Art Madrid'25 – EUROPEAN GALLERIES PARTICIPATING IN ART MADRID\'17

Some of the galleries participating in Art Madrid'17 travel to Spain from Italy, France and Germany, all of them with an important representation of local artists from each of these countries, as well as Spain and Latin America. They are: Unique Galleria (Turin, Italy), Schmalfuss Berlin (Berlin, Germany) and Norty (Carrières-sur-Seine, France).

 

 

Deflet Aderhold, Makes My Eyes Rain, 2014. Mixed media on canvas

 

 

Galleria Unique from Turin, was founded in 2008 and it is committed to searching new trends and contemporary artists. The gallery is not limited by stylistic restrictions, and its physical space is open to any artistic current, giving options to an interesting and quality contemporary art.

 

Unique will present in Art Madrid'17 a fresh proposal with artists from different parts of Europe. The artists who will exhibit in Unique’s booth are: François Bonjour, Detlef Aderhold, Diamante Galasso, Francesco Cusumano, Rebekka Hatzung and Robert Süess and the Madrilian Mirian Herraez, who uses a wide variety of materials such as acrylic, Ink, marble, pumice, pigment and solvent, among others.

 

 

 

 

 

Willi Siber, Floor Object, 2016. Varnished chrome

 

 

The German gallery Schmalfuss Berlin was originally founded in 1998 in Marburg. In 2011, its director, Michael Schmalfuss, opened a second space in Berlin. In both galleries take place a great variety of exhibitions with consolidated artists and young contemporary German artists, all with an international trajectory. Schmalfuss Berlin is focused on realism and figuration in painting and sculpture.

 

In Art Madrid'17, the gallery will present the work of three sculptors: Anke Eilergerhard, Jürgen Paas and Willi Siber, and the painter Bim Koehler. An eclectic and groundbreaking proposal, with artists working with different meanings, individual expressions and dynamism, main characteristics of the artists represented by the gallery.

 

 

 L’homme Jaune, Syria, 2016.Acrylic on canvas
 

 

Norty Gallery, founded in 2013 in Carrières-sur-Seine, participates in Art Madrid as a representative gallery of France. Norty presents emerging artists, mainly painters, selected for their committed and risky work, projecting their careers at and international level. The gallery proposes Art Brut style as a new artistic line.

 

The artists represented by Norty in Art Madrid’17 are two women and two men, all of them with very different techniques and styles, but very close to the Art Brut line. This artistic team is formed by: Carmen Selma, Rusudan Khizanishvili, Adlane Samet and L’homme Jaune

 

 

Normunds Braslins. Two Girls - Oil on canvas - 100,5 x 80 cm - 2015

 

 

Maksla XO, our Latvian gallery, is supporting contemporary and emerging artists since 1999. The proposal that brings this year to the twelfth edition of Art Madrid brings together the work of four latvian professionals. These projects have consecrated these authors not only in a local context of Latvian art, but also at international level. Their names are: Ivars Heinrihsons, Helena Heinrihsone, Normunds Braslins and Ieva Iltnere.

 

The work of the artist Ieva Iltnere, stands out for its ornamental and aesthetic beauty and the ironic documentation of this era, speaking of fetishes and icons that we worship today. With a touch of irony, she approaches issues of politics and fashion, anthropology and ethnography, allowing the user to detect nuances with which they can identified themselves.

 

 

 

From July 7 to 9, 2025, the Balsera Palace will host the First Course on Collecting and Contemporary Art, an intensive 15-hour program that will explore the complex and fundamental question of taste in contemporary art. Organized by the Nebrija Institute of Arts and Humanities at Nebrija University and the Avilés City Council, in collaboration with 9915 — Association of Private Collectors of Contemporary Art and the Institute of Contemporary Art, the course offers a unique opportunity for analysis and debate on the dynamics that shape aesthetic and symbolic value in today’s art scene.


First Course on Collecting and Contemporary Art. Avilés, Asturias


The notion of taste, intrinsically tied to aesthetic judgments and power relations, has played a decisive role in the historical prominence of artists and artworks. However, contemporary art—marked by its breaking of conventions, diversity of media and techniques, and critical stance toward traditional canons—raises fundamental questions about the continued relevance of this concept.

This course will explore how the decisions made by key players in the art system—institutions, private collections, galleries, curators, and artists—continually redefine a field of taste shaped by aesthetic, symbolic, cultural, social, and political logics.


"¿But does it exist, and what is the prevailing taste of our time—so seemingly confused, fragmented, indecipherable?" - Omar Calabrese, The Neo-Baroque Era.


The academic program, directed by José Luis Guijarro Alonso, Director of the Master’s in Art Market and Related Business Management at Nebrija University, and Pablo Álvarez de Toledo, Head of the Department of Arts at Nebrija University and the Nebrija Institute of Arts and Humanities, will bring together a distinguished group of national experts—including collectors, critics, curators, gallery owners, and artists—whose contributions will address key issues in shaping aesthetic, symbolic, and market value in today’s art world.


PROGRAM

MONDAY, JULY 7

9:30 AM Registration.

10:00 AM Course Opening Nebrija University Avilés City Council Presented by Rosario López Meras – President of the Association of Contemporary Art Collectors, 9915, and Adrián Piera – President of the ICA, Institute of Contemporary Art.

10:30 AM Course Presentation By José Luis Guijarro Alonso – Art Historian and Anthropologist, Researcher, and Director of the Master’s in Art Market and Related Business Management at Nebrija University.

11:00 AM Coffee Break.

11:30 AM Panel Discussion The Taste of Private Collecting as a Prelude to History. Speakers: Candela Álvarez Soldevilla – Entrepreneur and Collector; Javier Quilis – INELCOM Collection; José Miguel Vegas Valle – Collector. Moderator: Luis Feás – Critic and Curator.

1:00 PM Lunch Break.

3:30 PM Individual Lecture On Good Taste in Contemporary Art. Speaker: Marisol Salanova – Curator and Art Critic, Director of Arteinformado.

4:45 PM Panel Discussion The Influence of Galleries in Shaping Contemporary Taste. Speakers: Elba Benítez – Gallerist; Ricardo Pernas – Gallerist (Arniches 26); Aurora Vigil-Escalera – Gallerist. Moderator: Rafael Martín – Coleccion@casamer.

6:00 PM End of Day.

6:30 PM Activity and Cocktail Visit to the Exhibition Asturian Artists in the Pérez Simón Collection – Avilés.

TUESDAY, JULY 8

10:00 AM Individual Lecture Contemporary (Bad) Taste: Kitsch, Camp, and Tacky. Speaker: Julio Pérez Manzanares – Autonomous University of Madrid.

11:00 AM Coffee Break.

11:30 AM Panel Discussion Institutions and the Formation of Contemporary Taste. Speakers: Virginia López – Artist, Founder of PACA_Proyectos Artísticos Casa Antonino; Julieta de Haro – Artistic Director of CentroCentro; Carlos Urroz – Director of Institutional Relations, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. Moderator: Laura Gutiérrez – Director, School of Art of Oviedo.

1:00 PM Lunch Break.

3:30 PM Panel Discussion Beyond the Eye: The Taste for Ethical, Ecological, Social, or Political Concerns in Contemporary Art. Speakers: Semíramis González – Independent Curator; Eugenio Ampudia – Artist; Claudia Rodríguez-Ponga – Independent Curator. Moderator: Bárbara Mur Borrás – PhD in Fine Arts.

5:00 PM End of Day.

5:30 PM Activity Visit to the Studiolo Exhibition – Candela Álvarez Soldevilla Collection.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 9

9:30 AM Meeting with Asturian Artists Speakers: María Castellanos – Artist; Avelino Sala – Artist; Consuelo Vallina – Artist. Moderator: Pablo Álvarez de Toledo – Nebrija University.

11:00 AM Activity Visit to the Niemeyer Center – Avilés.

Course Closing Ceremony.





This course is designed for art professionals, collectors, researchers, and students seeking an in-depth analysis of the dynamics that shape taste and collecting practices in contemporary art. Adopting a critical and multidisciplinary perspective, it provides a unique opportunity to rigorously examine the aesthetic, symbolic, and structural factors that underpin the legitimization of contemporary art.