Art Madrid'24 – INTERVIEW WITH: SEÑORA D A.K.A LARA PADILLA

Sra. D, a.k.a Lara Padilla

The work of Sra. D, a.k.a Lara Padilla, encompasses disciplines such as painting, sculpture, dance, performance and fashion design. Her mostly figurative pieces draw attention to female power representation through the deformation of the body and the use of colour and textures. A vindication of gender exhibited through large hands as powerful instruments of battle or heavy feet, an image of the perseverance of women in their struggle. Sra D. understands art not as a silent showcase but as a path of political action and intervention. Her aesthetic is an ode to diversity, portraying all types of bodies to promote a look of equality and authenticity.

Her performances dialogue face to face with his pictorial and sculptural creation through the similarity between compositions and trajectories. The use of body painting underlines the plastic aspect of his choreographies, while in his urban actions, he insists on this reflection on the construction of identity conceived as belief. However, the female body is not a prison for Sra. D. In her latest creations she has expanded her visual discourse by exploring African and pre-Columbian art, cultural chapters of great social and conceptual significance such as Genesis or the interaction of bodies with new supports and textures.

Lara Padilla

Black Tetris Magnum, 2021

Mixed media on canvas

400 x 300cm

Interview:

What inspires you when creating?

It can be an emotion, an image or a word; inspiration can come from anywhere. It inspires me a lot to travel, take pictures, and know new cultures. I think my painting is very experiential and is almost like a diary.

What are you working on recently?

I'm still working on the "tetrix" series, which I think still has a universe to explore. And in parallel, I am working with various characters in different contexts and with everyday scenes telling other types of stories. I also continue to work with movement and dance.

Tell us about your creative process.

The first thing I address about my creative process is the background of the work. I create a very free colour atmosphere and work with pigments, collage and different techniques to create a fracture in the work. From there, I create the composition that I have in sketch or photography. The case of the "tretix" is ​​much more experimental; I create a character and what I do is play. I fit in all the others and conquer all the space.

Are you participating for the first time in the fair? What do you expect from Art Madrid?

About my participation, what I hope is to be able to show my work, which is what I am most passionate about, with great enthusiasm. Also, meet other artists, nourish me with all that creativity and enjoy the fair.

Lara Padilla

Purple Tetris, 2021

Mixed media on canvas

170 x 170cm

Currently, your artistic expression is not limited to a discipline or a medium. How is Sra. D (not Lara Padilla) projected in the next five years?

Sra. D is projected in the next five years as a more experienced and mature artist. What I really value is the work of every day; I think this is a life career. It's what I do, work every day in the studio. From here, I will always find myself, and I will not be the one to set limits for myself.

Your work is mainly figurative and representative. What do you find in figuration that doesn't give you abstraction?

My work is primarily figurative, although I also have some abstract pieces. But I am fascinated by the human body. I love to explore its limits. I create characters with impossible and disproportionate bodies, very expressive, proposing other models of being a man and a woman, and valuing diversity freedom. I also work with the body as supports on occasions, especially in street performance actions with performance and dance, and I use body painting to tell these stories.

Lara Padilla

Rainbow tangle, 2021

Mixed media on canvas

170 x 170cm

Sra.D, A.K.A Lara Padilla, participates in Art Madrid with the gallery from Barcelona 3 Punts Galeria, together with the artists Alejandro Monge, Gerard Mas, Kiko Miyares, Luis Feo, Rodrigo Romero, Santiago Picatoste and Ramon Surinyac.



ART MADRID’25 PRESENTS THE PARTICIPATING GALLERIES AND THE PARALLEL PROGRAM FOR THE EDITION


Art Madrid celebrates 20 years of contemporary art in 2025, reaffirming its role as a key legitimizing event in Spain's visual arts sector. As the contemporary art fair that paved the way for other fairs and events now coinciding on the same dates, it once again welcomes national and international galleries during Madrid Art Week. This edition promises to lay the foundation for the new directions the fair will take in the future.

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Art Madrid’25 presents the Gallery Program for its 20th edition

The Gallery Program of Art Madrid’25 is the main axis of the fair, serving as a meeting point where diverse voices of contemporary art converge. Comprised of a selection of established, mid-career, and emerging galleries, the program offers a representative vision of the latest artistic trends. Through experimentation and the exploration of new visual languages, participating artists present works that reflect the aesthetic codes and concerns of our time. Each edition, Art Madrid stands out for its curatorial approach, featuring a carefully curated selection of national and international galleries and artists, showcasing the pulse of the most innovative proposals that define the present and future of contemporary art.

In this 20th edition, Art Madrid becomes an essential meeting point for those who closely follow the work of galleries and artists. The Crystal Gallery will be filled with fresh and daring proposals from thirty-five galleries, both national and international, inviting us to rethink art in its purest form. What we will see is not just a display of the best of the moment, but a testament to how art continues to challenge conventions, evoke emotions, and push the boundaries of what is possible.

The exhibition proposals, varied in approaches and techniques, bring us closer to an art that is unafraid to experiment and encourages us to reflect on the world around us. Each work, more than just an aesthetic object, will be a provocation, an invitation to look beyond the obvious. Throughout the fair, it will be impossible not to feel how these creations leave their mark on contemporary culture while simultaneously finding their place within the complex framework of the art market, reaffirming Art Madrid as a key reference within the national art scene.

Photo courtesy of Beatriz Maestre


Spanish galleries: New voices emerge

Spain will be represented by twenty-one galleries, a strong showcase of the creative diversity across the country. Two of them are participating in Art Madrid for the first time: Carmen Terreros Gallery (Zaragoza) and Canal Gallery (Barcelona), bringing with them a breath of fresh air that promises to surprise. Nineteen galleries are returning to the fair, celebrating the twenty years of an event that opened its doors to them from the very beginning, with the shared commitment to continue working for contemporary art produced locally. The galleries returning to Art Madrid’25 are: 3 Punts Galería (Barcelona); Alba Cabrera Gallery (Valencia); Aurora Vigil-Escalera (Gijón); CLC ARTE (Valencia); DDR Art Gallery (Madrid); Galería Arancha Osoro (Oviedo); Galería BAT alberto cornejo (Madrid); Galería Espiral (Noja); Galería La Mercería (Valencia); Galería Luisa Pita (Santiago de Compostela); Galería Metro (Santiago de Compostela); Galería Rodrigo Juarranz (Aranda de Duero); Inéditad Gallery (Barcelona); Kur Art Gallery (San Sebastián); Moret Art (A Coruña); OOA GALLERY (Sitges/London); Pigment Gallery (Barcelona); Shiras Galería (Valencia); and Uxval Gochez Gallery (Barcelona).


Photo courtesy of Beatriz Maestre

International galleries: A dialogue without borders

Pero el arte no entiende de fronteras, y por eso Art Madrid siempre ha sido un lugar de encuentro global. Este año, trece galerías internacionales ocupan sus lugares de enunciación para enriquecer la propuesta expositiva del evento. Cuatro de ellas participan por primera vez: Aria Gallery (Florencia, Italia), CHINI Gallery (Taipéi, Taiwán); Gallery 1000A (Nueva Delhi, India) y Ting Ting Art Space (Taipéi, Taiwán), aportarán una visión fresca y diversa, consolidando a Art Madrid como una feria en expansión hacia el escenario del arte contemporáneo internacional. Junto a estas, otras como Collage Habana (La Habana, Cuba); Galeria Sâo Mamede (Lisboa, Portugal); Galleria Stefano Forni (Bolonia, Italia); Jackie Shor Projects (São Paulo, Brasil); Loo & Lou Gallery (París, Francia); Nuno Sacramento Arte Contemporânea (Ílhavo, Portugal); O-Art Project (Lima, Perú),Trema Arte Contemporânea (Lisboa, Portugal) y Yiri Arts (Taipéi, Taiwán), que una edición más vuelven a confiar en Art Madrid como apuesta segura.

But art knows no boundaries, which is why Art Madrid has always been a global meeting point. This year, thirteen international galleries will take their places to enrich the event's exhibition proposal. Four of them are participating for the first time: Aria Gallery (Florence, Italy), CHINI Gallery (Taipei, Taiwan), Gallery 1000A (New Delhi, India), and Ting Ting Art Space (Taipei, Taiwan), bringing a fresh and diverse perspective, consolidating Art Madrid as a fair expanding into the international contemporary art scene. Alongside them, others such as Collage Habana (Havana, Cuba), Galeria Sâo Mamede (Lisbon, Portugal), Galleria Stefano Forni (Bologna, Italy), Jackie Shor Projects (São Paulo, Brazil), Loo & Lou Gallery (Paris, France), Nuno Sacramento Arte Contemporânea (Ílhavo, Portugal), O-Art Project (Lima, Peru), Trema Arte Contemporânea (Lisbon, Portugal), and Yiri Arts (Taipei, Taiwan) return once again, trusting Art Madrid as a reliable platform.

The journey through these twenty years of contemporary art has been a milestone that we reach with the same commitment as the emerging project that once reshaped the landscape of art fairs in Spain and has since been both a participant and witness to the growth of a welcoming, diverse, strong, and constantly evolving art scene.


Photo courtesy of Beatriz Maestre

Parallel program: Sensitive Cartographies of the City Territory

The Parallel Program of Art Madrid'25 goes beyond the boundaries of the fair, proposing a dynamic connection between art and the city. Under the concept of Territory and City, this edition takes art to urban spaces, to the everyday corners that shape the memory and present of Madrid.

Highlighted activities include augmented reality and digital experiences, video creation, ephemeral installations, and urban interventions that engage directly with the city of Madrid. These actions expand the work of the artists into the urban environment, fostering an ongoing conversation between art and the territory. In this way, the city becomes a creative laboratory where the everyday and the artistic intertwine, opening new forms of connection between the community and art.

The program also explores the emotional and identity geographies that run through Madrid, inviting reflection on the meaning of belonging to a place and how artistic practices transform our relationship with space. Through the theme of Territory and City, the Parallel Program of Art Madrid'25 creates a map that connects the local with the global, the intimate with the collective, and opens a sensory experience that strengthens the ties between art, territory as an expanded concept, and the city as a container of sensitive realities.

The Parallel Program of Art Madrid'25 invites you to explore the intersections between art, public space, and community, transforming Madrid into a territory-city of creation and shared reflection.


Photo courtesy of Beatriz Maestre

In this 20th edition, we proudly celebrate the journey of our fair and deeply appreciate the support and trust of artists, gallerists, collectors, and art enthusiasts who have been key to Art Madrid’s continued growth with an eye on the future. It has not been an easy path, but we have understood the importance of ensuring that an event like this endures, solidifies its place in the national art market circuit, and becomes a gateway to the international art scene.