The artists and their works move narrative discourses presented before us with an expansive effect. Although inhabiting a geographical space, belonging to a specific social class, and having specialized training... are factors that define their work. Others, uncontrollable by the hand of flesh and blood, can change their perspective on life forever. This is precisely what happens with the creators who come to Art Madrid from further away, and we would say, those who have ventured across from the other side of the sea:

Ana Margarita Ramirez, Selva Blanca (2022) Galería Luisa Pita ©

Adrián Socorro, Matanzas, (Cuba), 1979. Collage Habana; Ana Margarita Ramírez, Caracas, (Venezuela), 1974. Galería Luisa Pita; David Planas, San Antonio De Los Baños, La Habana, (Cuba), 1976. Galería Luisa Pita; Evangelina Esparza, Rosario, (Argentina), 1980. DDR. Art Gallery; Fabio Camarotta, Buenos Aires, (Argentina), 1969. Art Lounge Gallery; Gustavo Díaz Sosa, Sagua La Grande, (Cuba), 1983. Galería BAT Alberto cornejo; Isabel Ruiz, Montevideo, (Uruguay), 1959. Nuno Sacramento Arte Contemporânea; Isabela Puga, Caracas, (Venezuela), 1997. Galería BAT Alberto cornejo; Marlene Stamm, Vacaria, São Paulo, (Brasil), 1961. Trema arte contemporânea; Mono Cieza, Argentina, 1969. Fousion Gallery. Roger Sanguino, Maracay, Venezuela, 1968. DDR. Art Gallery; Roldán Lauzán Eiras, La Habana, (Cuba), 1987. Collage Habana; Willy Ramos, Pueblo Bello, (Colombia), 1954. Galería Espiral; Yasiel Elizagaray, Sancti Spíritus, (Cuba), 1987. Collage Habana.

Adrián Socorro, “Flor” 2022. Collage Habana ©

A fair is, as you know, a window to the art market and a springboard for the thoughts and actions of those dedicated to creation. Art Madrid is. It is window and mirror. It is the regular appointment in which galleries and artists contribute and place their vision and interaction with the production of meanings in the hands of the public. Photography, drawing, painting, and sculpture are the most present manifestations in this edition. Discursively, they would come to answer that much-discussed question of what is art and what is not. But this time, the questioning is directed by the constant search for a polyphonic feeling, which brings together voices as different as they are authentic, around the figure of the artist who moves, who provides and directs the work in the movement. Whether in a temporary or permanent stay, the action of movement and migration as casuistry forever surround the exercise of creation.

As an art fair, we are interested in setting our sights on the production built from Latin America and the Caribbean, which has taken root in some way in our context. With increasing flow, artists such as those mentioned above move to other territories looking for other forms of life, and other experiences, thus articulating scenarios that give meaning to the messages that their works are capable of transmitting. Whether in an obvious way or permeated by some lyrical, poetic veil, raising the flags of denunciation or the activation of suspicion, they recount the impact that the change experience has left on their vision of the world. At this time, as the theoretician Néstor García Canclini would say, post and multi, more or less sophisticated repetition does not transcend. Attention is deserved by those positions that underline the differences and critically assess the uncertainty of postmodernity.

Isabel Ruiz, “Caída de agua” 2019. Nuno Sacramento arte contemporanea©

We ask ourselves, then, if the placidity of a landscape, the expansion of painting as a critical exercise, the rebuke of individuality, the struggle to build one's own space, and the polyphony of identity, which are, in this framework, an extension of Latin America and the Caribbean should speak from a single place. We think not. We dream of the possibility of being not only a mirror of current events but also a window of access to questioning. To be, above all, the right place for artists who allow themselves to take risks, venture out, and originate the birth of a fertile change in the land in which they reap their legacy.

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.