Art Madrid'25 – INTRODUCING THE PARTICIPATING GALLERIES OF ART MADRID\'18

Okuda, "Skull", 2017.

 

 

 

The Selection Committee of Art Madrid, made up of gallery professionals, experts in the art market, critics and independent curators, has positively assessed both the artistic quality of the proposals and their commitment to new talent.

 

In the General Program AM18, 9 galleries participate for the first time, 5 Spanish - Fucking Art (Madrid), Soraya Cartategui (Madrid-New York), Mercedes Roldán Art Gallery (Madrid), Shiras Gallery (Valencia), MH Art Gallery (Bilbao) - and 4 foreigners - Galerie Robert Drees (Hannover, Germany), Paulo Nunes Contemporary Art (Vila Franca de Xira, Portugal), Nebo Art Gallery (Kyiv, Ukraine), Carbo / Alterna (Cancun, Mexico-Havana, Cuba) - what confirms the trust of professionals in Art Madrid. In total, there are 34 galleries that make up the General Program of the fair, a program that always takes care of the participation of galleries and national artists, the main value of this fair of reference in the Week of Art in Madrid.
 

 

 

 

Yoxi Velazquez, "Rezos", digital printing on paper, 2016. Gallery Carbo/Alterna.

 

 

 

Among the Spanish galleries (24), Art Madrid'18 will have a broad representation from Madrid (8) formed by BAT Alberto Cornejo, Kreisler, Marita Segovia, Galería Hispánica Contemporánea (Madrid-Mexico), Jorge Alcolea, to which they join this year Soraya Cartategui (Madrid-New York), the Fucking Art gallery and Mercedes Roldán Art Gallery. From Barcelona come the gallery Zielinsky and some of the senior galleries of the fair such as 3 Punts Galeria, Marc Calzada and the Miquel Alzueta Gallery. Benlliure Gallery, Alba Cabrera Gallery and the newly incorporated Shiras Gallery bring their proposals for the 13th edition from Valencia. From Asturias they repeat Aurora Vigil-Escalera (Gijón) and Arancha Osoro (Oviedo) and, from Galicia, they visit us again Montenegro Gallery (Vigo, Pontevedra), Moret Art (A Coruña) and Luisa Pita Gallery (Santiago de Compostela, A Coruña) . The General Program also includes the Espiral Gallery (Noja, Cantabria), Rodrigo Juarranz (Aranda de Duero, Burgos), the Léucade Gallery (Murcia) and MH Art Gallery (Bilbao) which participates in Art Madrid for the first time.

 

Among the foreign galleries (10 galleries) it stands out the rich Portuguese representation with Art Lounge (Lisbon), Arte Periférica (Lisbon) and the recently incorporated Paulo Nunes Arte Contemporânea (Vila Franca de Xira). The Schmalfuss gallery (Berlin) and Galerie Robert Drees (Hannover) are the proposals that come from Germany, which are joined by Norty (Carrières-sur-Seine, France), Collage Havana (Havana, Cuba), Yiri Arts (Taipei, Taiwan) and the new incorporations of Nebo Art Gallery (Kyiv, Ukraine) and Carbo / Alterna (Cancun, Mexico-Havana, Cuba).
 

 

 

 

Alfonso Zubiaga, "Proyeccion 1", photography, 2017. Gallery Fucking Art.

 

 

 

Besides, our Guest Artist AM18, Okuda San Miguel has introduced one of whose most representative motifs, the iconic "Skull", serves as the image of the 13th edition of Art Madrid. A skull that condenses the nature of the artist through a pulsating range of colors, magically arranged on the geometric surface of the skull designed by Okuda. An omnipresent figure in the artist's imagination that poses an ironic look to the future from the prism of new contemporary art and a bet on an open-to-all art, a fresh art in contact with pop, surrealism and new generations of creators and of the public.

 

ONE PROJECT AM18, SOLO SHOW AND SITE SPECIFIC PROJECTS

Curator and art critic Carlos Delgado Mayordomo coordinates, one more edition, the ONE PROJECT Program of Art Madrid, a prominent area within the fair that gathers the work of eight young and mid-career artists, national and international creators, who make specific proposals for the fair.

 

For the 13th edition of Art Madrid, ONE PROJECT AM18 will feature the solo-show of Alejandro Monge (Zaragoza, 1988) with 3 Punts Galeria (Barcelona); Candela Muniozguren (Madrid, 1986) with Bea Villamarín (Gijón); Antonyo Marest (Alicante, 1987) with Diwap Gallery (Seville); Carlos Nicanor (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 1974) with Galería Artizar (La Laguna, Tenerife); Bernardo Medina (San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1965) with Nuno Sacramento (Ílhavo, Portugal); Jugo Kurihara (Japan, 1977) with Pantocrator Gallery (Suzhou, China); Aina Albo Puigserver (Palma de Mallorca, 1982) with Pep Llabrés Art Contemporani (Palma de Mallorca) and Vânia Medeiros (Salvador de Bahía, Brazil, 1984) with RV Cultura e Arte (Salvador de Bahía, Brazil).
 

 

 

 

Guim Tió Zarraluki, "EI bany", oil on linnen canvas, 2017. Gallery Yiri Arts.

 

 

 

#ART&EDUCACIÓN AM18: ART AS A TOOL FOR LIFE

In the parallel program #ART&EDUCATION, thanks to the collaboration of independent, public and private professionals, artists and cultural mediators, we will try to clarify concepts such as artistic activism and pedagogy, art as a space of convergence of experiences, non-regulated education and critical citizenship, exhibition formats and the education of the gaze... We will count on, among other agents, Pedagogías Invisibles, a collective that "makes visible the learning that happens in an invisible way"; with the organization Plena Inclusión; with the VEGA school, the program of quarterly courses offered by ESPOSITIVO to bring the less traditional disciplines closer to any type of audience, and with RED ITINER, local program to promote alternative cultural spaces of the Madrid's 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.