The Barcelona gallery Pigment Gallery is participating for the first time in Art Madrid with a selection of works ranging from the most modern figuration to the purest abstraction. Pigment participates in the fair with five local artists and one Italian artist based in Barcelona. They are: Aurelio San Pedro, Marta Fàbregas, Adalina Coromines, Rosa Galindo, Rosanna Casano and Alberto Udaeta.

The multidisciplinary artist Aurelio San Pedro (Barcelona, 1983), uses different media and techniques both traditional and digital to express himself. In Art Madrid, Aurelio San Pedro will present works belonging to his series "Libros" which he tells a story about the concept of time by using as signs of his compositions book songs, pages, covers and cut-out words, structuring them within a surface which he achieves the final sculptural piece. In this way, the artist creates his own symbology and artistic imagery.

Each book he uses does not contain just a story, it is full of experiences and memories of the author himself or of the characters in the story told, and in many cases of the artist himself. The artist plays with time, conveying his experiences through fragments of books with variable times, using repetition, gathering and order to symbolize the concept of the archive.

Aurelio San Pedro

Aquellas historias le cambiaron,

Técnica mixta con papel de libro

100 x 100cm

Marta Fàbregas

Colonitzada nº55, 2019

Fotografía antigua, mix media sobre papel de acuarela sobre tela

130 x 100cm

The concept of time is also used in the work of Marta Fàbregas (Barcelona, 1974). In her series "Colonizadas" she rescues photographs of 19th century women from different social and working environments who have been subdued simply because they are women. All of them, in one way or another, were colonised by society, which took away their identity, their future, their desires and their dreams. Marta Fàbregas gives visibility to women who never had it.

Fàbregas uses photography as the basis of her work, but she alters it through the technique of transphotography by combining photographs from digital archives with precious fabrics, using collage techniques, inks, gums, which she manages to create textured surfaces. These fabrics are attached to the image by means of digital retouching, complemented by collages and transphotography.

Adalina Coromines

Grècia, 2019

Mixed media

183 x 153cm

Adalina Coromines (Barcelona, 1963) by means of different techniques in which natural pigments, earth, sand and ecological materials in general are found, creates a suggestive work, where the sensation of the passage of time is transmitted by the appearance of the piece already aged, being the textures and the patinas the elements that contribute those effects of illusory wear that the artist manages to transmit, and that coexist in her inner world. The big formats of her works help the viewer to enter into the deepest mysticism of the artist.

Coromines intervenes the materials used in her art work, texturing them with different tools, some of them coming from her own inventiveness, and she manages to create bas-reliefs that give depth to his work, in which large horizontal wooden boards are superimposed on metal ones. A beauty achieved through modesty and simplicity.

Rosa Galindo

lagon 3, 2019

Tecnica mixta sobre plexigas

150 x 150cm

The dream images of the artist Rosa Galindo (Barcelona, 1962) transport us to an imaginary territory of delicate organic forms that she achieves by playing with different research processes, mainly with the technique of reverse Plexiglas painting. This plastic material allows to obtain transparencies and opacities in which the color vibrates of a special form in its gestural brushstrokes, managing with it to create a fictitious atmosphere where it manifests his philosophy on the place of the world in which the humanity must be located.

His works lead us to a world of meditation and personal reflection through the weightless sensation that the organic forms superimposed on his colorful backgrounds arouse.

Rosanna Casano

Atrio, 2019

Oil on paper

47 x 46cm

Rosanna Casano (Marsala, Italy, 1968), settled in 1989 in Barcelona, the city where she forged her artistic career. In Casano's work geometric forms, symmetry and patterns predominate, some of her pieces remind us of architectural structures ordered with simple forms, others start from more organic forms that tend to be figurative.

“In my work, different ways of composing coexist that are complementary. There is a tendency to order by means of construction and form, structuring a space, geometry creates a place where I think I am what I feel. And there is a tendency to leave the matter that I express, open or uniform, organic or mineral matter, where perhaps I think I feel what I am.”

Alberto Udaeta

Yunque de la memoria, 2014

Grey iron

15 x 31cm

Alberto Udaeta

Anvil of water 722, 2014

Grey iron

18 x 50.5cm

The wrought iron sculptures by Alberto Udaeta (Barcelona, 1947) are based on experience and history. Using traditional techniques, some of which are typical of craftsmanship, the artist creates delicate structures based on assembled geometric elements that fit together. Udaeta seeks the splendour of forms through matter.

The artist condenses in his trajectory his formation and experience as an industrial engineer and his more profound investigation in the field of iron sculpture, experimenting with cast iron in the workshop he set up in Barcelona in 1982 in a former cork factory. ”The metals, fumes and gases that clutter workshops and foundries have partially spoiled my sense of smell, which is why I remember with nostalgia the smells I perceived as a child, when I returned to my great-grandmother's farm in the car. Fabulous smells of earth, water, freshly mown grass and also of horses, stones and snakes. But above them all there is still the bright, sharp, metallic smell of the edge of the dalle, very similar to that of my iron sculptures".

Buying the first work of art always instils respect. A difficult feeling to define that mixes vertigo with adrenaline. But over uncertainty and caution, a pleasurable sense of connection, understanding, and desire prevails. That work that, once seen, stays in the mind, reappears in the memory several times a day and seems to tell you that it is willing to be part of your home, is the perfect candidate to make the decision.

In the first steps, many collectors do point out that one does not start from an established plan, but rather that one acquires pieces based on taste and the connection one feels with them until, after time, they realise that the volume of works that accumulates can be labelled as a "collection". For example, this is how Alicia Aza explains it:

“I was not aware that I was collecting until many years later when a third party named me as a collector and talked about my collection. In 2005, I became aware of what collecting means and decided to articulate a collection with an identity of criteria and formats”.

Marcos Martín Blanco, co-founder, with his wife Elena Rueda, of the MER Collection, shares this same opinion:

“Collecting has been a passion, driven by a visceral state that encourages you to do so. The collection, in terms of acquisitions, has not been particularly complicated because, let's face it: it is easy to buy because they are all beautiful things and you have some clear idea of where you want to go, but at first those preferences were not so clear. It is with the time that a criterion is being formed”.

It is not always this way, of course, but for the buyer who starts out on this path, the personal connection that entails the first piece is essential. There it is the germ of a lasting relationship that is not limited to a simple aesthetic question but is an open window to knowledge, to exploration, to a world that is often unknown to us and awakens our fascination. The seed of that connection is purely sentimental, and it is precisely this impulse that determines the first acquisitions. The first piece is never forgotten.

Art Madrid'20, photo by Ana Maqueda

Exceeding the usual recommendations made by advisers and agents, rare is the occasion when the art lover decides to buy by pure investment. These paths usually open later, when the volume of pieces is large enough. In addition, there are those who are a bit against this classic concept of the traditional collector, approached from an eccentric, elitist and little accessible vision. On the contrary, art buyers are, above all, art lovers, sentient beings and permeable to creative stimulus who, at a given moment, decide to deepen the relationship they already have with art to take a piece home.

It is not that hard to overcome that small psychological barrier that turns the visitor into a buyer if one approaches the matter from a more personal and intimate perspective than from social consideration. Small-format works, graphic work or serial photography are of great help for this, whose price range, generally more affordable, allows a closer comparison to the daily basis expenses. In this way, the purchase of art falls within the range of feasible activities and becomes something close and possible.

Art Madrid'20, photo by Marc Cisneros

At that moment, a different relationship with art begins, based on pure experience and coexistence with the acquired piece. Perhaps it can be seen as an act of daring, but on many occasions, it is more a matter of necessity and transformation. Collectors also agree that the acquisition of an artwork is an exercise on personal analysis and opening up to a new field of knowledge that was previously alien to us. Alicia Aza explains that the reason she acquired her first piece of video art, by Sergio Prego, is because she did not understand it and because she saw it as a challenge and an opportunity to self-improve. This open window to knowledge creates new connections and bonds with creators, as one of the most fascinating parts of the process. Candela Álvarez Soldevilla explains that

"I think the most interesting thing in the art world is talking to artists. They are people with a special sensitivity to listen and understand.”

And Alicia Aza also says:

"I can share the satisfaction of being able to count on many artists in my circle of close friends today, and that is a long way to go."

Thus, with works that seem acceptable within the horizon of expenses that each one considers affordable, it is easy to find a piece that catches us. Since then, our home also evolves into a space in which art has a permanent place and presence, and there is no doubt that this transforms us inside.

Art Madrid'20, photo by Henar Herguera

Jaime Sordo, owner of Los Bragales collection and founder of the 9915 Contemporary Art Collectors Association, has always defined his relationship with art as a true passion and a vital necessity. For buyers who start on this path, he has the following recommendation:

“It is an essential condition that they feel the need to live with their passion to enjoy the works. Another very important aspect is that before making decisions for purchases, they are informed, so it is necessary to read specialised newspapers and books, visit exhibitions and museums and a lot of contact with galleries, which is an important and very specific source of information of the artists they represent. Finally, the presence in national and international art fairs. All this generates information and training.”

Indeed, fairs have become a good place for discovery because they condense a wide offer and allow diverse and global contact in a concentrated way. For this reason, many new generation buyers start in the context of an event such as Art Madrid, whose closeness and quality constitute a unique opportunity to meet, soak up and feed the passion for art.

(*) quotes taken from various interviews published in public media between 2013 and 2019.