Art Madrid returns to Madrid Art Week and will celebrate its seventeenth edition from February 23 to 27 at the Crystal Gallery of Palacio de Cibeles. A unique, open-plan, and bright space located in the ‘Landscape of Light’: next to Prado Museum, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, and MNCARS - Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía.

Art Madrid 2021

Art Madrid selection committee has once again been in charge of evaluating the applications of galleries interested in participating in the seventeenth edition of the fair. To guarantee a high level of artistic quality in the Art Madrid'22 programming, the committee has evaluated the applications based on the proposals submitted and the represented artists' careers. On this occasion the committee was integrated of Alfonso de la Torre (critic and curator), Aurora Vigil-Escalera (gallery owner), Natalia Alonso (critic and curator), Angel Samblancat (gallery owner and international fairs consultant), and Javier López (gallery owner) ).

For the first time, the galleries will participate in Art Madrid: Galerie Alex Serra (Köln, Germany), Arena Martínez Projects (Madrid, Spain), ARTITLEDcontemporary (Herpen, Netherlands), Dr. Robot Gallery (Valencia, Spain), GARNA Art Gallery ( Madrid, Spain) and Jackie Shor Arte (São Paulo, Brazil).

Carolina Serrano, “My nameless words II”, Paraffin, 91 x 12 x 8 cm (2021). Galerie Alex Serra ©

In the other hand, the international galleries at Art Madrid will be: Art Lounge Gallery (Lisbon, Portugal), ARTITLEDcontemporary (Herpen, Netherlands), Collage Habana (Havana, Cuba), Galeria São Mamede (Lisbon, Portugal), Galerie Alex Serra (Köln, Germany), Galerie LJ (Paris, France), Jackie Shor Arte (São Paulo, Brazil), Nuno Sacramento (Ílhavo, Portugal), Studija Mindiuzarte / Kaunas (Kaunas, Lithuania) and Yiri Arts (Taipei), Taiwan).

More than 160 artists will exhibit their work at the fair, dealing with different disciplines such as painting, sculpture, photography, and installation, and offering the visitor a unique experience enjoying contemporary art.

Among them are some of the most prominent emerging artists of the moment such as Mária Švarbová, Carmen Pastrana, Chang Teng-Yuan, Costa Gorelov and Camille Bonneau; mid-career as Carlos Cartaxo, Gerard Fernández Rico and Marcos Tamargo; along with established artists such as Chema Mádoz, David Rodríguez Caballero, Carmen Calvo, Uiso Alemany, Alberto Guerrero, Josecho López Llorens, Manolo Valdés, Rafael Barrios and Lars Zech, among others.

Carlos Cartaxo, “Several Windows VII”, Acrylic and enamel on canvas. 195x140cm (2021).Arena Martinez Projects ©

Chang Teng Yuan, “The School of Parrotman Athens” ,Acrylic on canvas, 130x193cm (2021). Yiri Arts ©

PROGRAMS

One Shot Hotels is once again the sponsor of Art Madrid and has prepared two initiatives with which it renews its faithful commitment to contemporary art. One is the curated program by Natalia Alonso, who will curate a tour of various artworks exhibited at Art Madrid'22 to introduce and bring the public closer to understanding the art market ecosystem. The other is the collectors' program by Pía Rubio, one of the most prestigious art consultants in our country. The service aims both to enhance the commercial work of the galleries and to offer advice on the acquisition of works of art for new buyers.

Finally, the fair co-organizes, together with the video art platform Proyector, a parallel program focused on video creation, action art, and performance, under the curatorship of Mario Gutiérrez. In this edition, Proyector will focus on investigating and rethinking the concept of “loop” through the pioneers of video art, both from the creation point of view, distribution and collecting. During the fair you will also be able to enjoy an installation by Gary Hill, considered the founder of New Media Art, and two live proposals by Hill himself; together with works by Llorenç Barber, a pioneer of sound art.

Below, we detail the list of galleries of Art Madrid 2022:

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.