Antonio Ovejero

CONVERSATIONS WITH MARISOL SALANOVA. INTERVIEW PROGRAM. ART MADRID'25

Antonio Ovejero (Valencia, 1999) explores memory and the retrieval of scenes that dwell in our collective imagination, focusing on the sublime aspects of everyday life. He is fascinated by women adorned with jewelry and large bags, dresses with geometric patterns, and extravagant hairstyles that bridge different eras. Through a kitsch aesthetic, he seeks the ostentatious in attire, the conspicuous, and the pretentious, elements that are often more common and closer than one might expect.

His portraits often highlight the hands, revealing details and the objects they hold, such as a retro handbag. The use of print as an identity and aesthetic tool is a recurring element in his work. For him, the combination of age, the everyday, and elegance forms a constant image. He defines his pictorial project as a neo-pop costumbrista.

What role does experimentation play in your creative process?

I believe experimentation is crucial for any artist, as it is the means by which you discover how to represent what you wish to convey. Since I began painting, I have used various techniques to achieve the results I was looking for.

Oil painting dominates my work. I've always favored this medium because I feel more comfortable with it, and it delivers the results I want. However, when I decided to incorporate printmaking, I sought ways to present it in a more contemporary manner. Initially, I chose photographic transfer because it seemed like an interesting resource that complemented oil painting well. But I later realized I wanted the work to be entirely plastic, with painting as the dominant element. That’s when I began working with silkscreen, a printing technique that allowed for more precise results and integrated well with oil painting.

For this technique, I used acrylic paint because it dries faster and provides a greater margin for error, although it requires a lengthy process that involves more than just painting. This is when I discovered stenciling, a method where I create designs in Illustrator and then cut them out with a laser cutter. Stenciling makes the painting more organic and faster. So, I continue to search and experiment until I find the right means to complete a painting.

I believe using different techniques within one work greatly enriches it. Currently, I am focused on finding a direct way to combine brushstrokes with prints. I am experimenting with animal prints, which are more organic and forge a direct link between the painting and the act of painting itself.

Always matching bags and heels. 2024. Oil on panel. 180 x 140 cm.

What are your references?

To discuss my references, I think I need to divide them into those within my environment and those from outside. I was born into a family where my father was a painter, and my brother Miguel Ángel is also a painter, so painting has been present since my early years. Additionally, my mother always supported my dedication to the art world, and I spent a lot of time with my grandmother, who was a seamstress. Therefore, anything related to textiles, scraps, and printmaking has always caught my attention, and I have tried to capture it in my work.

As for external references, in painting, I think of artists like Marten Ant and David Storey, who work with photographic archives, or Juan Ugalde, who intervenes in photographs to create new narratives, or Gerhard Richter, whose painting is closely linked to photography. I find the union of photography and painting very interesting. I also think that my work has a strong connection with certain cinematic or photographic influences. In this respect, I highlight Martin Parr, a photographer who captures everyday scenes at the beach, focusing on details like wrinkled hands.

Another reference is Eric Persona, a Milanese photographer who explores daily life from a perspective that blends the extravagant with the mundane, creating very interesting images. I am also inspired by Thandiwe Muriu, a Kenyan photographer who creates images in which prints merge with the model, making prints a symbol of identity for Kenyan women.

As I mentioned earlier, my painting has a close connection to cinema, which is why I always think of Marisa Paredes, especially in Almodóvar’s films, where she portrays a woman with a tough life but remains elegant and sublime, something I try to reflect in the female figures I paint. In this sense, Almodóvar is an important cinematic reference. I also think my work mirrors the interplay of patterns and colors in his films. Another reference is Paolo Sorrentino, an Italian filmmaker who blends the glamorous with the everyday, the extravagant with the costumbrista, concepts I also try to incorporate into my work, just as Fellini captured a strange everydayness.

I believe all these references have a direct influence on me and help me create the imaginary I aim to represent in my work.

Your leather bag. 2024. Oil on panel. 180 x 140 cm.

How important is gesture in your portraits?

Throughout my work, I have explored portraiture from various angles, especially in the "Señoras" project, where I wanted to use the portrait as a collective stamp representing the women it portrayed, so that a figure like Conchita or Paca would symbolize all the women of that generation. I think the gesture in the portrait is very important, something I tried to emphasize in my work. Also, depending on how you portray a person, you can convey different things.

For instance, a grimace, a lascivious or defiant look, is also a form of narration within the work. But now, I use portraiture in a different way. I believe that portraying people can also be done by showing the elements that make them up. For example, I now work with close-up shots where elements such as handbags, jewelry, hands, or posture take on great significance. All of these elements also reflect what a person or a group of people is like. So, the current portrait I work on, where I use gestures, relies on the arrangement of elements: how a hand is placed, how a bag is positioned, and how the image I am portraying is constructed.

Whisky on the rocks. 2024. Oil and acrylic on panel. 40 x 40 cm.

What is your favorite format for painting?

I believe the format is crucial in how you want to create your work and how you work. I almost always work on plywood, on a frame, because the strength of the wood allows me to have more impact on the work. Also, I use printmaking techniques that require a more rigid support; if I used linen or canvas, for instance, it would loosen and make the creative process more challenging. That’s why I always work on wood.

I find it very interesting to use the brush more aggressively in the first strokes, the initial stains, which directly relate to the format. The size of the work is very important. I prefer large formats because I feel freer in that space, where the first brushstrokes and stains feel more satisfying. It also creates a connection between the painting and the act of painting itself, which I believe is essential to creation. I think pleasure has a powerful role in the work, as the result greatly depends on whether there is a certain enjoyment or if you are looking for something more perfectionist or precise.

Large formats allow me to develop best, where the work is constructed and the shapes and brushstrokes merge. When I work with smaller formats, I also enjoy the process, but it requires more consistency and thoroughness. The brushstroke has to be more precise, the focus is on a specific part, and the construction process is slower because the combination of tones is more complex.

On the other hand, in larger formats, the tones and brushstrokes come together more easily, and the form is gradually created as I work. That’s why I generally prefer large formats and plywood.

Always matching bags and heels. 2024. Oil on panel. 180 x 140 cm.

How do you think your works reflect temporality?

In my work, I always try to address themes like memory, the preservation of memory, and the passage of time. Since I began creating, this has been reflected in my first projects such as Mujeres sin color (Women without Color), Relato sobre el luto (Mourning Story), or Señoras (Ladies). I depict elderly women who lived through the post-war era and the cultural and belief systems of Spain at the time, and who, in their maturity, have somehow detached themselves from that past.

That’s why I like to represent them in a more ornate and glamorous way, as a sign of empowerment. For me, it’s important to reflect that resilience through aesthetics and print, which I use as an identity resource for a generation like that of my grandmother and her friends, who came from that harsher Spain but are still present in our society. These women, with their rings, dresses, and handbags, are the women I capture in my work.

I believe that ostentation belongs to the representation of a certain empowerment after a life in black and white, so to speak. Temporality plays a fundamental role in my work. The passage of time and how these people were treated is something I focus on a lot. I try to represent them through their objects or scenes that evoke that era, combining the experiences they have shared with me and those I have lived through, creating a whole imaginary that I seek to capture in my work, centered around these women and this society.

NEBRIJA UNIVERSITY ASSERTS AESTHETIC INTELLIGENCE IN THE FACE OF THE ALGORITHMIC ERA AT ART MADRID’26

The Nebrija Space hosts a curatorial project that proposes a critical alternative to the automation of creative thought.

Nebrija University is participating in the 21st edition of Art Madrid with a curatorial project that offers a critical reflection on the relationship between art education, the market, and technology. Under the concept of Aesthetic Intelligence, the proposal positions itself as an alternative to the algorithmic logic of Artificial Intelligence, prioritizing sensitivity, gesture, materiality, and experience as forms of knowledge that cannot be automated.

At a historic moment in which Artificial Intelligence is bursting onto the scene in all areas of cultural production, generating both fascination and concern, Nebrija University is committed to defending those dimensions of the artistic experience that remain irreducible to algorithmic logic. This is not a question of denying the impact of technology or adopting a technophobic stance, but rather of identifying and defending those areas of knowledge that require the presence of the body, sensitivity, gesture, and lived experience.

Álvaro Fernández. Remember/Forget. Mixed media on canvas. 40 x 60 cm. 2026.

The central concept of the proposal is that of Aesthetic Intelligence, understood as a form of knowledge that integrates the sensory, the affective, the intuitive, and the cultural. In contrast to the logic of Artificial Intelligence, based on algorithms, recognition patterns, and the capacity for mass replication, Aesthetic Intelligence prioritizes dimensions that remain anchored in the unique human experience: the unique and unrepeatable gesture, the physical presence of the body in the creative act, the material texture of the supports and pigments, and the temporality of the creative process.

This claim takes on special importance in a context in which generative AI is capable of producing images in a matter of seconds, processing millions of previous visual references to synthesize new compositions. However, what the machine cannot replicate is precisely what constitutes the core of the aesthetic experience. The affective resonance of a specific color applied with a certain pressure on a specific surface, the intuitive decision that arises from the dialogue between the artist and the material, or the productive error that opens up unexpected paths.

Aesthetic Intelligence is thus understood as a form of epistemic resistance, a defense of those ways of knowing the world that cannot be automated because they are constitutively linked to the embodied, situated, and temporal experience of creative subjects.

Pablo Padilla Sadurni. ST. Repaired passe-partout and acrylic. 18 x 18 x 48 cm. 2026.

Under the provocative neologism NotanIA SipedagogIE, which encapsulates the conceptual proposal in its very formulation: “Not so much AI, more pedagogy.” This linguistic construction, which plays with the presence and absence of fragments of the words “Artificial Intelligence” and “pedagogy,” signals a clear stance on the role of artistic training in today's technological context.

It proposes a critical pedagogy that does not reject technology but refuses to subordinate artistic learning processes to the logic of efficiency, optimization, and reproduction that characterize algorithmic systems. Faced with the temptation to use AI as a shortcut or substitute for the creative process, this pedagogy vindicates the formative value of trial and error, material experimentation, and time devoted to exploration without a predetermined goal.

A pedagogy that is also defined as empathetic, in the sense that it recognizes and values the affective and relational dimension of artistic learning, which does not understand creation as an isolated individual act but as a process that involves emotional resonances, symbolic exchanges, and collective construction of meaning. The stand itself, conceived as a choral work, embodies this understanding of creation as a shared experience.

Verónica Bergua Tabuyo. Cartography of Uncle Pablo. Digital video. Edition: 1/5. 2:40 min. 2026.

The methodology proposed for the project is as rigorous as it is open to experimentation. Each participating student begins their creative process by poetically appropriating a verse, a stanza that will serve as the conceptual and emotional seed of the work. The choice of poetry, as a form of language that condenses multiple and ambiguous meanings, that works with sonic and visual resonances, that suggests rather than describes, constitutes an ideal starting point for a project that champions the ineffable, that which cannot be fully translated into code.

Starting with the selection of a verse, each artist has developed a mood board conceived as a board of atmospheres and, at the same time, as a sensitive cartography of the process. This resource allows the imagery of the verse to be expanded through objects, images, textures, materials, and other elements that resonate with the initial poetic experience. It is a tool that makes the process of intersemiotic translation visible: the transition from verbal to visual language, from textual to material, highlighting the transformations and shifts that occur along the way.

The next step involves developing a two-dimensional work that deliberately avoids written language. This restriction seeks to prioritize visual and material exploration over textual narrative, relying on the communicative power of form, color, texture, and composition. The work must speak for itself, without the need for verbal explanations to mediate between the piece and the viewer.

The creative process is conceived from an experimental logic similar to that of a laboratory, where trial, error, correction, and rehearsal are an integral part of the method. No predetermined result is sought; rather, the work is allowed to emerge from the dialogue between the initial intention and the possibilities (and resistances) of the materials.

Blanca Lanaspa. Witness 176.8. Mixed media ceramics. 40.8 x 176.8 cm. 2026.

The booth that houses the Nebrija Space is conceived as a work of art in itself, with a choral and transitory character. Inspired by Madrid's SER Zones, those areas of regulated temporary parking, the exhibition space is designed as a territory of symbolic transit, a place of ephemeral occupation that invites reflection on presence, desire, and temporality.

This metaphor of SER Zones is particularly powerful, because just as these urban spaces allow for the temporary occupation of public space under certain conditions, the stand is presented as a territory that artists temporarily occupy during the fair, establishing a dialogue between permanence (the works as physical objects that will remain after the event) and transience (the specific spatial configuration that exists only during the days of the fair).

The choral nature of the project underscores the collective dimension of artistic creation. It is not a sum of individualities but a polyphony of voices that intertwine, resonate, and dialogue with each other. Each individual work maintains its autonomy but takes on new meanings in relation to the others, generating a fabric of visual, conceptual, and affective correspondences.

Marialex Arcaya. The wine cellar. Acrylic on wood. 80 x 160 cm. 2026.

The project brings together the work of seven students from the Fine Arts Degree program at Nebrija University: Marialex Arcaya develops “La bodega” (The Cellar), a reflection on everyday objects as containers of memory and identity. Based on the verse: "And at the bottom of my favorite beach bag there is sand, rusty coins, and a receipt for ice cream that no longer exists. Summer can be preserved in layers", the artist explores Venezuelan bodegas as spaces of nostalgia and belonging. Through a series of acrylic paintings on canvas depicting products and packaging, she investigates how the most mundane objects can function as repositories of memories and markers of cultural identity. Her work raises questions about what we erase and what we preserve, about how the passage of time transforms both objects and ourselves, celebrating the capacity for rebirth and transformation that characterizes the human experience.

Laura Nogales. Another Spring. Acrylic and embroidery on canvas. 94.5 x 38.6 inches. 2026.

Laura Nogales participates with “Another Spring,” a textile installation that explores the decomposition and deconstruction of the concept of femininity in a transitory environment: the shower. Her work, constructed from scraps, recycled clothing remnants, stockings, and various types of fillings, forms an abstract mass that represents decomposed femininity in constant mutation. The drain functions as a symbolic element that swallows everything, witnessing intimate transformations. Nogales addresses how femininity as a shared experience suffers great ups and downs in the current context, where machismo is making a strong comeback in the media and social networks. Her textile proposal generates emotional ambiguity in the viewer, who may feel attracted or repelled by the figure, reflecting the contradictions inherent in the experience of constructing and defending female identity in an adverse context. Her work takes as its reference the fragment of the poem: “Above the shower, the steam draws maps that fade away".

Inés López. Sedentary. Digital photography. 30 x 40 cm. 2026.

Inés López presents Sedentario, a work inspired by the verse: “There, dust particles are an archive in suspension.” The project reflects on the capacity of domestic spaces to preserve what the body forgets when they cease to be inhabited. The photographic series is set inside a house under construction, in rooms suspended between use and abandonment, where absence manifests itself as a silent accumulation of matter, traces, and time. Architectural plans and projections in an unfinished building expand the proposal, establishing a dialogue between the projected space and the lived space, between what was once inhabited and what has not yet begun to be inhabited. The work thus proposes a meditation on the transience of the body in the face of the silent persistence of architecture.

Verónica Bergua Tabuyo. Cartography of Uncle Pablo. Digital video. Edition: 1/5. 2:40 min. 2026.

Verónica Bergua presents “Cartografía del tío Pablo” (Uncle Pablo's Cartography), a deeply personal project that explores the relationship between compulsive hoarding, mental health, and emotional territory. Through a video installation that combines minimalist photography of objects taken from the room of her uncle, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia, Diogenes syndrome, and kleptomania, Bergua constructs a visual map of mental chaos materialized in physical space. The sequence of images, presented at varying speeds, generates an experience of anxiety in the viewer that reflects the nature of compulsive hoarding. Her work invites us to reflect on our own relationship with objects, on the boundaries between need and attachment, and on how the territory we inhabit can become a mirror of our mental territory. His proposal is inspired by the verses: “Under the bed... objects accumulate that we don't remember losing.” “A museum without texts or labels: the drawer of cables from broken devices.” “The box of expired medicines holds the history of ailments that no longer hurt.”

Blanca Lanaspa. Witness 176.8. Mixed media ceramics. 40.8 x 176.8 cm. 2026.

Blanca Lanaspa presents “Testigo 176.8,” a work based on the verse: "The coat rack in the entrance holds what we are before we enter and after we leave. A vertical threshold where transitions hang.“ Her proposal takes the form of a ceramic pegboard, a combinatorial board with removable pieces of different surfaces, glazes, and textures. Each element functions as a ”sensitive accident," the result of processes involving both aesthetic planning and material chance. The pieces explore states of matter: sprouts, leaks, overflows, erosions, cracked surfaces, contractions, and expansions. The tactile and interactive nature of the work invites the viewer to engage with it directly through their body. Accompanied by a mood board documenting the ceramic research process, the piece celebrates the unpredictability of materials and the beauty of the unsystematic.

Pablo Padilla Sadurni. ST. Detail. Repaired mat and acrylic. 7.1 x 7.1 x 18.7 inches. 2026.

Pablo Padilla presents “Untitled,” an architectural sculpture inspired by the verse: “The mismatched sock is not lost: it inhabits a place that does not exist.” Conceived as a spatial analogy for the search for fulfillment, the piece proposes an architectural archetype that refers to the world of ideas; an imagined place, necessary and yet unattainable. Constructed from thin cardboard, the work takes the form of impossible, labyrinthine structures inhabited by scale figures that wander through corridors, staircases, and dead-end rooms. These spaces, simultaneously tense and contemplative, combine the romanticism of introspection with the inhospitable coldness of brutalism. The work creates a surreal atmosphere that oscillates between peaceful and tense, inviting a sensory and emotional experience of shared loneliness, isolation, and the search for mental refuges that do not exist in the physical world.

Álvaro Fernández. Remember/Forget. Detail. Mixed media on canvas. 40 x 60 cm. 2026.

Álvaro Fernández presents “Remember/Forget,” a work inspired by the verse: "In the elevator mirror, two people are reflected without touching each other. What separates them is not air: it is the possibility of saying nothing." Through hybrid works that combine manual transfers on fabric with digitally altered photographs, Fernández explores silence, shared presence, and the coexistence of intimate worlds that do not touch. His transfers, made using gel plates or lavender oil, generate unstable and deteriorated images, like memories in the process of fading. The fragmentation and displacement of photographic elements multiply the scenes, creating layers of overlapping temporality. His work materializes the fragility of memories and the power of silence as a space for nonverbal intimacy.

Blanca Lanaspa. Witness 176.8. Mixed media ceramics. 40.8 x 176.8 cm. 2026.

At a time when the debate on Artificial Intelligence and artistic creation is intensifying, with positions ranging from uncritical enthusiasm to outright rejection, Nebrija University's proposal for Art Madrid'26 offers a third way, a critical stance that does not deny technological reality but clearly defends those dimensions of the artistic experience that remain irreducible to automation.

The concept of Aesthetic Intelligence proposes an epistemological alternative that recognizes the validity of forms of knowledge based on sensitivity, intuition, bodily experience, and affective resonance. These are not “minor” or subsidiary forms of knowledge with respect to rational or algorithmic knowledge, but equally valid modalities that are absolutely fundamental in the field of artistic creation.

This curatorial project thus represents a valuable contribution to the contemporary debate on technology and culture, proposing that university art education should not be limited to preparing students to adapt to the market or the tools available, but should equip them with critical skills, material sensitivity, and awareness of the specificity of their practice.

Art Madrid'26 will thus host a proposal that, beyond its individual aesthetic quality, constitutes a collective reflection on the present and future of artistic creation, on the role of educational institutions in training new generations of artists, and on the need to defend spaces for experimentation, slowness, and materiality in an accelerated and increasingly virtualized world. Through this project, Nebrija University reaffirms the irreplaceable value of Aesthetic Intelligence as a form of knowledge and as a practice of resistance against algorithmic homogenization, committing to a pedagogy that places sensory experience, bodily gesture, and affective resonance at the center as fundamental dimensions of the human condition.