Art Madrid'23 – THE GALLERY BAT ALBERTO CORNEJO CELEBRATES THE 15TH ANNIVERSARY OF ART MADRID

The gallery BAT Alberto Cornejo, has been associated to Art Madrid since its beginnings. Therefore, for this fifteenth anniversary, the gallery from Madrid is paying homage to the Fair with a selection of artists who have been key in its trajectory. Some of them have been present in Art Madrid during the fifteen editions.

BAT Alberto Cornejo was one of the 18 galleries that founded Art Madrid in 2005, as a response to the evident need to make visible the work of the galleries in Spain. Since then, its directors and team have been supporting the project, presenting artistic proposals that combine the work of young artists who follow a very contemporary expressive line and pieces by artists with more consolidated careers.

Pepe Puntas

La enredadera, 2019

Mixta sobre tabla

200 x 204cm

David Lechuga

Bañista, 2004

Bronze

44 x 20cm

The artworks of David Lechuga, Diego Canogar and Pepe Puntas, artists with whom BAT Alberto Cornejo has been working for years, are characterized by keeping a timeless aesthetic that still remains in the spotlight of contemporary art. The three artists, nationally recognized and having received countless awards, have works in some important national and international art collections.

Gustavo Díaz Sosa

Caminos divergentes I, 2019

Mixta sobre lino

150 x 150cm

Diego Canogar

Tetramorfo extendido 101 N, 2014

Hierro patinado

145 x 90cm

On the other hand, the exhibition proposal of BAT Alberto Cornejo is completed by three unconditional emerging artists of the gallery: José Ramón Lozano, who returns to his beginnings with his portraits of direct faces and dark backgrounds, Gustavo Díaz Sosa with its colored architectural spaces and Cuban artist Roldán Lauzán, previously featured by the gallery Collage Habana, will make his debut with BAT Alberto Cornejo at the Fair, and whose artworks will make us reflect on the duality of being.

“We have rarely seen such strength in holding the brush as we see in the works of these three artists. With a totally visceral impulse, their paintings are framed within those images that chase you until you find yourself in front of them and fall down", the gallery owners point out.”, comment the gallerists.

José Ramón Lozano

Sin Título (II), 2018

Acrílico sobre tela

120 x 120cm

Roldán Lauzán Eiras

Season III, 2019

Óleo sobre tela

140 x 140cm

These six developed and emerging artists are joined by the German photographer Jorg Karg, who is participating for the first time in the fair with BAT Alberto Cornejo, and the Slovak photographer Mária Švarbová, who will present a very special work, "Absolute Pink Bar ". This piece, with a format of 110 x 100 cm, is the result of an advertising collaboration, and there are only 10 copies in the world. BAT Alberto Cornejo will have one of these pieces in Art Madrid. In this edition, the gallery commits to photography supported by the international projection of these two artists, as they are present in galleries all over the world and with amazing careers despite their youth.

Jorg Karg

One mile light, 2019

Printing by pigment under acrylic glass on aluminum dibond

80 x 76cm

Mária Švarbová

Snow pool, Garden, 2017

Photography

90 x 90cm

At the booth of BAT Alberto Cornejo, the figurative art staged in paintings, sculptures, drawings and photographs, will have a greater presence than abstract art (with Puntas and Canogar as acting agents), and bright colors and the female figure (either in faces or bodies) will predominate. Gustavo Díaz Sosa, Diego Canogar and Pepe Puntas present works of their artistic life project, with their particular commitment to each piece.

It is worth noting that we can highlight the co-publication of the graphic work "Pont Neuf " by the artist Jorg Karg (image of the official poster of the Fair). The work will be available exclusively at Art Madrid. On the other hand, Roldán Lauzán has made a series of unpublished pieces for Art Madrid, from the series "Hierofante" and "Anatta Vadi ". We can also find in this edition, the catalogues "Futuro Retro " by Švarbová, of very exclusive sale in Spain.

 

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.