LECTURAS CURATED WALKTHROUGHS X ART MADRID'25

Art Madrid'25 presents Lecturas. Curated Walkthroughs X Art Madrid'25, a cultural mediation initiative aimed at bringing the public closer to the artworks displayed at the fair. Through guided tours led by art historians and cultural communicators Eugenia Tenenbaum and Clara González Freyre de Andrade, different perspectives on contemporary creation and its relevance in today's society will be explored. Each thematic tour will include a selection of ten works, with a curatorial discourse that will facilitate the understanding and appreciation of contemporary art beyond mere contemplation.

These guided visits will allow attendees to interact directly with the curators, enriching their connection with the pieces and the artists' visions. With this second edition, Lecturas reinforces Art Madrid's commitment to the dissemination and understanding of contemporary art, offering an immersive experience that expands reception channels and attracts new audiences.

Each thematic tour will include a selection of ten works, accompanied by a curatorial discourse that will facilitate the understanding and appreciation of contemporary art beyond mere contemplation. These guided visits will allow attendees to interact directly with the curators, enriching their connection with the artworks and the artists' vision.

With this second edition, Lecturas: Curated Walkthroughs X Art Madrid'25 strengthens Art Madrid's commitment to the dissemination and understanding of contemporary art, offering an immersive experience that expands reception channels and attracts new audiences.

CENTER AND PERIPHERY: TENSIONS AND DIALOGUES IN CONTEMPORARY ART. CURATED WALKTHROUGHS BY EUGENIA TENENBAUM.

If language often operates through binomials that lose both strength and meaning when isolated from their context and semantic counterparts, so does thought. To what extent are we aware of the notions of “center” and “periphery” when approaching artistic discourses and cultural trends? Can we subvert the canonical by prioritizing and privileging everything that has been expelled from the center, without falling into the same hierarchies we aim to avoid? Are the discussions about center and periphery, about what is considered “own” and what is understood as “other,” already exhausted? Through this tour, Eugenia Tenenbaum explores alternative ways to engage in a conversation about contemporary art, with the aim of reconsidering cultural signifiers in search of new meanings, constructing new paths for analysis and interpretation of cultural environments, and proposing a new mental urbanism tailored to the tensions between these two concepts.

SELECTION OF ARTISTS AND GALLERIES:

Brenda Cabrera — Collage Habana. Francisco Mayor Maestre — Galería Aurora Vigil-Escalera. Mico Rabuñal — Galería Aurora Vigil-Escalera. Tadanori Yamaguchi — Galería Aurora Vigil-Escalera. Idoia Cuesta — Galería Arancha Osoro. Mária Svarbová — Galería Bat Alberto Cornejo. Jan Schüler — 3 Punts Galería. Samuel Salcedo — 3 Punts Galería. Francesca Poza — Alba Cabrera Gallery. Marta Sánchez Luengo — Galería María Aguilar. Sun Pei-Mao — Yiri Arts. Tiffany Alfonseca — Galería OOA. Miska Mohammed — Galería OOA. Núria Torres — Inéditad Gallery.

ABOUT EUGENIA TENENBAUM

Art historian specialized in gender perspective, Eugenia Tenenbaum is dedicated to cultural dissemination and art criticism on social media, primarily Instagram and Patreon. As a communicator, she also works by giving guided tours, lectures, and workshops on art, feminism, and the impact of gender relations on the creation, reception, and dissemination of artistic production at conferences, universities, schools, museums, and other spaces. In 2022, she published her first book, La mirada inquieta, an essay on art, and in April 2023, her first work of fiction, Las mujeres detrás de Picasso.

Eugenia Tenenbaum. Image courtesy of the curator.

FROM THE MARGINS. TOWARD THE CONSTRUCTION OF A NEW ART HISTORY. CURATED WALKTHROUGHS BY CLARA GONZÁLEZ FREYRE DE ANDRADE

Art history is also the history of its absences. For centuries, the official artistic narrative was built upon a canon that determined which artists, styles, and discourses deserved to be remembered. In this way, women, racialized individuals, and artists whose creative concepts challenged this discourse were systematically excluded from the official narrative. Their art, however, never ceased to exist on the margins.

Today, those voices no longer only inhabit the edges but claim the spaces they should have historically occupied. This tour proposes to explore those who, from this historical periphery – whether geographical, social, and/or conceptual – redefine traditional artistic creation, looking toward the future. A tour made up of works that question the boundaries between the political and the aesthetic, addressing issues such as gender, identity, and memory. Beyond being “beautiful” (an adjective historically linked to art), the selected works are presented as tools for change, capable of opening dialogues, challenging preconceived notions, and proposing alternative ways of inhabiting the world.

SELECTION OF ARTISTS AND GALLERIES:

Albert Bonet — Inéditad Gallery. Veljko Vučković — Aria Art Gallery. Tiffany Alfonseca — OOA Gallery. Khalid El Bekai — Galería Espiral. Brenda Cabrera — Collage Habana. Lara Padilla — 3 Punts Galería. Katharina Arndt — Ting Ting Art Space. Antonio Ovejero — CLC Arte. Gemma Alpuente — Canal Gallery. Carolina Bazo — O Art Project.

ABOUT CLARA GONZÁLEZ FREYRE DE ANDRADE

Clara González Freyre de Andrade is an art historian with a master's degree in Criticism and Cultural Communication. Better known as Claramore, she is currently dedicated to cultural dissemination, gaining recognition for her presence on social media platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Through her work, she aims to contribute to the democratization of art and the construction of a more inclusive discipline, giving visibility to historically oppressed groups and applying a gender perspective to her outreach. In this regard, she has published her first book, Un Van Gogh en el salón (Temas de hoy, 2024), which approaches the history of art in an engaging and approachable way, yet with a critical edge that invites reflection. Additionally, she has collaborated with media outlets such as El Grito (El Confidencial), El Orden Mundial, Muy Historia, and Yorokobu, offers museum tours, and regularly participates in conferences at various institutions.

Clara González Freyre de Andrade. Image courtesy of the curator.

At the most recent edition of Art Madrid, artist Luis Olaso (Bilbao, 1986), represented by Kur Art Gallery (San Sebastián), received the Residency Prize of the Art Madrid Patronage Program. This award, the result of a collaboration between Art Madrid, DOM Art Residence, and the Italian association ExtrArtis, enabled him to undertake an artistic residency in Sorrento (Italy) in August 2025.

Through initiatives like this, the fair reaffirms its support for contemporary creation—a commitment aimed at increasing artists’ visibility and strengthening art collecting through concrete actions such as acquisition prizes, recognition of emerging talents, and international residencies.

Artists in Residence. DOM & ExtrArtis. Image courtesy of Agata D’Esposito.

The DOM & ExtrArtis 2025 Residency Program took place in Sorrento from August 1 to 31, 2025. The artists lived together at Relais La Rupe, a 16th-century villa surrounded by cliffs and centuries-old gardens, which became an ideal setting for experimentation and exchange.

In this edition, residents worked around the theme “Reimagining Genius Loci”, an invitation to reflect on how the movement of people and traditions transforms the “spirit of place.” During the residency, DOM organized two public group exhibitions: the first to present the artists’ previous work, and the second to showcase the projects developed in Sorrento.

Work by Luis Olaso. DOM & ExtrArtis. Image courtesy of Agata D’Esposito.

Luis Olaso’s work moves between expressionist figuration and abstraction, always employing a pictorial language charged with strength and emotion. Initially self-taught, he later graduated in Fine Arts and has developed a solid international career, with exhibitions at venues including JD Malat (London) and Makasiini Contemporary (Turku, Finland), and participation in fairs such as Untitled Miami, Estampa, and Art Madrid itself.

His work is part of prestigious collections, including the Tokyo Contemporary Art Foundation, Fundación SIMCO, and the Provincial Council of Bizkaia, and has been recognized in competitions such as the Reina Sofía Prize for Painting and Sculpture and the Ibercaja Young Painting Prize.

In Sorrento, Olaso found a unique context to expand his pictorial research, engaging in dialogue with the Mediterranean landscape and the region’s historical heritage. The residency provided him with time, resources, and a framework for exchange with other international artists, fostering the production of new works that were later presented in the group exhibitions organized by DOM.

Luis Olaso working on his project. DOM & ExtrArtis. Image courtesy of DOM.

Luis Olaso’s experience at DOM Art Residence concluded with a public showcase of the works produced, reinforcing his presence on the international circuit and consolidating his position as one of the most prominent Basque artists on the contemporary scene.

Through initiatives such as this, Art Madrid demonstrates its active role as a platform for direct support of contemporary creation, creating opportunities for research, production, and intercultural dialogue that extend beyond the fair itself and accompany artists in their professional development.