Art Madrid'25 – WHO SPEAKS AND WHERE? LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN AT ART MADRID

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.

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.