited at the BAT Alberto Cornejo gallery, are two of the pieces that will be donated belonging to Leticia Felgueroso. The works of Felgueroso (Madrid, 1963) are based on urban scenes of an attractive chromatism that make us imagine a different city. Her photographs can be found in numerous Spanish embassies around the world and she has been commissioned by entities such as Ifema or the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum.

Toño Barreiro

Flexia 9, 2018

Esmalte sobre aluminio

65 x 65cm

'Flexia 9' by Toño Barreiro, made in enamel on aluminum in 2018, is another of the pieces that will be incorporated into the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art and can be seen at Shiras Galería. Toño Barreiro (Zamora, 1965) has been developing, since the mid-1980s, a multidisciplinary work that alternates photography, painting, sculpture and digital processes. In his work we can observe a whole series of new methodologies and creative processes that give rise to sinuous and synaesthetic paintings, playing with the concept of deconstruction, the symbiotic or the most elementary biological processes.

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.