For the third consecutive year, a dozen Argentine galleries become
the main Latin American reference at ARCOmadrid.
And caution is no longer needed: this presence enters fully into the powerful ritual, leaving behind its character of promise.
And with all the wind against us!
In their traditional tour, which begins the fair, the kings of Spain once again distinguished an Argentine gallery, the Remota gallery from Salta.
They thus obtain a certain seniority in the great Spanish art fair, despite the overwhelmingly uncertain context of Argentine artists and their dealers.
We must remember that this time everyone is here without the government support of previous years.
In the main section of the fair, five great Buenos Aires galleries: Ruth Benzacar, whose artist Ulises Mazzuca is a finalist for the Illy prize, chosen by Patrizia Sandretto herself, collector and benefactor.
Also Herlitzka & Co., with historical work by Anita Payró, W-Walden, Pasto and Nora Fisch.
The latter brought a single show by Alfredo Londaibere, a contemporary classic central to the history of Argentine art and queer
aesthetics
, emerging in the heat of the Rojas Cultural Center.
But this chronicle will remain for tomorrow, when some announcements predict joy.
To value even more, in the Opening and special guest section, the Salta gallery Remota
, by Guido Yannitto, who is also a first-class textile artist, also
stands out .
This is
only the second time that a provincial gallery has accessed ARCO
;
The debut was Diego Obligado, from Rosario, in 2022, who was personally honored during the traditional walk of the Spanish kings to the fair.
Remota has brought in two artists;
the painter Mar Pérez, with almost monochromatic oil paintings in sepia browns – a dazzling nude, planes of geometries and figures from the tarot, and paintings on crushed cans of snow from the northern carnival;
and Roxana Ramos, with a video and graphic work based on her performances.
This space only works with artists from the region.
In the space "Never the same", curated by Daniela Moscoso and Rodrigo Esparza and dedicated to Latin American art, the galleries Piedras, Isla Flotante, Sendrós and Vigil Gonzáles participate, a unique gallery with three locations, Buenos Aires, Cuzco and Santo Domingo.
The visit of some Argentine collectors such as José Luis Lorenzo and Andrés Brun from Córdoba, even before the tour organized by the arteBA fair, led by curator Mariano Mayer, undoubtedly
put the first hours of opening in fifth gear.
Isla Flotante, which was not here in the past editions, has brought a single show by
Rosario Zorraquín
, who this afternoon was
a finalist for the Illy award
.
Her work aroused many admirations and all of her pieces were sold in a few hours – they cost between U$6 and 15 thousand euros.
These are very subtle panoramas
drawn with a nib on gauze, painted with the lightness of inks and acrylic backgrounds.
It is a work that defies technology, it is not fully reflected in a photo;
On the contrary, it invites the
slow zoom of the human eye.
These days she has an exhibition in the Buenos Aires gallery, along with historical pieces by Noemí Gerstein and Cecicia Marcovich.
In the Sendros gallery, the artist Andrés Piña shows hybrid sculptures of stacked and intervened pots.
Born in Mendoza in 2032 and a resident of Buenos Aires, he says that he sought to give
these everyday objects the morphology of anatomical organs.
Something about these reminds us of Gabriel Chaile's popular pots that were covered in a documenta, in Germany.
His small paintings, in tempera on panel, are almost
perfect miniatures and full of detail, of gauchesco imagery;
They contain machines powered by little barnyard animals, delirious meccanos.
He is at the booth, dressed in a skeleton t-shirt and pants.
"Postindustrial surrealism?" we venture.
"It could be, but with a little custom."
he defines.
The Piedras gallery exhibits work by Clara Esborraz and sculptures by Carla Grunauer.
In the first case, these are pen drawings on black paper.
Grunauer's sculptures, measuring at least 50 cm and with zoological shapes, surprise with their material: at first glance ceramic, they are actually enameled plaster.
The Vigil Gonzáles gallery, where this morning
authorities from arteBA and the Meridiano chamber of gallery owners, and private collectors gathered
, has brought a single show by the Peruvian Violeta Quispe Yupari, based on ancestral narrative techniques from Peru.
Quispe is another of the artists chosen by curator Adrian Pedrosa for the Venice Biennale.
Several notes on this preliminary tour, before the fair is officially open to the public.
The Vigil Gonzáles gallery also participates in the official ARCO selection, with
the Puerto Rican Karlo Andrei Ibarra,
one of the most recommended on the first day.
His work on paper superimposes imaginary maps, seeking to associate political and social dimensions with them.
As a culmination, it offers Buenos Aires residents a vibrant window to the rest of America from the downtown area.
And Salta will also have to be considered very seriously, due to the
cluster of artists who reside in the Calchaquí Valleys
.
From Remota, the extraordinary Wichí weaver Claudia Alarcón, today with a London gallery and invited to the Venice Biennale, was projected.
And Florencia Sadir also resides in the region, exhibiting her project "Water Serpent" in the W gallery - gallery in the main section of ARCO.
A sample of Sadir, "Mudar el rmbo", coincides in Barcelona, in El Sielo, with an Argentine couple.
A sea of many shores
Of course, throughout the fair, with about 200 galleries, most of them European, there are works by artists from our region.
In every corner there is one with surprises.
In Pinksummer, in Genoa, works by Tomás Saraceno reign supreme.
One of his clouds, at 97 thousand euros, a large spider web embroidery, at 50 thousand.
And the Parisian Jocelyn Wolff
offers several pieces by Diego Bianchi, and two paintings by Santiago de Paoli,
an Argentine who emigrated to the United States. In Espacio Minimum
there is work by Amalia Pica
, who has just dazzled with her installation in New York , a large space honoring public education, all in slate green.
This year ARCO is dedicated to “The shore, the tide, the current: an oceanic Caribbean”, an idea that contemplates and displays
the great dispersion of Central American artists throughout the world.
In fact, a myriad of Cuban artists originally emigrated to the US have moved here.
Madrid already has its own circuit of small Cuban spaces in the Carabanchel neighborhood.
In terms of galleries, the absence of Mexican and Brazilian spaces is notable, with immeasurably more powerful domestic art markets but which do not choose Madrid with a red dot on their international calendar.
Great artists of these nationalities are distributed in this Babel of international galleries.
It will only be possible to walk them when our feet have taken a rest.
Special Envoy to Madrid
News in development