Art Madrid Contemporary Art Fair will celebrate its fourteenth edition from 20th to 24th of February 2019. The Galería de Cristal of CentroCentro Cibeles will be for the sixth consecutive year the place of this event that consolidates and reaffirms itself annually as an essential part of the Madrid Art Week.

We turn 14 years of commitment to contemporary art and we have started to work on the next edition, that promises to incorporate very interesting novelties and initiatives. Art Madrid has always been a pioneer in the art market and aimed to respond to the demand of the sector with a strong commitment to digital presence, for that reason, it incorporates an online dissemination and sale platform that will be available to exhibitors before, during and after the Fair. This initiative will help to provide great visibility to galleries and artists, eliminating borders and expanding horizons.

Art Madrid is a benchmark in the Art Week of Madrid, gathering more than 20,000 visitors every February, including professionals, collectors and art lovers. Every year Art Madrid works to expand its visibility beyond our borders, which has attracted a considerable number of foreign galleries that are already faithful to the proposal. In the effort to reinforce the opening of the fair to the foreign art market, in this edition 15 stands will be allocated to international galleries.

We open the application period to participate in the General Program. The fair is destined to national and international galleries specialised in contemporary and emerging art in all disciplines: painting, sculpture, photography, graphic work, video-art, installation, 3D devices… The deadline is June 30th.

With nearly 2800m2 of exhibition space, Art Madrid brings together the most recent creations of long and medium-career artists, as well as young talents and emerging art. The Galería de Cristal of CentroCentro Cibeles is the perfect setting to make the heart of the city a reference point in contemporary art, a space where professionals, collectors and the general public come together, attracted by the nearness, proximity and the freshness of the Fair.

As in the last five editions, Art Madrid'19 will have a guest artist and a parallel activities program focused on a subject that reflects the concerns about contemporary art, such as the relationship between art and technology, to the issues of gender and the approach to education, some of the areas of work in previous editions. Very soon we will give you more details.

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The artistic practice of Chamo San (Barcelona, 1987) revolves around a poetics of attention, in which the seemingly insignificant acquires a singular reflective intensity. His works emerge from a persistent observation of everyday life, understood not as a narrative repertoire but as a field of shared experience. Within this framework, the minimal gesture becomes a form of sensitive knowledge, placing the viewer before scenes that are both recognizable and, at the same time, estranged by their temporal suspension.

The progressive shift toward a more atmospheric painting has allowed the environment to cease functioning as a mere support and become an active agent of meaning. Restrained color ranges and carefully constructed spaces generate a sense of stillness that evokes a pictorial tradition attentive to duration and waiting. The human figure—a constant presence in his work—is presented immersed in contexts that amplify its affective and existential dimension.

The silence permeating these images is not absence but condition; it constitutes a space of resonance in which the time of doing and the time of looking converge. Situated between compositional control and openness to the contingent, Chamo San’s work affirms painting as a territory where planning and accident coexist.

Bathtub. 2018. Ballpoint pen on notebook. 14 x 18 cm.

Many of your works show meticulous attention to the smallest gestures and seemingly trivial moments. What interests you about these micro-choreographies of everyday life?

The seed of my work always comes from the sketches I make from life in small notebooks that I can carry with me at all times. Later, I either transfer them to another format so I can work on them more calmly, or they become the final piece in themselves.

Composition, staging, and perhaps those micro-choreographies are what I allow myself to bring to the scene as an artist. For me, these everyday moments are the most direct and honest way to connect with the audience because—even though they are intimate—they reflect universal experiences.

Feet. 2023. Oil pastel on paper mounted on board. 30 x 30 cm.

In your pieces, the presence of sober tones seems to generate a particular type of atmosphere. How would you describe the way that atmosphere emerges during your work, and what role does it play in the overall construction of the image?

Atmosphere and colour are relatively recent additions to my work. Previously, I focused exclusively on the figures as the central element, and they were often left floating in a kind of void. It was when I realised the need to provide context—especially as I began working more closely from the notes in my notebooks—that I came to understand the importance of the environment for the character.

The human figure will always remain the main element for me, as it is through its representation that I find the greatest enjoyment. However, little by little, I have become interested in exploring what surrounds it. I see the creation of an environment and an atmosphere as essential in order to situate the figures within a more complete and fully constructed scene.

Mamant. 2025. Colored pencils on notebook. 14 x 18 cm.

Are the silences in your works inherited from real experiences, or do they emerge during the painting process?

The silences in my work are inherited from real experiences. When I capture those small moments of everyday life—which is essential for me—I tend to be focused and quiet. At the same time, I also believe that the contemplation of artworks naturally invites this kind of calm. In that sense, for a brief moment, both the artist—throughout the entire creative process—and the viewer, when engaging with the work, can meet in the same state of tranquillity and silence.

The Kiss. 2024. Oil pastel on notebook. 14 x 18 cm.

To what extent do you plan your works and how much space do you leave for the unexpected to happen?

Some of my works are very planned, even excessively so, with lots of sketches. On the other hand, I always have that starting point that appears in my notebooks, and I leave experimentation and the unexpected for the end. Although it's also true that when I've thrown myself into improvisation from the beginning, wonderful things have happened, so now I try to combine those two worlds as organically as possible.

Cinema. 2025. Ballpoint pen and oil pastel on notebook. 14 x 18 cm.

Although your work has shifted towards the pictorial—with an aesthetic closely linked to cinema—echoes of illustration can still be seen in your visual language. Which elements would you say remain, and which have undergone a radical transformation?

For me, illustration has been an intense learning process. I deeply admire artists who have combined commissioned illustration with studio work for galleries, such as Ramón Casas and James Jean. I believe these two worlds can connect on a technical level, but their language and purpose are fundamentally different.

The existence of a unique, original work allows for accidents to occur—things that are very unlikely to happen in illustration. It is this condition of uniqueness, and above all the intention behind it, that makes the two practices radically different.