Art Madrid'25 – GALERÍA MARITA SEGOVIA: FIELDS OF COLOUR, GEOMETRY AND ABSTRACTION

The gallery from Madrid Marita Segovia will exhibit in Art Madrid, a selection of the art work by four artists with different identities and artistic discourses but with clear aesthetic, formal and symbolic connections. Abstraction and geometry define the work of these four contemporary creators: Anke Blaue, Eduardo Martín del Pozo, Lourdes García O'Neill and Manolo Ballesteros.

The colour field paintings is one of the many movements of the American abstract expressionism, its greatest exponent being Mark Rothko. The compositions in the "colour field paintings" are characterized by large flat surfaces combined with colour which different shades of light are played with. The artist Anke Blaue (Germany, 1967), goes beyond the chromatic game and creates, without impediment, a spontaneous communication through the visual effect produced by the inherent characteristic of the material used.

The blues, greens, reds and yellows chosen by Blaue become more solemn as they are embodied on pieces of antique linen, patiently superimposed one on the other, creating compositional lines of extreme subtlety that, together with the granulate characteristic of the fabric, produce a special agitation and sensation of abyss.

Anke Blaue

AB479, 2018

Tela sobre tela

160 x 160cm

Anke Blaue

AB476, 2018

Óleo sobre lino antiguo

130 x 150cm

The colour planes are also a constant in the art work of Manolo Ballesteros (Barcelona, 1965), who usually combines a maximum of two colours in his works. Ballesteros tries to find himself. For him "painting is a way of thinking, it never has a concrete meaning. What it does have is musicality, it tends to spirituality because of the rhythm, the spaces and the tones of colour".

In his gouaches on paper he creates geometric shapes that subtly take over the canvas, creating capricious forms. During the last few years his art work has experimented in the domain of abstraction, playing with geometric complexity through the uniformity of pigments and the reduction of profiles. As a result of these investigations his most recent work reflects the convergence of rounded shapes on monochromatic backgrounds where the viewer is trapped in an energetic and dynamic art.

Manolo Ballesteros

Pajarita, 2019

Gouache on paper

111 x 91cm

Lourdes García O'Neill

Sin Título, 2019

Oil on canvas

192 x 178cm

In the compositions of Lourdes García O'Neil, we see again reminiscences of some artistic tendencies belonging to the American expressionist movement. The artist from Seville, combines in her large format canvases, abstract forms of different colours. Through colour and form, and letting herself be carried away by feeling, in her most recent work she achieves a synthesis that discards any insubstantial element previously contained in it.

In some of García O'Neil's works, the forms are diluted in the plane, moving us to the "blocks of colour" of the American artist Helen Frankenthaler. Without falling into their geometry, her production can suggest Equipo 57 because of the loose and fragmented line.

Eduardo Martín del Pozo

2017.53, 2017

Pigmentos en emulsión acrílica y vinílica sobre papel

94 x 64cm

Eduardo Martín del Pozo (Madrid, 1974) is perhaps the most figurative of the four artists. In some of his works, we find simulated spaces, while in others, such as "2017.53", these spaces fade away and become weightless and imprecise. "2018.24" shows us how Martín del Pozo accentuates the indetermination of the configuration of his work, accentuating the purity and definition of his gesture, which causes it to originate a framework hanging on the surface of the support.

Martín del Pozo's research is based on the relationships that can be established between the plastic arts and other manifestations, specifically music. The artist plays with rhythm, repetition and symmetry as if his works were musical structures.

 

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.