Art Madrid celebrates its fourteenth edition from February 27 to March 3, 2019, in the Crystal Gallery of CentroCentro Cibeles, with the participation of more than 40 national and international galleries that will show the works of nearly 200 artists, both creators emerging as consolidated. With an outstanding foreign presence, which this year reaches 40% and reaffirms the confidence placed in the fair by the international context, 26 national and 16 foreign exhibitors from 13 countries, from Spain to Germany, France, Portugal, Lithuania, Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Mexico, Peru, South Africa or Taiwan, and including the incorporation of 10 first-time participating galleries.

Galería Hispánica’s booth at Art Madrid, photo by Sara Ortega.

This year, the wide and varied proposal of Art Madrid stands out for its increasingly international character and for a more contemporary artistic selection. Also, the fair reinforces its ongoing commitment to young creators and the most current forms of creation, as proven by the high number of artists under 40 (63), the choice of Rubén Martín de Lucas as Guest Artist or the Parallel Program main theme. In fact, the fair has developed a large set of educational and cultural activities that this year revolve around a very current and booming artistic genre, which we will soon announce.

Carolina Bazo, “Patrones”, photography, 2017. O-Art Project.

In the General Program, a large number of national galleries participate again, such as Madrid's Kreisler, Marita Segovia, Alberto Cornejo BAT, Fucking Art Gallery, Contemporary Hispanic (also based in Mexico City), Jorge Alcolea and Montsequi. From Asturias the galleries directed by Aurora Vigil-Escalera (Gijón), Bea Villamarín (Gijón) and Arancha Osoro (Oviedo) are returning participants too, while from Galicia, Luisa Pita (Santiago de Compostela) and Moret Art (A Coruña) also return to the fair. From the northern part of the Peninsula, Galería Espiral (Noja, Cantabria), Rodrigo Juarranz (Aranda de Duero, Burgos) and MH Art Gallery (Bilbao), as well as the newly participating Kur Art Gallery (Guipúzcoa), are joining us this year. From Valencia the new proposals of Alba Cabrera Gallery and Shiras Gallery are presented, as well as those of the galleries that are coming from Barcelona: 3 Punts, Miquel Alzueta and Zielinsky. In addition, the Galería Cornión (Gijón) and Víctor Lope Arte Contemporáneo (Barcelona), which is also present in the One Project programme, are being premiered at the Crystal Gallery.

Lantomo, “Darkness 06 Doll”, graphite, pastel and watercolor on paper, 2018. Galería BAT Alberto Cornejo.

Among the foreign participating galleries from the General Program, the Portuguese representation is highlighted with Art Lounge (Lisbon), Paulo Nunes-Arte Contemporânea (Vila Franca de Xira) and the newly incorporation of the São Mamede Gallery (Lisbon/Porto). Also participating for the first time are the French Galerie Barrou Planquart (Paris), the North American Lola & the Unicorn (New York), the South African Oda Gallery (Franschhoek) and the Peruvian art collective O-Art Project (Lima). The renewed selections of the German Schmalfuss (Berlin) and Robert Drees (Hannover), the French Norty Mécénat (Carrières-sur-Seine), the Taiwanese Yiri Arts (Taipei) and the Cuban Collage Habana (Havana) have return this edition as well.

View of Art Madrid, photo by Julia Mateo.

One more year, Art Madrid also features the One Project program. The project, designed to support and promote young artists whose careers are in an initial or intermediate state, takes place in a collective exhibition in a solo show format. This year, one of the great updates of the program is the incorporation of Nerea Ubieto, art critic and curator who presents a new proposal leaded only by female artists. This choice, as stated by Ubieto, is based “on the eagerness to level an unstable balance in which female participation in art fairs is still today unfair”.

Alejandra Atarés, “Cactus naranjas”, oil and acrylic on linen, 2018. Víctor Lope Arte Contemporáneo.

Under the title "Ficciones, máscaras y paisajes: el color como telón de fondo", 7 artists feature specific proposals for the fair, which, as the curator explains, invite us to build our own universes. In the program, the international presence is again highlighted, and the pieces by Rūta Vadlugaitė (with Contour Art Gallery, Vilna), Virginia Rivas (DDR Art Gallery, Madrid), Mara Caffarone (Granada Gallery, Comuna), Nuria Mora (About Art, Lugo), Sofia Echeverri (Flux Zone, Mexico City), Manuela Eichner (RV Cultura e Arte, Salvador) and Alejandra Atarés (Víctor Lope Arte Contemporáneo, Barcelona) will be revealed at the fair.

Pepa Salas Vilar, “Desiderare con l’anima”, mix media on canvas, 2018. Galerie Robert Drees.

in this edition, as the Selection Committee assures, the proposals are highlighted because of the increasing quality, the more rigorous selection, the growing international character and the ability to reveal the new possibilities in the world of creation. Also, they are articulating fully contemporary and well-connected discourses, drawing something of the map of our time, in contemporary art. We invite you to stay tuned to our news section where, little by little, we will present all the programs in detail. We await you in Art Week!

The CEART opens this Thursday, November 14th in the room A an exhibition dedicated to this master of photography, which will be open to the public until February 9th. The show includes one of the artist's latest projects, focused on the hard work carried out by the miners of Serra Pelada, an open gold mine in the heart of Brazil where employees daily risked their lives.

Immigration, poverty, marginal life, slave labour, man's relationship with the land, the use of natural resources... are issues that have always fascinated Salgado. From the beginning of his career as a photographer, his work has opted to give visibility to the most disadvantaged groups and to create with his images a vivid and impressive visual story without fakes. With a raw black and white, this author's work transits between photo-reportage and naturalistic photography.

And the idea that permeates all his work is human dignity. Salgado portrays employees, miners and gatherers from a purely humanistic approach that wants to value their integrity, their strength and their resilience.

“If you photograph a human, so that he is not represented in a noble way, there is no reason to take the picture. That is my way of seeing things.”

Salgado entered this discipline long after completing his studies in economics between Brazil and the United States, and a doctorate in statistics in France. But in 1973 his life took a turn, and he decided to start his career as a photographer. He achieved to work at the Gamma Agency and Magnum Photos for more than 15 years until in 1994 he founded his own agency “Amazonas Imagen”.

With the “Gold” project, the photographer portrays a harsh reality that takes place in the Serra Pelada mine, a name given to a totally devastated and anarchically excavated mining enclave, the world's largest open-pit gold mine, through which more than 50,000 people have passed. In the heat of the legends about the mysterious “El Dorado”, the enthusiasm for this precious metal led to the development of strenuous exploitation practices for the workers and to originate tales of grief and glory, of human victory and defeat between the soil, the tunnels and the cargo baskets.

The CEART exhibition brings together Salgado's full portfolio in his characteristical black and white and large-format photographs that leave no one indifferent.