In its seventeen previous editions, the Art Madrid fair has been a stage where Portuguese galleries have met, turning our event into an unmissable appointment to discover and appreciate the news of an essential representation of the Portuguese visual arts production. And lay on the table the interest in these established spaces and their market internationalization inside and outside Portugal. From February 22 to 26 galleries, already familiar with the fair's context, return: Art Lounge Gallery, (Lisbon), Nuno Sacramento Arte Contemporânea, (Ílhavo), Galeria São Mamede, (Lisbon) and Trema Arte Contemporânea, (Lisbon) joins the roast. Twenty artists will land in our capital thanks to these spaces to show their most recent works. Painting, photography, sculpture and drawing prevail in this edition.

Lúcia Davis, “Rubbish”. Trema Arte Contemporáneo ©

The galleries' exhibition proposals stand out for the support and materials experimentation. From poetic-plastic rereadings of everyday objects (Trema Arte Contemporânea); the disruption of photography (Nuno Sacramento Arte Contemporânea); painting and drawing as experiential tools (São Mamede Gallery), and the interrelation between pictorial exercise and the space that contains it (Art Lounge Gallery). These brushstrokes shed light on the interest of each exponent to travel on the right foot in the paths of contemporary visual production in Portugal and its representation at the behest of the market.

Sofia Areal, “Coração e Noite” 2010. Galería São Mamede ©

Special attention deserves Trema Arte Contemporânea, which began its activity with a group of emerging Portuguese artists and nowadays is recognized in the Portuguese gallery circuit as one of the highest-level galleries. It has marked the eclecticism of the most current Portuguese art and other foreign artists with innovative projects for over twenty years. From its list, we want to highlight Carlos Barão, a spontaneous artist who focuses his research on the search for sensations that border on dreaminess within the painting. And the works of Lúcia David, who immerses herself in drawing to raise the roots of an imperfect and daring staging. Galeria São Mamede opened its doors in the sixties, and its interest has always been framed within the Portuguese modernism and contemporary movement. From its list, we highlight the participation of Sofía Areal one of the most important painters of her generation, and Nélio Saltão a self-taught artist with a meaningful career in painting and color experimentation.

João Noutel, “Future”, 2022. Art Lounge Gallery ©

While the series of portraits of Nuno Horta (Mirandela, Bragança, Portugal, 1977) repeats in ArtMadrid with Nuno Sacramento Arte Contemporânea. The great beauty is frozen in the approximations that this artist conjures up of the human figure, totally fanatical about the perfection and deification of the faces. Human physiognomy becomes an updated account of experimentation with fluorescent light and color in an intrinsic search for golden proportions. The treatment of postmodern icons in João Noutel work (Porto, Portugal, 1971) is another of the approaches that Art Lounge Gallery proposes to the painting. The artist works on an interesting pictorial proposal. He recounts the complex mechanisms of the image and its deconstruction or reconversion into an object of desire in the times that welcome us.

The Portuguese visual arts show, with these representations in our fair, the solid contemporary movement breathed into the gallery circuit to which they belong.

nuno Horta, “Dominion”, 2021. Nuno Sacramento Arte Contemporânea ©

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.