Art Madrid'23 – BEGINNING 2018 WITH A BRIEF SCHEDULE OF EXHIBITIONS

Joan Brossa "Tinter abocat", 1969. Photo: Toni Coll.

 

 

 

The exhibition of the MACBA dedicated to Joan Brossa (Barcelona, 1919-1998) with the title "Poesía Brossa" says goodbye to us in February. If you have not had the opportunity to visit, take this chance to approach the wittiest, more ironic and disconcerting work of this plastic poet. The exhibition brings to light a good part of the artistic foundation of the Joan Brossa Foundation, a legacy to the museum in 2011.

 

 

 

Ed Van der Elsken: “Girl in the subway”, in Mapfre Foundation.

 

 

 

The Bárbara de Braganza showing room of the Mapfre Foundation closes the exhibition dedicated to photographer Nicholas Nixon on January 7th and works on the preparation of its next exhibition with the work of Ed Van Der Elsken, which will open on the 25th. This Dutchman creator who immersed himself in the world of photography and cinema has become one of the most recognised image workers of the 20th century. This retrospective is the most extensive ever dedicated to this author in Spain.

 

 

 

Anni Albers, “Orquesta III (Orchestra III)”, 1980. The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, Bethany CT Foto: Tim Nighswander/Imaging4Art. ©The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, VEGAP, Bilbao, 2017

 

 

 

Moving to the north, the Guggenheim Bilbao closes on the 14th January the exhibition dedicated to Anni Albers. "Tocar la visita" brings together some of the most representative pieces of this artist who works with textile materials, a work halfway between craftsmanship, tradition and innovation that emphasises the use of these techniques and their importance as a vehicle for artistic manifestation.

 

 

 

Equipo crónica, “Guernica”, 1971.

 

 

 

In the Picasso Foundation, the Casa Natal Museum in Málaga, the exhibition "Guernica and other disasters" approaches its closure on January 21st. On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of this masterwork, the centre has organised this exhibition which generates a historical dialogue on how war catastrophes and their consequences have been portrayed by various creators.

 

 

View of the showing room in MAC.

 

 

 

It is also the last month to enjoy the latest work by Pablo Genovés in the exhibition organised by the MAC, Museum of Contemporary Art Gas Natural Fenosa in A Coruña. These "Polymorphic Mutations" bring together some of the invaded spaces, the buildings flooded in hyperbolic contexts that characterise this author, one of the most recognised Spanish creators inside and outside of our country.

 

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.