Estefanía Martín Sáenz's work has made its way through artistic paths that run outside the mainstream of contemporary production. The use of techniques with higher manual weight and the resource to materials as common as atypical in the current scene made her work a reference in the dialogue between the present and the past. Until October 10th we can visit her exhibition "Máscaras" at the Alcobendas Art Centre.

Estefanía Martín Sáez, Dibujos literarios, "Marcela I", 2016

After her exhibition “Mourning and luxury” at the ABC Museum of illustration, within the 15th edition of the Connections program that relates works of the Banco Santander collection with the funds of the illustration museum, it could be seen that Estefanía's work displays enormous sensitivity and shows a way of creating based on dedication and personal devotion. With this methodology, her pieces convey all together that same generosity and delicacy that are needed to conclude them.

Estefanía Martín Sáez, “Las flores son para el cementerio I”, 2018

At the same time, the artist takes advantage of this detailed quality of her work to reflect on issues that question the traditional role of women in society. It is not therefore strange to see cuts of fabrics, embroidered cloths, interwoven threads and other materials that, in a constant way throughout history, have always been linked to female work within the domestic sphere. As a peaceful proclamation, Estefanía takes up these elements to give them new uses and build a subversive discourse that claims the real importance of women in an environment determined to relegate them to the background.

Estefanía Martín Sáez, "Máscara 5", 2018

Based on this global protest that refers to all the women in the world and, particularly, those that the artist has been encountering throughout her life, the “Máscaras” project offers a visual story where female figures appear faceless, because, what is important to highlight is the universal character of an endemic situation of social imbalance that only in the western world is shyly reversed. That is why the specific features of a face do not matter, but the representation in absolute terms of a shared reality.

Estefanía Martín Sáez, “Sígueme”, 2019

The exhibition brings together two lines of work of the artist: “Fiestas Paganas” and “Aquelarre”. Although with a different foundation, in both cases, Estefanía underlines the state of social exile that the female gender has historically lived in different contexts, times and places. With reference to pagan holidays, the presence of women in these celebrations appears as a mere object; while in "Aquelarre" she recovers part of the events that took place during the performance of the Inquisition, where many of them were sentenced to death accused of witchcraft and heresy for the sole fact of being women.

In the year 2020 in the heart of Barcelona a wandering gallery was born, the same one that in February 2021 would debut at Art Madrid with an exhibition proposal focused on contemporary portraits; with this subject matter it would manage to create a powerful dialogue between artwork and audience and make the seal Inéditad remain in the history of the event that contained it.

Jean Carlos Puerto. Protección. Oil and copper leaf on wood. 60 x 48. 2021. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Since that first time and until today, the wandering gallery has managed to build projects on otherness, has repositioned in the spotlight the discourses on the LGTBIQ+ collective, has consolidated a group of artists who share its principles of resilience and empathy and the best thing is that it continues to bet from the professionalism and commitment to give voice to the difference.

Claudio Petit-Laurent.. El Joven de la Perla. Oil on wood. 30 x 30 cm. 2023. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Inéditad Gallery, thanks to its founder Luis López, its collaborators and the infinite possibilities manifested in the works of the artists it represents, is a gallery that has demonstrated its capacity and courage to stimulate the sensibility of the public through art and seduce a generation that moves between the glass window and the analogical story. Inéditad is a nomadic gallery that has gathered around it a community of artists and has moved the context with exhibition projects that think about LGTBIQ+ art without prejudices.

Pepa Salas Vilar. Las marcas del arcoiris. Oil on canvas. 40 x 50 cm. 2022. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Pride and Prejudice was inaugurated. An exhibition that brings together the works of sixteen artists: Abel Carrillo, Alex Domènech, Carlos Enfedaque, Silvia Flechoso, Jamalajama, Daniel Jaén, Claudio Petit-Laurent, Jean Carlos Puerto, Fernando Romero, Pablo Rodríguez, Pepa Salas Vilar, Jack Smith, Pablo Sola, Bran Sólo, Elia Tomás and Utürüo. Painting, illustration, photography and digital art are the manifestations that bring into dialogue around fifty neatly threaded pieces, in a discursive line that discusses such a latent phenomenon as discrimination. To achieve this, the artists invited to the exhibition question themselves whether: Does discrimination exist within the LGTBIQ+ collective?

Pride and Prejudice Official Poster. Image courtesy of the gallery.

With approaches on and from the body, the proposal invites to celebrate diversity, proposes to question and self-question the prejudices and attitudes of society against the collective. Pride and Prejudice is a space for dialogue about the constructs imposed on us by society. It is also an oasis in which to deconstruct with tolerance and respect the subjectivities that sometimes prevent us from approaching the production of the participating artists, simply because "the beautiful" does not fit in an androgynous body. The subjugation of stereotypes are pressed with determination to find the beauty of diversity in other palpable facets of reality.

Pablo Sola. All men are dogs. Photography. 2014. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Throughout these three years Inéditad has stimulated the vindictive projection towards bad practices, has questioned estates around the LGTBIQ+ body and the most admirable thing, is that these capacities have resurfaced around the dialogue and the visual narrative of the stories that are told from the visual: Artworks that are people, art that is, per se, humanity. Overcome impositions and accept what is different in order to continue fighting against homophobia, biphobia, lesbophobia or transphobia and defend the equal rights that all the acronyms of the collective deserve in our community.

That's Pride and Prejudice: One creature, the happiest in the world. And maybe other projects and other people have said it - or felt it - before, but none so fairly.

Silvia Flechoso. Hola, soy maricón. Oil on canvas. 73 x 54 cm. 2023. Image courtesy of the gallery.

From June 8th until June 22nd you can visit Pride and Prejudice. Carrer de Palau núm. 4. Canal Gallery space. Barcelona.