Art Madrid'23 – Las Reglas del Juego new exhibition of Chema Madoz

Photographer Chema Madoz presents in "Las Reglas del Juego", a compilation of his images created between 2008 and 2014. The exhibition will be in the madrilian space Alcalá 31 until August.

 
 
It is a visual poet who writes poetry with objects, lines, volumes and shadows, objects in black and white that make us more questions than gives answers. Chema Madoz, National Photography Prize in 2000, is one of our most personal, unique and recognizable photographers, and he has displayed his collection of mental constructions and poetic visions in Sala Alcalá 31 of Madrid under the title "Las Reglas del Juego", a name that includes their art works between 2008 and 2014.
 
Indeed, the game that offers us Madoz with 124 images, is a game without more rules than elegance, mastery of photo language and a sharp and precise idea, with the naturalness and sense of humor that characterizes the photographer's work.
 
 
Stopped clocks, caged clouds, hands with spinning words, tributes to Magritte,... all his black and white photograph on baryta paper, is exposed almost complete for the first time and it speaks of a more mature Madoz, without losing their conceptual references but expanding his personal research on the language of objects and including things like animals, texts or even drawing as tool and trigger for new ideas.
The exhibition Chema Madoz 2008-2014 Las Reglas del Juego, is presented on the occasion of granting to the artist the Photographic Cultural Prize of the Community of Madrid 2012. This exhibition is part of the Official Selection of the International Festival of Photography and Visual Arts, PHotoEspaña 2015. In parallel, and to bring the work of Chema Madoz to everyone, the workshop visits "Poets in black and white " aimed at families with children between 6 and 12 years and Saturday in June and July.

Chema Madoz (Madrid, 1958), is one of the most important photographers of our country and enjoys international renown. Proof of this is his recent appearance at the Rencontres d'Arles (France) festival. In 1983 he held his first solo exhibition at the Royal Photographic Society of Madrid and since 1990 develops his poetic objects, that will be a constant theme in his photography to the present. He has received numerous awards, the Culture Prize of the Community of Madrid, mode of Photography (2012), the National Photography Award (2000) and the PHotoEspaña Prize (1998), among others. Large institutions as the National Centre de Arte Reina Sofia Museum and the Pompidou Centre have devoted solo exhibitions and his work is in major public and private collections of contemporary art and the Telefonica Foundation, the Andalusian Centre of Photography, the Juan March Foundation , the IVAM, the Ministry of Culture, the Fine Arts Museum of Houston and the National Museum itself Centro de Arte Reina Sofia.

 

 

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.