Art Madrid 19- 23 February 20

This year for the first the first time Art Madrid was held at the Ayuntamiento building in Cibeles which had previously being the central post office of the city. It was a excellent location choice and to me one of the finest buildings in the city as well as a magnificent location. The fair was a huge success for the organizers with over 20,000 people attending and ninety percent of galleries making sales.





While there was some small pieces I liked at the fair the majority of the work was very traditional. I find the best works at art fairs for me is where there is a really original idea or development of textures in a piece. Institutionalized art never goes well at art fairs, it is a visual impact thing to a great degree which has it´s advantages but also can lack subtly. For me the best pieces were some Kiki Smiths etchings, Beatriz Diaz Ceballos book pieces, the tree with knives by Manual Barbero (project work through Oxfam) and a few other pieces such as the carved kid in wood and the painting behind.




With my gallery I exhibited a couple of small new pieces and several works I had shown at Swab art fair the previous September. With working full time as a teacher my ability to engage in new works is very restricted but in saying that after six very difficult years financially a regular wage is a Godsend.I feel also when you spend so much time jumping from one financial fiasco to another you become obsessed with money and less receptive to new experiences and this in itself can have a negative impact on your creative ability. I know in the future I will get back into producing more work but for the moment I am  enjoying seeing a possible life I can have from teaching. Also working alone in a studio for many years is very difficult and more so when things get more difficult it just gets to a point when you need to have people around you more often.

Anyway getting off the point here, so I had a couple of new pieces which I like.







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