The Contemporary Art Fair Art Madrid , with 13 years of experience and a solid project that counts on the trust of national and international galleries, takes a step forward in its professional services and launches Art Madrid Market, an online sales platform that will provide service and support for the galleries throughout the year and which will also be a virtual space for the presentation of new artists without a gallery selected by curators and a committee of experts.

THE PLATAFORM

Art Madrid Market is the first online sales platform developed by an art fair based on these 4 pillars:

1) Relationship with the public 365 days, 24h.

2) Work sale service and communication campaign to the participating galleries (before, during and after the fair).

3) Platform for launching artists without a gallery selected by curators and a committee of experts.

4) Generation of own contents disseminated to the public: selection of outstanding works, virtual exhibitions, curatorships and collaborations...

Art Madrid MARKET is the ideal environment that offers all the information of the galleries, artists and works of Art Madrid'18, an e-commerce platform in which the user can make a direct consultation on all available works of the fair and where users and followers will be able to enjoy the advantages of buying art online, directly and safely. Art Madrid MARKET promotes the visibility and the trade of galleries and artists, eliminates boundaries between gallery owners and the public and expands the horizons of online art sales for the global market.

On the platform, each gallery will have a virtual space in which to put on sale its catalog of works of the artists present in AM18 and also curate and select their own online exhibitions. The gallery will have a user panel where it can manage the information of its artists and their works, a control panel with visibility of statistics, metrics and the status of shipments. The support to the galleries will be done before, during and after the fair.

For the gallery, Art Madrid MARKET is the perfect complement to disseminate its artistic projects nationally and internationally, since it will allow a direct and permanent relationship with the public throughout the year, through its own content and several events:

Online exhibitions curated for galleries and their artists. Exhibitions where the galleries may temporarily present the curatorial projects.

Support services in communication and marketing campaigns to the galleries for their exhibitions, expanding the scope and dissemination of their proposals.

Positioning and presentation of new artists. Platform for launching new artists / new talents without a gallery. Art Madrid MARKET will serve as a presentation letter between the public and the fabric of galleries.

This is just the beginning of numerous projects that Art Madrid will host, based on its presence and digital reputation.

ART MADRID COMMUNITY

Art Madrid carries out an important work of communication and diffusion of its projects with a 360º strategy that includes continuous contents in online and offline media from the previous phases of the fair (call, presentation of programs...), to the own actions of the fair (participating gallerists, featured artists, partners and collaborators, parallel activities), including the subsequent balance of the event. Aware of the impact that social networks have today and their inestimable value in contemporary communication, Art Madrid carries out an annual planning that includes Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, speaker of its news and means to know and make known new artists, new proposals, new research topics, as well as an essential channel to know first hand what our potential audience wants.

Art Madrid’s website has become a complete multi-channel communication platform for news of its own creation (related to the fair and its participants) and a source of information on current issues related to contemporary art, galleries, collecting, etc... and now, also, in a modern online sales tool.

Art Madrid has an active community of 30,000 unique users per month from more than 40 countries and an AUDIENCE of 3 million users reached with 100k interactions.

WEB: +30k users

NEWSLETTER: +10.2k contacts

REDES SOCIALES: 40k followers

TWITTER: +20.8k

FACEBOOK: +17.9k

INSTAGRAM: + 10.7k

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.