Exploring Estampa 2023: A Kaleidoscope of Contemporary Art
An eagerly awaited artistic event in October, Estampa serves as a cornerstone for art collectors nationwide. Now in its 31st edition, the International Contemporary Art Fair brings together Spain's leading galleries. Additionally, around twenty new projects from Spain's recent artistic landscape join the fray, showcasing the evolution and transformation of the current art scene.
The fair is structured around a general program and a curated section, serving as a hub for forums, debates, and various parallel activities. The general program encompasses revered galleries such as Juana de Aizpuru (Madrid), Cayón (Madrid/Menorca/Manila), Mayoral (Barcelona), Leyendecker (Tenerife), and T20 (Murcia), among others.
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Joining these stalwarts are fresh additions—youthful spaces presenting intriguing propositions like Yusto/Giner (Madrid/Marbella), VETA (Madrid), Berlín Galería (Sevilla), WeCollect (Madrid), and 3 Punts (Barcelona). Notably, photography takes center stage, thanks to showcases from Bernal Espacio (Madrid), A Pick Gallery (Milan), or Blanca Berlín (Madrid), among others.
Curated by Lorena Martínez de Corral, the curated section brings a selection of galleries like Helga de Alvear (Madrid), Ehrhardt Flórez (Madrid), Alegría (Barcelona), Alarcón Criado (Sevilla), and Nordés (Santiago de Compostela).
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This year's spotlight artist is Secundino Hernández. Recognized within the current art circuit, Hernández presents his latest work, a stunning series of oversized stenciled paintings.
Estampa stands as a meeting ground for art enthusiasts, curious minds, collectors, artists, and galleries alike. IFEMA's Pavilion 4 transforms into a richly rewarding forum, offering a fresh and innovative perspective on contemporary art. With a plethora of engaging proposals, this preview sets the stage for what's to come in this 31st edition.
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Highlights from Selected Galleries
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Alarcón Criado
Seville's gallery focuses on Irene Infantes' subtlety, crafting delicate pieces from textile materials. Her seemingly random compositions are thoughtfully designed to create visual patterns, delving into history, myths, and fleeting moments, deconstructing and meticulously reconstructing them through figures and symbols, bearing her unique viewpoint.
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Lucía Mendoza
This Madrid-based space showcases the work of Juan Zamora, merging art, science, and music to explore novel ways of connecting with nature and the environment. Zamora's pieces, using materials that highlight earth's indispensable role in art, life, and knowledge, aim to enhance our understanding of the world and improve our quality of life.
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Alzueta
Several artists find representation in this gallery's space. Manolo Ballesteros' abstract spontaneity employs uniform pigments and diverse materials like paper, steel, or enamel. Juan Narowé's naïve paintings, with a near-childlike language, depict simple figures and forms.
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Juan Silió
A space housing various artists, including Irene Grau's conceptual perspective exploring the relationship between painting and landscape through different materials and techniques, where her monochrome canvases merge with mural painting and performative processes.
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Cayón
Among their offerings is Mel Bochner's work, a pioneer of American conceptual art from the 20th century. His pieces delve into the connection between painting and language through texts inscribed in vibrant tones.
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ArtNueve
This Murcian gallery proposes a dialogue between different artists such as sculptor Álvaro Albadalejo, whose pieces generate peculiar forms and diverse optical effects. Manuel M. Romero's monochromatic paintings reduce art to its essence, simplicity, and a visual silence that brings much-needed calmness in today's visually impacting world.
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Valid Foto
The gallery showcases Alisa Sibirskaya's work—a collection of photographs resembling a personal diary, offering sublime and celestial compositions that bring fragility and surrealism to the portrayed figures, allowing viewers to interpret them freely based on their lived experiences.
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Garnä
Diverse artists converge in this space, including Joël Bigaignon, who creates collages using unconventional materials and techniques, blending African, Indian, and European cultures to address colonialism, generating tension through the mix of control and spontaneity.
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Caoicoya
Minimalism by Mónica Dixon or the color study by Teo Soriano finds a place in this Asturian gallery. Dixon's work delves into light, searching for figurative references to create sensations. Meanwhile, Soriano crafts conceptual works of chromatic intensity where brushstrokes, layers, and textures make the pictorial material the protagonist.
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Estampa 2023, the paramount contemporary art fair, met over 100 galleries take over IFEMA from October 19th to 22nd.