Art Madrid'25 – INTERVIEW WITH LUIS MIGUEL RICO

Luis Miguel Rico

“My workshop is full of materials that are familiar to all of us due to their use in the field of Fine Arts, among which I highlight papers that I dye previously for later manipulation. All of them, appear randomly on my work table, add to my problems of composition, which I try to solve directly on the support of the work.

In this act of composing, for me it is essential that those materials that I use and arrange on the surface, connect and come to have a unitary meaning, giving rise during the creative process to the non-renunciation of my work as a playful way for the creation and production of my works. Parallel to my collage work, I present a series of works where I exclusively use the medium of painting. With them, I generate a series of forms, which maintain a certain link with my collage structures. I use spots of broken colors and other more saturated colors where the density of the paint, more or less liquid, also plays an important role”

These stain structures are simple in outline and try to have a spatial sense close to the work that I create with my work on paper; superposition of planes, whose form is integrated on top of the previous one, or not, allowing the viewer to understand the different work processes that the creation of each of the works goes through.

Luis Miguel Rico

ST, 2022

Oleo sobre lienzo

150 x 114cm

Interview:

What inspires you when you create?

When I create, I am inspired by any element that gives me strength in color, for example a sunset, a walk along the seashore or nature itself. When the whole issue of confinement happened to us, I was out in the street again, I am lucky to live near the countryside and I saw the blooming of spring, that strength, those colors, the shapes that reached me much more.


¿En qué has estado trabajando recientemente?

Recientemente he estado trabajando en composiciones partiendo de la base del collage, que son abstracciones geométricas, siempre ligadas un poco a la naturaleza y a la forma orgánica, y sobre todo la superposiciones de planos, unos más quebrados otros más saturados, buscando siempre la composición armónica.

Luis Miguel Rico

Sin título, 2021

Oil on canvas

150 x 120cm

What have you been working on recently?

Recently I have been working on compositions based on collage, which are geometric abstractions, always linked to nature and organic form, and especially the overlapping of planes, some more broken, others more saturated, always looking for a harmonious composition.


What do you expect from your participation in Art Madrid?

From my participation in Art Madrid I hope to make myself known to a wider and more specialized public, deal with other artists and generate some kind of synergy with them, maybe some collaboration and enjoy the experience.

Luis Miguel Rico

ST, 2022

Oleo sobre lienzo

150 x 120cm

How did you come to this type of work?

Through experimenting with different materials and supports, ideas came up, sometimes I put them aside and other times I took them as good, and other times what I had discarded at the end have come back again and I'm applying it again.


What do you intend to convey with your work?

When I see a work of art I feel a lot of emotion, in the end the good thing about the artist is that he is able to transfer the emotion to a pictorial work, or whatever it is. So from my humble state, I try to transmit part of what I feel, when creating a work, to the viewer.


Luis Miguel Rico participates at Art Madrid with Gärna Gallery, alongside with Fernando de Ana, Hayden Rearik, Lucia Gorostegui y Lars Zech


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.