For the second consecutive year, Liquitex, a world reference brand in professional acrylic, joins Art Madrid as a sponsor, and in its desire to empower the artist and support contemporary creation, it will award a prize in material from the brand valued at €1,000 that will be granted to one of the artists participating in the fair who work with acrylic in their pieces.

The Award decision will take place on February 14 and will be communicated through our Instagram channel. To choose the winner on this occasion, they are consulting with the public through this online form in which they can vote for one of the three finalists pre-selected by the brand: Moisés Yagües, Lino Lago, or Daniel Sueiras. They will also raffle off a set of Liquitex products and tickets to our fair to encourage public voting.

Learn more about the brand and its actions as part of its commitment to the environment and the artistic community:

At Liquitex, they believe in the power of artistic expression to create a better world where artists and communities can thrive: a world where more is given back than received and social and environmental value is created.

They realize that change can be challenging, but they take immediate action to make their vision a reality. Empowering the community, innovating across all of its products and packaging, and integrating sustainability into each of its practices, maintaining the high-quality product offering artists expect, and collectively leaving a more positive footprint for everyone's future.

EMPOWERING ARTISTS

Desde Liquitex confían firmemente en la fórmula “empowering artists” como la mejor forma de conseguir sus objetivos, asegurando un mundo en el que las futuras generaciones puedan crear con garantías, dando prioridad a los espacios seguros From Liquitex, they firmly trust the formula "empowering artists" as the best way to achieve their objectives, ensuring a world in which future generations can create with guarantees, prioritizing safe spaces for artistic expression. In addition, they base this empowerment of emerging talents on their residency programs and the different prizes they award.

SAFE MATERIALS

Another fundamental pillar to understand the Liquitex brand is its continuous effort to provide safe artistic materials, certified by the Art and Creative Materials Institute, Inc., seeking to safeguard the safety of artists, as well as innovation to achieve a more positive impact on the environment. From the packaging to the product's composition, Liquitex is fully committed to betting on sustainable and innovative solutions that maintain the quality and performance of the product, leaving no trace other than that of the paint in our hands.

The progress hasn't stopped since 2017, with the introduction of cadmium-free Heavy Body colors, the first cadmium alternative with truly equivalent performance to paints containing heavy metal, all thanks to in-lab innovation. This year 2023, progress continues thanks to the partnership with Waste2Wear, pioneers in solutions for innovative plastic recycling; they use blockchain technology to offer 100% traceable and sustainable textiles. As part of the sustainability program, "A Positive Mark", the brand will launch a new line of canvases made from 100% recycled plastic bottles, identified with the SUSTAIN label, being the first items in this new Liquitex category. , in the coming months, they will be available in art establishments.

The brand will continue its vision of launching more sustainable materials within its "Professional" range, integrate sustainability practices throughout its activity, and contribute its constant support to the artist community.

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.