Getting together, making a plan to get to know each other and discovering an artist's workspace together can be an appealing proposal to start approaching the world of art. It is always a stimulus for the senses to enter a fertile ground for the imagination and to breathe the creative environment that usually surrounds these intimate spaces. To prove this, we have organized #LaQuedada, an itinerary through the studios of some of the artists who will participate in Art Madrid'24.

Have you ever wondered what an artist's workspace looks like? Have you ever imagined where an artist produces his or her work, for example when preparing to participate in an art fair?

It's very possible that you have unanswered questions. So, to help you discover this wonderful world of possibilities, we have organized #LaQuedada, an Art Madrid initiative to bring you closer to the surprising and sometimes romanticized world in which visual artists create.

A visit to an artist's studio is the perfect opportunity to get to know their aesthetic visions first hand and to be part of the experience of listening to them talk.We take the time to understand what their working methodologies are, what future projects they are working on, what the processes of their works are like, what materials they use to achieve those effects that we never imagined could be possible to produce... And so, among so much curiosity, we take a journey that reveals order and chaos, sketches and pigments, mutant ideas and possible utopias, notes and strokes that give shape to the vitality that each new project represents.

Artists are inspired by the experiences of their lives and their most intimate surroundings, and in their works they express the conflicts that torment them and the concerns they perceive in the society of which they are a part. Each of them represents an intimate, authentic, personal and yet shared truth. A common connection that unites us with them through the sensitivity with which we can identify if we look at them with other eyes: the eyes of the soul.

Today, being an artist in the art world is an act of courage. More and more artists are threatened by the precarious situation in our country today. That is why it is so important to support, promote and accompany artists. It doesn't matter if they are emerging artists or have been working in the art sector for part of their lives, what you should keep in mind is that you can contribute to the development of their career by acquiring some of their work; visiting their profiles on social networks and sharing their projects; attending galleries, fairs, cultural institutions or museums where they are exhibiting; or simply, connecting with the vitality of their artistic expressions in a visit to their studios.

We want #LaQuedada will be a recurring space that encourages open dialogue between the public and creators. A responsible way to promote the growth of the city's cultural structure is to make art accessible to all types of audiences. At Art Madrid we know this, and that is why today, more than ever, we want to bring contemporary art closer to everyone, trying to break the illusion that defines it as elitist and distances it from its humanist vocation. Creativity is everywhere and life is in the artist's studio.

In the first edition of #LaQuedada, we will have the opportunity to visit the studios of five artists participating in Art Madrid'24:

Carlos Tárdez - Galería Bea Villamarín

Elena Gual - Arma Gallery

Lara Padilla - Punts Galería

Richard García - Galería BAT Alberto Cornejo

Marina Tellme - Open Booth Art Madrid’24

La Quedada is a project designed for all audiences. Is possible thanks to ONE SHOT HOTELS, one of Art Madrid'24's official sponsors.
You can be part of it if you are a professional in the field of culture or if you are a passionate art lover. The duration of the visits will be approximately one and a half hours. If you are interested, you can find the calendar of activities on our website. You can also register by clicking on the button below.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

CARLOS TÁRDEZ (Madrid, 1976)

Multidisciplinary artist, in whose work has special importance the prominence of the message that is hidden in all his creations.In both painting and sculpture, he has achieved a level of quality that has earned him, among many other awards, the Medal of Honor of the BMW Painting Prize in 2010, 2018 and 2021.

Carlos Tárdez in his studio. Image courtesy of the artist.

ELENA GUAL (Mallorca, 1994)

Elena Gual is known for her figurative paintings of women that celebrate their beauty and promote gender equality. Gual creates highly textured representations of skin, hair, and clothing by applying thick, impasto brushstrokes to her canvases with a palette knife. Gual is a graduate of the Florence Academy of Art. She strives to transform classical approaches to anatomy, composition, and light into her own style. Also a self-taught photographer, Gual often creates paintings from her own photographs, exploring the relationship between the two disciplines.

Elena Gual in her studio. image courtesy of the artist.

LARA PADILLA (Madrid, 1988)

Lara Padilla has a degree in Fine Arts from the Complutense University of Madrid and a Master's degree in Film Photography Direction from the TAI School. She has participated in solo and group exhibitions at national and international level, such as her recent solo exhibition at the Juan Silió Gallery or her participation in the last editions of the Santander 2023 and Art Basel Miami 2022 art fairs. In addition to her artistic career, she has made a name for herself as a fashion designer, collaborating with clients such as Springfield, Pepe Jeans and Levis. She also actively collaborates with Patricia Field, the stylist behind series such as Sex In The City and The Devil Wears Prada, for her Patricia Field Art Fashion project, creating unique hand-painted garments. Lara Padilla lives and works in Madrid, Miami and New York.

ara Padilla in her studio. image courtesy of the artist.

RICHARD GARCÍA (Madrid, 1995)

Richard García graduated in Fine Arts from the Complutense University of Madrid in the year 2017. After this stage, he began his journey as an artist, winning numerous competitions and beginning to develop his own style and discourse. The creative process is one of the most important parts of his work, in which he allows himself to be guided by intuition, through which he reflects superimposition and transparency.

Richard García in his studio. Image courtesy of the artist.

MARINA TELLME (Almería, 1995)

She has a degree in Fine Arts from the Alonso Cano Faculty (Granada) and a Masters in Film Directing from the TAI. She has also qualified as a voice actress at the EDM (Madrid). Her work has been exhibited at the Humboldt University (Berlin), the García Lorca Art Centre (Granada), the Bless Hotel (Madrid), the Instituto de la Mujer de Almería, selected at the Art Sur Festival of Art in Action (Córdoba) and the Femujer de Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic), among others. Her art is the result of her passion for telling stories. Her paintings, sculptures and installations present a scenography (like a frame of an animated film) with characters and circumstances that are mostly comic and naïve in style, but with room for social criticism.

Marina Tellme in her studio. Image courtesy of the artist.

When, in September 2012, the Spanish government decided to raise cultural VAT from the reduced rate of 8% to the standard rate of 21% (effective 1 September 2012), it was not merely implementing a fiscal adjustment measure in the midst of an economic recession. It was making a strategic decision that placed Spanish culture at a structural disadvantage compared to its European counterparts. The measure affected an industry that generated 503,700 jobs and accounted for 4% of Spain’s GDP, turning the country into one of the few in the eurozone where reduced VAT was not applied to cultural activities.

Paradoxically, that draconian increase of 13 percentage points—affecting cinema, theatre, concerts, and so on—failed to achieve its expected revenue goal; instead, it produced the opposite effect. According to data from the General Society of Authors and Editors (SGAE), the Spanish cultural industry at that time generated 503,700 jobs and represented 4% of GDP. When the Union of Business Associations of the Cultural Industry warned that the measure would result in the loss of 43 million spectators and €530 million in revenue, no one in government appeared to listen.

Iván Quesada. Playing hide and seek. Acrylic on canvas. 146 x 114 cm. 2025. Galería Aurora Vigil - Escalera.

The correction came late and in a fragmented manner. In 2017, theatre and live performances returned to a VAT rate of 10%. In July 2018, cinema joined this reduced rate. But here is where the real anomaly begins: while the audiovisual and performing arts sectors were able to breathe again, the visual arts—understood as the commercial activity carried out by galleries—remained at 21%. And they remain there today, in January 2026.

Spain currently maintains a deeply fragmented and contradictory cultural VAT system. Artists who sell their works directly are taxed at 10%. Galleries that sell those same works may be taxed at 21% under the Special Regime for Used Goods (REBU), although under this regime VAT is calculated on the margin of the transaction rather than on the total price, and not all gallery operations are necessarily covered by it. The result is Kafkaesque: the main channel for the commercialization of contemporary art often bears the highest tax burden in the entire Spanish cultural industry.

Isabel Ruiz. Sin título 4. 2025. Fotografía impresa en dibond. 100 x 160 cm. Nuno Sacramento Arte Contemporânea. Nuno Sacramento Arte Contemporânea.

The data dismantle any argument based on equity. According to the Art Basel report (The Art Basel and UBS Survey of Global Collecting 2025), 95% of art buyers acquire works through galleries, whether via their physical spaces, websites, social media, or fairs. In Spain specifically, gallery sales account for around 76% of the total value of the market. Tax-penalizing the main channel of commercialization is not tax neutrality; it is structural blindness.

The comparison with Europe is devastating. France applies a 5.5% rate to art sales, Germany 7%, Italy 5%, and more recently Portugal has joined with 6%. After Brexit, France accounts for more than 50% of art sales in the European Union and approximately between 6% and 9% of global auction sales, consolidating a dominant position that is no coincidence: it is the direct and expected result of a fiscal policy that understands art as an economic and cultural lever, not as a dispensable luxury good.

The consequences for Spain are tangible and documented. A Spanish museum that wishes to acquire a work by a Spanish artist from a Spanish gallery may be taxed at 21%; if it purchases the same work through a French gallery, in many cases it pays only 5.5%. The paradox is so grotesque that it borders on the Kafkaesque. The Spanish state fiscally penalizes its own cultural institutions for supporting the national market.

At fairs held within Spanish territory, national galleries compete with French, German, or Italian stands that can offer the same artists with a fiscal advantage of up to 16 percentage points. It should be noted, however, that in cross-border purchases within the EU, tax treatment depends on factors such as whether the museum acts as a taxable person with a VAT ID and on the nature of the transaction (domestic supply versus intra-Community supply, etc.), so this comparison serves as an illustrative example rather than a strict fiscal statement. This is not merely about competition; it is, in reality, structural dumping.

Daniel Bum. Self-Portrait II. 2025. Oil and acrylic on linen. 27 x 35 cm. CLC ARTE.

On 5 April 2022, the European Union approved Directive 2022/542, amending Directives 2006/112/EC and 2020/285 concerning the common system of VAT. This regulation explicitly allows Member States to apply reduced rates down to a minimum of 5% to “the supply of works of art, collectors’ items and antiques.” The deadline for its transposition into national legislation was 31 December 2024, with application from 1 January 2025. Spain has not transposed this directive with regard to the art market.

While France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and Belgium have already adopted reduced rates for contemporary art, Spain maintains administrative silence. More than one thousand artists, gallerists, and professionals in the sector—including representatives of Spain at the Venice Biennale and National Fine Arts Award recipients—have signed the manifesto “Spanish Visual Artists Sign for Cultural VAT NOW.”

Thus, the government’s lack of action transcends the legal sphere and becomes a serious problem of economic vision. The Professional Committee of Art Galleries of France noted that a 5.5% rate for all transactions would generate between $40 million and $650 million in additional tax revenue through employment and art sales, whereas a 20% tax could generate losses of between $320 million and $610 million in tax revenue. The experience of countries such as the Netherlands and Portugal, which raised their cultural VAT rates and later reversed course after observing the devastating effects, should serve as a lesson.

Kim Han Ki. Don't forget me. 2024. Oil on canvas. 33.4 x 24.4 cm. Banditrazos Gallery.

FFrance and the effect of an intelligent fiscal policy

The French case dismantles the argument that culture does not generate fiscal returns. After implementing a 5.5% VAT rate for art, France currently accounts for more than 50% of art sales in the European Union and between 6% and 9% of global auctions. This dominant position is undoubtedly the direct result of a fiscal policy that understands art as an economic lever.

The Professional Committee of Art Galleries of France (CPGA) documented that a 5.5% VAT rate generates between $40 million and $650 million in additional tax revenue through employment and commercial activity in the sector, while maintaining rates of 20% produces losses of between $320 million and $610 million in tax revenue due to decreased activity. The data are conclusive: lowering VAT does not reduce revenue; it increases it.

Germany experienced a similar situation. The German Federal Association of Art Galleries and Dealers (BVDG) documented that a 19% VAT rate had stifled the market and caused gallery closures. The reduction to 7% in January 2025 was justified precisely as an economic reactivation measure. Italy, after years of debate, reduced its rate from 22% to 5% in 2025, with the aim -according to Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli- of “putting an end to an anomaly that made us less attractive compared to other European countries.”

Beatriz Castela. Spectrum IX. 2025. Acrylic on table. 80 x 60 x 3.5 cm. Galería Beatriz Pereira.

One of the most frequently repeated arguments for maintaining a 21% VAT rate on art is its perception as a luxury good. This reasoning reveals a profound misunderstanding of how the contemporary art market functions. The Art Basel 2024 report documented a significant shift in collector behavior: transactions under $5,000 grew by 7%, while galleries with sales below $250,000 increased by 17%. The art market is not the exclusive domain of millionaires; that is a stigma that new generations must break. In fact, the art market is an ecosystem increasingly accessed by the middle class through the acquisition of works.

Spain’s fiscal classification treats works of art at the same rate as tobacco, alcoholic beverages, or luxury gyms (21%), while books are taxed at a super-reduced 4%, and cinema and theatre at 10%. What cultural logic justifies taxing a photography book by an artist at 4%, but an original photograph by the same artist at 21%? The answer, however ironic it may seem, does not lie in cultural coherence, but rather in administrative inertia.

Onay Rosquet. Once upon a time there was a world. 2022. Oil on canvas. 100 x 100 cm. Collage Habana,

The consequences: from talent to brain drain

The numbers are stubborn. Spain has not managed to increase its share beyond 1% of the global art market since 2009. Meanwhile, the country has more than 24,000 artists and around 11,000 jobs directly linked to the visual arts ecosystem. This critical mass of talent and professionals is subjected to a fiscal pressure that does not exist in any other Spanish cultural sector or in any other major European art market.

he result is predictable and increasingly visible: talent drain, gallery closures, relocation of operations… and the list could go on. Some gallerists absorb part of the VAT to match prices with foreign competitors; others invoice through companies in other countries for intra-European transactions. These are survival strategies, not competitiveness strategies. The Spanish art market is becoming a second-division market, not due to a lack of artistic quality, which it has in abundance, but because of persistent administrative incompetence. Ultimately, the question is not technical but ideological: does Spain consider the visual arts to be part of its strategic cultural heritage, or does it treat them as an elitist whim?

The answer is in the Official State Gazette (BOE): as long as VAT remains at 21%, the answer is clear.

Alejandro Monge. See you in the streets. 2025. Fiberglass, cement, and pigments. 170 x 85 x 50 cm. 3 Punts Galeria.

Epilogue: a missed opportunity

Spain had until 31 December 2024 to transpose Directive (EU) 2022/542 and fiscally align its art market with Europe. It did not do so. Meetings with the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Finance have been ongoing for two years. Promises are repeated. The BOE remains unchanged. Meanwhile, the transactions that take place, the fairs held at home and abroad, and the artists who (fortunately) find representation with foreign galleries serve as a stark reminder of the cost of institutional inaction for culture.

The sector is not asking for privileges; it is simply demanding fairness. It asks that contemporary art receive the same fiscal treatment as cinema, theatre, or music. It asks that Spain stop penalizing those who build its contemporary cultural heritage.

The question is not whether Spain can afford to lower cultural VAT. French, German, and Italian data show that VAT reductions generate more economic activity and therefore more indirect tax revenue. The question is whether Spain can afford to continue ignoring it. Because at this moment, every percentage point of difference with France, Germany, or Italy is not merely a cold fiscal matter—it is a decision about what kind of cultural country we want to be. And administrative silence is also a decision.

Bibliography for Reference 🙂

Spanish Tax Agency (Agencia Tributaria) (2022). Council Directive (EU) 2022/542 of 5 April 2022 amending Directives 2006/112/EC and (EU) 2020/285 as regards value added tax rates. Available at: https://sede.agenciatributaria.gob.es/ Official State Gazette (BOE) (2022). Council Directive (EU) 2022/542 of 5 April 2022. Official Journal of the European Union, L 107, 6 April 2022. Available at: https://www.boe.es/buscar/doc.php?id=DOUE-L-2022-80541 EUR-Lex (2022). Council Directive (EU) 2022/542 of 5 April 2022. Available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2022/542/oj?locale=es Law 37/1992, of 28 December, on Value Added Tax. Official State Gazette. Ministry of Culture and Sport (2024). Culture Satellite Account 2022. Madrid: Ministry of Culture and Sport. ARTEINFORMADO (2025). “Directive 2022/542: New Rules for the Art Market in Europe.” January 2025. Available at: https://www.arteinformado.com/magazine/n/la-directiva-2022542-nuevas-reglas-para-el-mercado-del-arte-en-europa-7402 AVA Castilla y León (2024). “Art VAT in 16 European Union Countries: What Are Their Current and Future Reduced Rates?” Available at: https://www.avacastillayleon.es/ AVA Castilla y León (2025). “A 5% VAT in Italy? Spain’s Comparative Disadvantage with 21% VAT on the Art Market.” Available at: https://www.avacastillayleon.es/ Finestre sull’Arte (2025). “The VAT Revolution in the Italian Art Market: New Perspectives for the Sector.” July 2025. Available at: https://www.finestresullarte.info/es/ elDiario.es (2025). “Spanish Galleries Switch Off ARCO to Demand the Promised Reduction of Cultural VAT.” 5 March 2025. Available at: https://www.eldiario.es/cultura/arte/ EXIBART.es (2025). “Spanish Art Facing the Fiscal Challenge: Galleries Call for Reduced VAT to Compete in Europe.” October 2025. Available at: https://www.exibart.es/mercado/ FACUA (2017). “FACUA Demands That the Government Apply the Same VAT Reduction to Cinema as to Live Performances.” Available at: https://www.facua.org/ Infobae (2025). “Culture Reiterates It Is ‘Fully in Favor’ of Lowering the 21% VAT on Contemporary Art Purchases.” 7 March 2025. Available at: https://www.infobae.com/ ARES – Aragón Escena (2023). “For a Reduced VAT Rate in Culture.” September 2023. Available at: https://www.aresaragonescena.com/ Bonet, Lluís (2014). “Causes and Effects of the Increase in Cultural VAT: A Comparative Analysis.” The Economy Journal, 10 February 2014. Available at: https://www.theeconomyjournal.com/ FUNCAS Blog (2016). “Is It Progressive to Reduce VAT on Cinema, Theatre, or Concerts?” 4 October 2016. Available at: https://blog.funcas.es/ INEAF Tribuna (2018). “Impact of the Increase in ‘Cultural VAT.’” 27 August 2018. Available at: https://www.ineaf.es/tribuna/ Consortium of Contemporary Art Galleries. Institutional statements and the manifesto “Spanish Visual Artists Sign for Cultural VAT NOW” (2024–2025). Institute of Contemporary Art (IAC). Mateu de Ros, Rafael. “The Controversial VAT on Art.” Available at: https://www.iac.org.es/ The Art Basel and UBS Survey of Global Collecting 2025. Available at: https://www.ubs.com/global/en/our-firm/art/art-market-research.html/ “The Spanish Art Market Contracts to 2014 Levels Due to the Pandemic.” Available at: https://www.elindependiente.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/NdP-Informe-Mercado-Arte-Espan%CC%83a-2021-OS-la-Caixa-CAST.pdf

The cited sources are verifiable and publicly accessible. Figures on VAT rates in European countries have been verified with official EU sources and national tax agencies. Percentages and economic data come from published sector studies or documented institutional statements in the media.