Art Madrid'24 – POP CULTURE, CONCEPTUAL ART AND STREET ART. GALERÍA HISPÁNICA CONTEMPORÁNEA

Hispánica Contemporánea (based in Madrid and Mexico), one of the veteran galleries in Art Madrid, proposes for this edition a proposal with national and international artists that could be framed within trends such as Pop Art, Conceptual Art, Activism and Neo-Pop in contrast and interaction with other more current artistic trends such as kinetic art, neo-figurative art and street art. Hispánica Contemporánea proposes in its stand a historical journey through purely contemporary discourses and aesthetics.

The pop culture will be very present at Hispánica's booth. We will see it in the pieces "Flat Depth " of the American artist Paul Rousso, who from a flat surface creates volumes, turning a flat object into a three-dimensional one. Rousso, using complex techniques and under a satirical and ironic approach, discards and wrinkles elements such as American dollar bills, candy wrappers and pages from magazines and newspapers, inflating them to extraordinary dimensions.

Paul Rousso

Action Comic Superman March, 2018

Mixed media

92 x 246cm

The artist (also American) Peter Anton, in the wake of Rousso, creates realistic and giant sculptures, but this time food is the protagonist, especially chocolate candies and other sweets. Anton exaggerates the size of food to give it a new meaning; his creative process begins by smelling, dissecting, feeling and deeply studying the food he is going to represent.

The Italian artist Fidias Falaschetti is concerned with other issues related to pop culture such as consumerism and the globalization of the media. Falaschetti, from an ironic and playful point of view, investigates in his work the relationship between digital and analog, appropriating materials and elements or characters from the past and transforming them into contemporary objects. An example of this is his iconic Disney characters in resin covered in aluminium.

Peter Anton

Splendor Variety, 2017

Mixed technique

90 x 90cm

The sculptural installations by the American artist Rafael Barrios and the kinetic pieces in ceramics by Carlos Cruz Díez represent a turning point in the Hispánica booth. In the work of these two artists, both pioneers in their artistic tendencies although with different plastic discourses, color has a fundamental role.

Rafael Barrios plays with geometrical forms, volumes and colour, building his sculptures in a direction totally far from the orthodox, defying the laws of space and generating new perceptive alternatives with his "floating virtual works". Hispánica Contemporánea is the only gallery that represents Rafael Barrios in Spain.

The Venezuelan artist Cruz-Díez conceives color as an autonomous element, which evolves in space and time, without the help of form or support, in a continuous present. In his delicate ceramics of the series "Cromovela", works that we will be able to see in Art Madrid, we observe how the artist takes the kinetic art to its maximum expression in the land of the three-dimensionality.

Rafael Barrios

Mural, 2015

Lacquered steel

160 x 126cm

Xavier Mascaró and Manolo Valdés, two artists with solid careers and with whom Hispánica has been working for years, will show at the Fair a selection of pieces that could be included within the neofigurative trend.

The pieces by Xavier Mascaró that Hispánica will present in Art Madrid, are a sample of the different lines of research with which the French artist has been working since his beginnings. It is worth mentioning that the artist has recently been included in the list of artists of the prestigious Opera gallery and we will be able to see in Art Madrid a selection of his famous sculptures in iron, bronze and corrugated copper combined with his pieces in enameled ceramics.

From the artist Manolo Valdés we will be able to see work on paper of his characteristic representations of elegant and sophisticated "Gentlemen " and "Ladies with pamela " accompanied by small format bronze sculptures.

Xavier Mascaró

Guardián, 2012

Cobre corrugado

175 x 100cm

Mr.Brainwash, iconic street art artist, will bring "street art" to the stand walls. In his works we see again characteristic elements of the aesthetics of American pop culture fused with his personal style.

Exercising an absolute contrast with the work of the urban artist, we find the deep and symbolic paintings of the Basque artist Guillermo Fornés Through a very personal language, the artist wants to transmit "his expressive force, and at the same time, give the work the poetics and subtlety that make up his plastic identity. In this way, he always speaks of the emotion." His large canvases charged with symbolism, awaken timeless emotions and feelings.

Mr. Brainwash

Einstein, 2016

Técnica Mixta sobre metal

50 x 50cm

Guillermo Fornés

Arch Light, 2018

Mixed media on canvas

146 x 114cm

Crowning the stand of Hispánica Contemporánea the monotypes of one of the most influential artists in contemporary conceptual art, the American Mel Bochner, who works exclusively with the gallery Hispánica in Spain and Mexico.

Bochner is, together with Joseph Kosuth, Art & Language, Lawrence Weiner, Douglas Houbler and Robert Barry, responsible for one of the artistic revolutions of the moment. Trained in an artistic environment (his father was an advertising sign painter), his interest has always been focused on the purely conceptual rather than the superficial. Influenced by his father, from an early age he became interested in strictly verbal information and the meaning of words. Little by little, Bochner begins to divest himself of the elements most closely linked to the pictorial (colour, plane, surface) in order to explore the possibilities of the linguistic universe. Later, he recovers colour in his works to make it an indispensable element in his work.

Mel Bochner

Amazing, 2018

Monotype with collage, engraving and reliefs on Twinrocker paper

158.8 x 119.4cm

In art works such as "Blah, Blah, Blah" or "Amazing", the semantics or meaning of the words, varies as we read them. The artist explores the duality between the solitary and private nature of writing and the way in which the final product is exposed openly to the public, bringing together an immense wealth of subjective gradations in language.

 

“I paint in a completely free way, I don't have a plan, it's chaotic, but everything has a reason. I don't prepare anything before I start painting, what I paint is what I feel or try to communicate at that moment, so it changes a lot (from one work to another)”.

Chão limpo e o resto. Mixed media on canvas. 2023. Ana Malta. Courtesy of the artist.

Cultura Inquieta once again joins the experience of discovering and celebrating creative talent within the broad spectrum of artistic expressions present at Art Madrid'24. As a supporter of culture and contemporary art, its commitment to promoting and supporting emerging artists is reflected in a special initiative in this edition: highlighting and supporting the work of the REVELATION ARTIST of the 19th edition.

Só durmo na minha almofada. Mixed media on canvas. 2023. Ana Malta. Courtesy of the artist.

In this context, Ana Malta emerges into the contemporary art scene with a fresh voice and her own visual aesthetic. Born in Lisbon in 1996, Malta is a talented visual artist and freelance designer who has captivated the public with her distinctive approach and bold exploration of the beauty of everyday spaces through her investigations of color.

Her studies in Painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon, as well as her Master's Degree in Creative Industries Management at the Catholic University of Portugal in Porto, have provided a solid foundation for her artistic practice. Currently, she also collaborates in the Communication and Production Office of Carpintarias de São Lázaro - Centro Cultural e Galeria Belo-Galsterer, showing her commitment to the cultural fabric of her community. She is also part of the artistic collective VÊS.TRÊS.

Ana Malta has been recognized in several platforms and media, including the 14th Edition of QUADRANTE, Melancia Mag and the SCROLL program of the RTP2 channel. Her participation in the book (AS)ARTISTAS - Ensaio Gráfico sobre Histórias e Práticas Artísticas no Feminino and in the April 21st Edition of Nova Awareness Club underlines her impact and relevance in the contemporary art scene.

Só um é que ganha. Mixed media on canvas. 2023. Ana Malta. Courtesy of the artist.

Ana Malta's work is characterized by her exploration of color, patterns, composition, and texture. These elements are not only vehicles of her plastic and visual expression, but also embody an intimate dialogue between aesthetic restlessness and the transformation of error into opportunity.

It is exciting to see Ana Malta make her debut at Art Madrid'24, represented by Galeria São Mamede (STAND B3). Her presence promises to further enrich the artistic experience of the event, inviting the public to approach the visually captivating and conceptually stimulating universe that the artist creates to narrate the chaos she rearranges in shapes and colors.

Não fico pendurada. Mixed media on canvas. 2023. Ana Malta. Courtesy of the artist.

In a world in constant movement, Ana Malta reminds us of the importance of experimentation and continuous exploration in the search for authentic and sincere artistic expression.

Her work has been REVEALED to us in the 19th edition of ART MADRID, thanks to the precise point of view of CULTURA INQUIETA as a testimony of the transforming power of art. In her hands, the entropy of forms brings us the possible memory of an endless summer; the luminosity of the sun becomes the caress of everyday life; we may even be surprised by the formula of happiness turned into a companion animal.

Ana Malta's pieces combines the restlessness of a space that appears to be in a state of chaos with the delicate synesthesia of vibrating at the velocity of light, nuances, lines and colors in her paintings.