Art Madrid'26 – THE EXPECTED ONE PROJECT OF ART MADRID 17

THE EXPECTED ONE PROJECT OF ART MADRID 17

Jan 26, 2017

art madrid

 

Curated by Carlos Delgado Mayordomo, the proposal talks about concepts as territory, displacement and identity. The selection includes these artists: Rubén Martín de Lucas, Mariajosé Gallardo, Irene Cruz, Renato Costa, Acaymo S. Cuesta, Keke Vilabelda, Eloy Arribas and Ernesto Rancaño.

 

Rubén Martín de Lucas. Genesis 1.28. Creced and Multiplied. Circles Action in the landscape. Photography. Pigmented inks on siliconized microporous paper on 3mm methacrylate mounted on dibond. 120 x 150 cm. Ed.5 + PA. 2017

 

Rubén Martín de Lucas (Madrid, 1977) with the BAT gallery Alberto Cornejo (Madrid), Engineer studies by the Polytechnic University of Madrid but declines to exercise the engineering to dedicate itself completely to art. Member of the multidisciplinary group Boa Mistura, group of artists with roots in graffiti that has intervened among others in the National Museum of Art Reina Sofía, Casa Encendida, International Festival of Arts of Castilla Leon.

 

The main obsession of the artist it is to reduce the forms to the essential, emphasizing the expressive force of graphics, fragments of collages or of the big planes, conceived as zones that allow to concentrate the information of the art piece that should reach the viewer. His works are not simple photographs because he modifies them by painting on them with oil or by creating collages with different images.

 

 

Mariajosé Gallardo. Painting cost time and money - Oil, enamel and gold leaf on canvas - 100 x 81 cm - 2016

 

 

Mariajosé Gallardo (Villaf. De los Barros, Badajoz, 1978), participates with Espacio Olvera (Seville). Graduate in Fine Arts in the specialty of Design and Engraving, by the University of Seville. We can highlight awards such as the Focus Abengoa, the presence of her work in numerous foundations or her individual exhibition in the CAAC (Andalusian Center for Contemporary Art).

 

Throughout her different projects, Mariajosé Gallardo, has built her own plastic vocabulary and has made her works easily recognizable. In its representative lexicon are always present emblems, symbols, religious motives, esoteric, heraldry, ex-votos or reliquaries; she offers the possibility of thinking the painting from different parameters not only by the strictly plastic or aesthetic point of view.
 

 

 

 Irene Cruz. The Muses - Photograph - 40 x 60 cm - 2016

 

 

Irene Cruz (Madrid, 1987) with the gallery Fifty Dots Gallery (Barcelona), an artist very recognized in the contemporary artistic world. Degree in the Universidad Complutense de Madrid in Advertising and Public Relations and Audiovisual Communication. She obtained the International Master EFTI, specializing in Conceptual photography and artistic creation. She currently lives and works in Berlin, and she has made more than 250 photography exhibitions, video art and video installations around the world, highlighting such places as the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, the BB.AA Circle in Madrid and the New York Art Project Art Space.

 

 

Renato Costa. Tan-Gentes -  Oil on canvas - 140 x 140 cm - 2016

   

 

Renato Costa (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1974) that participates with Javier Silva Gallery (Valladolid) He began his profession in his father ?attelier. After graduated with a degree in Fine Arts in University Complutense of Madrid, he moved to that city until the present time. His work is defined by expressing intensely the emotions through its technical and thematic characteristics. The key issues are the relationship between the past and the present, not only the personal but also the collective. Figuration, subjectivity and open emotions, converging in his work into a more conceptual art.

 

 

Acaymo S.Cuesta. Preámbulo - Photographed on photopolymer plate. Black offset ink. Super alpha paper. Polyptych composed of 7 engravings
   

 

Acaymo S.Cuesta (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 1983) with the La Isla Gallery (Madrid). Graduate in Fine Arts, studied the Master of Artistic Production. He has exhibited individually in the Gallery No Place of Quito, Ecuador, the Gallery of Art U.L.P.G.C of Las Palmas of Gran Canaria and in Foundation Mapfre of Tenerife. He has participated in collective exhibitions in T.E.A. (Tenerife Spaces of the Arts), in Camino Largo 31, La Laguna, Tenerife, Estudio Andrés Delgado, Madrid, in San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina and at the School of Design of the Polytechnic University of Valencia, among others.

 

 

Keke Vilabelda. Bone and concrete 4 - - 100 x 70 cm - 2016

 

 

Keke Vilabelda (Valencia, 1986) participant with Kir Royal Gallery (Madrid). Graduated in Fine Arts at the Polytechnic University of San Carlos, Valencia. He has exhibited individually in galleries such as the Kir Royal Gallery in Valencia, the Rodríguez Gallery in Poland, Plecto Gallery and Contemporary Lokus in Medellín, or the Coldharbour London Gallery in London. He has also participated in collective exhibitions such as, “Injuve with the young creation” in the Sala Amadis, Madrid. “Languages in Paper” at the Fernando Pradilla Gallery or the Beautiful New World, International Contemporary Art Exhibition, Nanjin.

 

 

Eloy Arribas. Sin título - Oil and collage on canvas - 100 x 81 cm - 2016  

 

 

Eloy Arribas (Valladolid, 1991) with Silves Arte Contemporáneo (Huércal-Overa, Almería) Painting, he finished his training with a Master’s Degree in Teacher Training. He has exhibited individually in Salamanca in the Space 3K Art and DA2, in Almería in the Gallery Mojácar Factory and in Valladolid in the Gallery Javier Silva. He is currently planning two other exhibitions, one in Madrid. She has participated in a large number of collective exhibitions such as “Flashes” at the Cultural Center of La Carolina, Jaén, and in “Open Studio” with Mabel Esteban and Brin Magenta at Escorpión Producciones, Salamanca.

 

 

 Ernesto Rancaño. Sombras del ayer - Mixed media (Light boxes) - 35 x 6 cm - 2016

 

 

Ernesto Rancaño (Havana, Cuba, 1968) participates with South Border Gallery (Beirut, Lebanon). He studied at the National School of Plastic Arts from 1987 to 1991, where he graduated in the specialty of Painting and Drawing. He obtained the First Prize in the Contest of Posters sponsored and summoned by the CETSS, Havana, Cuba. His works are in permanent collections in Panama, Mexico, Jamaica and Spain. Also, he has participated in numerous collective exhibitions. Since 1995 he has been a member of the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC). Some of his individual exhibitions are “Karma” at the Cuba Pavilion in Havana or “Half of my life” in 2012.

 

 

 

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ART MADRID’26 INTERVIEW PROGRAM. CONVERSATIONS WITH ADONAY BERMÚDEZ


The painting of Daniel Bum (Villena, Alicante, 1994) takes shape as a space for subjective elaboration, where the figure emerges not so much as a representational motif but as a vital necessity. The repetition of this frontal, silent character responds to an intimate process: painting becomes a strategy for navigating difficult emotional experiences—an insistent gesture that accompanies and alleviates feelings of loneliness. In this sense, the figure acts as a mediator between the artist and a complex emotional state, linking the practice of painting to a reconnection with childhood and to a vulnerable dimension of the self.

The strong autobiographical dimension of his work coexists with a formal distance that is not the result of conscious planning, but rather functions as a protective mechanism. Visual restraint, an apparent compositional coolness, and an economy of means do not neutralize emotion; instead, they contain it, avoiding the direct exposure of the traumatic. In this way, the tension between affect and restraint becomes a structural feature of his artistic language. Likewise, the naïve and the disturbing coexist in his painting as inseparable poles, reflecting a subjectivity permeated by mystery and unconscious processes. Many images emerge without a clearly defined prior meaning and only reveal themselves over time, when temporal distance allows for the recognition of the emotional states from which they arose.


The Long Night. Oil, acrylic, and charcoal on canvas. 160 × 200 cm. 2024.


The human figure appears frequently in your work: frontal, silent, suspended. What interests you about this presence that seems both affirmative and absent?

I wouldn’t say that anything in particular interests me. I began painting this figure because there were emotions I couldn’t understand and a feeling that was very difficult for me to process. This character emerged during a very complicated moment in my life, and the act of making it—and remaking it, repeating it again and again—meant that, during the process, I didn’t feel quite so alone. At the same time, it kept me fresh and connected me to an inner child who was broken at that moment, helping me get through the experience in a slightly less bitter way.


Santito. Acrylic and oil on canvas. 81 × 65 cm. 2025.


There is a strong affective dimension in your work, but also a calculated distance, a kind of formal coldness. What role does this tension between emotion and restraint play?

I couldn’t say exactly what role that tension plays. My painting is rooted in the autobiographical, in memory, and in situations I have lived through that were quite traumatic for me. Perhaps, as a protective mechanism—to prevent direct access to that vulnerability, or to keep it from becoming harmful—that distance appears unconsciously. It is not something planned or controlled; it simply emerges and remains there.


Night Painter. Acrylic on canvas. 35 × 27 cm. 2025.


Your visual language oscillates between the naïve and the unsettling, the familiar and the strange. How do these tensions coexist for you, and what function do they serve in your visual exploration?

I think it reflects who I am. One could not exist without the other. The naïve could not exist without the unsettling; for me, they necessarily go hand in hand. I am deeply drawn to mystery and to the act of painting things that even I do not fully understand. Many of the expressions or portraits I create emerge from the unconscious; they are not planned. It is only afterwards that I begin to understand them—and almost never immediately. A considerable amount of time always passes before I can recognize how I was feeling at the moment I made them.


Qi. Acrylic on canvas. 81 × 65 cm. 2025.


The formal simplicity of your images does not seem to be a matter of economy, but of concentration. What kind of aesthetic truth do you believe painting can reach when it strips itself of everything superfluous?

I couldn’t say what aesthetic truth lies behind that simplicity. What I do know is that it is something I need in order to feel calm. I feel overwhelmed when there are too many elements in a painting, and I have always been drawn to the minimal—to moments when there is little, when there is almost nothing. I believe that this stripping away allows me to approach painting from a different state: more focused, more silent. I can’t fully explain it, but it is there that I feel able to work with greater clarity.


Crucifixion. Acrylic on canvas. 41 × 33 cm. 2025.


To what extent do you plan your work, and how much space do you leave for the unexpected—or even for mistakes?

I usually feel more comfortable leaving space for the unexpected. I am interested in uncertainty; having everything under control strikes me as rather boring. I have tried it on some occasions, especially when I set out to work on a highly planned series, with fixed sketches that I then wanted to translate into painting, but it was not something I identified with. I felt that a fundamental part of the process disappeared: play—that space in which painting can surprise even myself. For that reason, I do not tend to plan too much, and when I do, it is in a very simple way: a few lines, a plane of color. I prefer everything to happen within the painting itself.









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