Art Madrid'23 – GETTING CLOSE TO EXPERIMENTAL ART

Art is an expressive language that does not conform to the pre-established guidelines and dares to explore new creative options. Indeed, we are before something intrinsic and consubstantial to art, because one of its purposes is to question the raison d'être of our reality, to go a step beyond the established orthodoxy, to break with classicism and pose a challenge both for artists and for the spectators. And in this creative magma, the incursion of new techniques and the combination of disciplines is the ideal breeding ground to originate new movements and trends.

Yoshi Sodeoka, “Utopia”

Experimental art wasn’t labelled until the last third of 20th century. Until then, the emergence of artistic movements gave way to more and more abstract manifestations, farther from the classical aesthetic, which had experienced small episodes of evolution on the emergence of new techniques, but with a production based on the demands of the sponsor of turn. It was the domination of religious motifs, the reconstructions of mythological stories, the tyranny of royal and nobiliary portraits, the expansion of pompous landscapes. However, the last century was the cradle of the concept of the modern artist, an autonomous, independent, irreverent and difficult to master author that also wanted to take refuge in a new language to live outside the canons.

Nacho Criado

As usual, in the beginning, new expressive proposals that move away from academicism usually receive a harsh criticism from the most conservative and consolidated group of the fine arts. Let us not forget that this had happened to the Impressionists, openly rejected by the most traditionalist authors, who saw in their style a kind of subversion (and even perversion) of painting. Today, however, this movement of the late 19th century has established itself as an inescapable reference in the history of art.

Cristopher Cichocki, “Fish With Enamel Illuminated by Ultra Violet Radiation”

Likewise, every experimental form tends to deal with less friendly and riskier themes that give way to the significant concerns of the moment. For this reason, these forms of expression are often associated with open criticism of the established system and the status quo of power. Nothing better than muddying the harshness of a social rethinking with a blow of novelty, such as the one proposed by experimental art. A break in the rules that requires a double reading to get to the bottom of the matter. Because, in this current, things are seldom what they seem.

Jim Drain

Thus, experimental art feeds on contemporary resources and builds its message on the value of discourse itself: what is said is more important than how it is said. The image, the "extra-artistic" elements, the influence of other professions and the media impact play a fundamental role in this stream that is still difficult to define and specify. The development of the artistic tissue in each moment and place determines the expansion and reception of these models. The old and veteran Europe, so attached to its history and cultural heritage, has always lagged behind other pioneering foci, such as those from beyond the Atlantic. Perhaps the absence of a thousand-year historical weight and the unconsciousness of living a reality with a barely bicentennial past serve as an impulse to set trends and become the field of experimentation par excellence. Let's lose the fear of being wrong and try.

 

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.