Art Madrid'23 – Montenegro gallery in Art Madrid\'15

The Montenegro gallery, run by Victor M. Rodeiro, was founded in 1987 under the direction of Victor Rodeiro Montenegro. In the beginning was oriented towards 20th century Galician artist, with an aim to contribute to the dissemination of Galician art, hence its close collaboration retrospectives of artists such as José Frau, Arturo Souto, Sotomayor, Luis Seoane, Anton Lamazares Manuel Pesqueira, Manuel Antonio Fernández Colmeiro and without forgetting the modern and contemporary art, with a special interest in the historical avant-garde.
 
 

Obra de Adolfo Scholsser.

Montenegro's bet is a mixing of avant-garde with young contemporary artists and proposes art works by Bosco Sodi, Joan Miró, Wilfredo Lam, Adolfo Schlosser, AR Penk and young galician photographer Carla Andrade.
 
 

Fotografía de Carla Andrade.

 

Wilfredo Lam is a  cuban painter, one of the most original exponents of Surrealism in Latin America and creator of a new pictorial language that fuses Afro-Cuban heritage with the latest European avant-garde. He began his art studies at the San Alejandro Academy in Havana, and in 1924 traveled to Spain to study at the Academia de San Fernando in Madrid. After the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), he moved to Paris (France) where he met the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, who exerted a strong influence on his early works. In Paris he joins the group with French Surrealist poet André Breton and German artist Max Ernst. In 1941 he returned to Cuba where he began to develop a style of painting that although in close contact with surrealism, adopted elements of Afro-Cuban culture that shape dreamlike biomorphic images of exuberant imagination. His work matured into a more schematic style in almost monochrome tones, constantly searching for his own language of their land.

Obra de Wilfredo Lam.

 

Bosco Sodi Mexican painter who moves between Barcelona, New York and Mexico. Sodi's work achieves a rich pictorial material textures, inspired perhaps in the informality of Tàpies but including excellent color illustrations following the track of the experiences of a strong conceptual character of Kandinsky and Malevich, without losing color planes we refer to the works of Rothko.
Jaume Vidal in the catalog of his exhibition in Barcelona Art gallery Shatevín commented in relation to his work: "... Bosco Sodi continues reflection of those artists of Informel and Abstract Expressionism, deep artists, visionaries, artists that illuminate the underground life of things. "
Obra de Bosco Sodi.

 

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.