Art Madrid'23 – The lines of destiny of Marina Vargas

 

 

A thin invisible line connects in the space-time a run of Tarot cards, two ceramic vases of Alcora from eighteenth century and a cover of the magazine Blanco y Negro dated 1930. The artist who has drawn that golden line is Marina Vargas (Granada, 1980).

 

As the protagonist of the program Connections in its eleventh edition, Vargas submitted a proposal which connect two works: one from the Collection of the Banco Santander Foundation and other from the funds of the ABC Museum. In this case the vases and the cover (by the way, by Angels Torner Cervera, one of the pioneer women of Spanish graphic design) were integrated into the exhibition "Lines of Destiny" through a third element, a deck of Tarot de Marseille. The magic was served.
 

 

Marina Vargas was inspired by a real Tarot reading (a video can also be enjoyed in the sample) and she has reinterpreted the 9 cards that came out that way and marked her destiny. Her version of the arcana is marked by her arabesques, her lines, the "guts" that fill the original drawing and fill it with mythology, symbols and traditional beliefs, witchcraft and Santeria, mixed with language more cultured art .

 

 

Some of the 9 pieces, enlarged and placed on wooden supports, are deliberately taken down and they rest on the floor because the artist wanted to finish them in situ so that the viewer can also enjoy the creative process and the transformation of the works.

 

 

The Connections program offers mid-career artists the opportunity to present a broad sample in a not galleristic institutional space, and invites them to show projects based on the drawing as a basic format and inspired by works from the Museum's collections and the foundation.

"Lines of Destiny" will be in the ABC Museum of Illustration (Madrid) until 25 September 2016.
 

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.