Art Madrid'23 – The legacy of the photographer Vivan Maier arrives to Fundacion Canal in Madrid from June 9th to August 16th.

 

Vivian Maier was the babysitter of the wealthy families of New York City in the 50s, but she had been born in the Bronx and knew the daily life of the people in humble neighborhoods, hobos, drunks and the girls who aspired to achieve the American Dream, whichever it was; and she somehow wanted to keep their images, the reality of everyday things.

 

Hiding the negatives, in her spare time, camera in hand, Maier took more than 100.000 photographs of the people she crossed in the street, the shop windows of the luxury and the misery, the crying children, and their neighbors. This archive was found by accident in 2007 by John Maloof, a fanatic of cheap auctions and second-hand dealers who bought it and resold it, and in that process the images caught the eye of the photography department of the New York Times.

 

History wanted that Maloof, upon the discovery of Maier's obituary, contacted the people who used to be their bosses and the families she lived with, and the documentary 'Discovering Vivian Maier' came to light. Nobody ever knew or even suspected the talent of the babysitter. The myth could start from there. Her work saw the light in 2010 and has become a milestone in street photography all over the world.

 

 

Is the text for the exhibition at Fundacion Canal reads, 'this exhibition traces, for the first time in Madrid, a comprehensive itinerary through Vivian Maier's work, tackling in a thematic way her main interests and showing the quality of her gaze and the subtlety with which she incorporated the visual language of her times.'

 

Maier's imagery, full of reflections, cut/up, out of frame images and fragments of scenes now fills the most prestigious galleries of the world, and hundreds of papers and catalogues. Now, her unique point of view arrives to Fundación Canal.

 

 

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.