Painting reigns in an Amazonian ARCO

ARCOmadrid opens today, in the usual pavilions 7 and 9 of IFEMA, the doors of its 44th edition, which will last until March 9 and has as its guest, once again, a geographical area: the Amazon, seen as a cause of global concern and whose preservation transcends particular interests and national borders (in parallel, exhibitions are dedicated to it by Lázaro Galdiano, CentroCentro, Casa de América, the Botanical Garden and the CCCB). The first purpose of this fair is to boost the Spanish contemporary art market, but within its corridors, in addition to opportunities for purchasing, there will be opportunities for discovery and reflection.

The number of participating galleries will be similar to that of previous events: 214 rooms from 36 countries; most of them make up the General Program, to which are added the curated sections: Wametisé: ideas for an Amazonian futurism, with fifteen galleries; Opening. New galleries, with eighteen, and Profiles | Latin American Art, with ten (last year this section was called Never the Same).

Approximately a third of the stands are occupied by Spanish galleries; among them, Marlborough will not be present for the first time, while Helga de Alvear, after the recent death of its founder, will occupy a smaller space with a group of its representatives, but there are reasons to celebrate: the anniversaries of Rafael Ortiz (four decades of history) and José de la Mano and T20 (two, in their case). Likewise, more than 32% of the participating international galleries will be Latin American: 46 from 11 countries, mostly Brazilian and Argentine: the fair directed by Maribel López wants to claim its position as a reference for the creation of that region in Europe.
IFEMA 1 will not be missing MiraMadrid, Alarcón Criado, ATM, Elba Benítez, Elvira González, CarrerasMugica, Luis Adelantado Valencia, Nordés, ProjecteSD, Sabrina Amrani or T20; also the recently established in Spain carlier | gebauer or Mai 36. Regarding the international galleries, Massimo Minini and Francesca Minini, Casas Riegner, dépendance, Gomide&Co, Plan B, Luciana Brito, Bernier/Eliades, Raquel Arnaud, Sylvia Kouvali or Waddington Custot are debuting at ARCO and will repeat, among others, Thaddaeus Ropac, Jocelyn Wolff, Chantal Crousel, Ruth Benzacar, Peter Kilchmann, Perrotin, neugerriemschneider, Esther Schipper, Thomas Schulte, Capitain Petzel, Max Hetzler, Mendes Wood Dm, Nicolai Wallner, Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel and Kalfayan Galleries.

Painting will be, once again, the reigning discipline as a sure value, and abstract art will reign as its monarchs: Ángel Huete stands out in Nordés, Álvaro Negro in F2, Secundino Hernández in Ehrhardt Flórez (also in Alcalá 31), the clean geometries of Palazuelo in Fernández-Braso, the fusions of colour and light of Prudencio Irazabal in Pelaires or three artisans of colour, again in Moisés Pérez de Albéniz: Guillermo Mora, Nico Munuera and Elvira Amor.
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