In its seventeen previous editions, the Art Madrid fair has been a stage where Portuguese galleries have met, turning our event into an unmissable appointment to discover and appreciate the news of an essential representation of the Portuguese visual arts production. And lay on the table the interest in these established spaces and their market internationalization inside and outside Portugal. From February 22 to 26 galleries, already familiar with the fair's context, return: Art Lounge Gallery, (Lisbon), Nuno Sacramento Arte Contemporânea, (Ílhavo), Galeria São Mamede, (Lisbon) and Trema Arte Contemporânea, (Lisbon) joins the roast. Twenty artists will land in our capital thanks to these spaces to show their most recent works. Painting, photography, sculpture and drawing prevail in this edition.

Lúcia Davis, “Rubbish”. Trema Arte Contemporáneo ©

The galleries' exhibition proposals stand out for the support and materials experimentation. From poetic-plastic rereadings of everyday objects (Trema Arte Contemporânea); the disruption of photography (Nuno Sacramento Arte Contemporânea); painting and drawing as experiential tools (São Mamede Gallery), and the interrelation between pictorial exercise and the space that contains it (Art Lounge Gallery). These brushstrokes shed light on the interest of each exponent to travel on the right foot in the paths of contemporary visual production in Portugal and its representation at the behest of the market.

Sofia Areal, “Coração e Noite” 2010. Galería São Mamede ©

Special attention deserves Trema Arte Contemporânea, which began its activity with a group of emerging Portuguese artists and nowadays is recognized in the Portuguese gallery circuit as one of the highest-level galleries. It has marked the eclecticism of the most current Portuguese art and other foreign artists with innovative projects for over twenty years. From its list, we want to highlight Carlos Barão, a spontaneous artist who focuses his research on the search for sensations that border on dreaminess within the painting. And the works of Lúcia David, who immerses herself in drawing to raise the roots of an imperfect and daring staging. Galeria São Mamede opened its doors in the sixties, and its interest has always been framed within the Portuguese modernism and contemporary movement. From its list, we highlight the participation of Sofía Areal one of the most important painters of her generation, and Nélio Saltão a self-taught artist with a meaningful career in painting and color experimentation.

João Noutel, “Future”, 2022. Art Lounge Gallery ©

While the series of portraits of Nuno Horta (Mirandela, Bragança, Portugal, 1977) repeats in ArtMadrid with Nuno Sacramento Arte Contemporânea. The great beauty is frozen in the approximations that this artist conjures up of the human figure, totally fanatical about the perfection and deification of the faces. Human physiognomy becomes an updated account of experimentation with fluorescent light and color in an intrinsic search for golden proportions. The treatment of postmodern icons in João Noutel work (Porto, Portugal, 1971) is another of the approaches that Art Lounge Gallery proposes to the painting. The artist works on an interesting pictorial proposal. He recounts the complex mechanisms of the image and its deconstruction or reconversion into an object of desire in the times that welcome us.

The Portuguese visual arts show, with these representations in our fair, the solid contemporary movement breathed into the gallery circuit to which they belong.

nuno Horta, “Dominion”, 2021. Nuno Sacramento Arte Contemporânea ©

The contemporary art scene in Madrid, like the city itself, never stops evolving. Art Madrid, now in its twentieth edition, taking place from March 5 to 9 at the Glass Gallery of the Palacio de Cibeles, not only showcases the latest artistic trends but also invites us to question how we inhabit the world.

Miska-Mohmmed. Suburbs. 2022. Courtesy of OOA Gallery.

After a year of dedicated work organizing this new edition, we find ourselves at the peak of the process: the fair is about to begin. Having overcome the most challenging stages, we are fully aware of our mission—to be the platform that connects a vast diversity of artists with the public. We want their voices to reach you, whether through our communication efforts or your visit to the fair. This year, Art Madrid brings together nearly two hundred artists from twenty-seven countries, represented by thirty-four galleries from ten nations. From Taiwan to Mexico; from Cuba to Portugal; from Italy to Brazil; from Japan to Spain—tracing a route through the Dominican Republic, Peru, Germany, South Africa, France, the United Kingdom, Colombia, Uruguay, Venezuela, Belgium, Poland, the Congo, the Netherlands, Morocco, Argentina, Slovakia, Sudan, Austria, and Serbia. The wealth and diversity we are exposed to over these five days indicate that today's maps are shifting—or changing color, as the troubadour sings in that song. We are no longer talking only about physical borders; today's maps are fluid and transitory. They represent our identity, our memory, and our human connections.

Ruddy Taveras. The Key to the treasure. 2024. Courtesy of Galería Luisa Pita.

The artists at Art Madrid, through works ranging from painting to installation, invite us to explore this uncertainty, to question ourselves, and, above all, to discover new possibilities.

Historically, maps have been tools for understanding space and locating ourselves in the world. However, today more than ever, those maps, like the territories they represent, are open to question—they have mutated, digitized, and fragmented. And as this happens, art continues to be the medium through which, paradoxically, we can find points of reference, direction, and meaning. Art Madrid, like other major events that reflect the pulse of contemporary art, is not immune to this reconfiguration.

Khalid El Bekay. Africa. Diptych. 2024. Courtesy of Galería Espiral.

In a sector that sometimes falls into inertia, we ask ourselves how to bring together so many perspectives, styles, and discourses in the same space for five days. That question leads us to a broader reflection on the geographical and ideological boundaries we inhabit today.

The thirty-four participating galleries introduce us to a universe of creators who, though diverse in technique and approach, share a common concern: the need to reinterpret the world from new perspectives. What once seemed immutable is now in constant flux. Globalization, technology, politics, and the climate crisis have altered the maps that once guided us. But in every change, there is an opportunity—a territory for creation. And that is where art comes in: as a vehicle for imagining new cartographies.

Maps, like identities, are constructions in constant evolution. Instead of marking borders, art today invites us to erase them. With more than thirty international galleries in attendance, Art Madrid reinforces its global character and its ability to transcend geography. Here, artists do not work on pre-existing maps; they reinvent them with each creation.

Francesca Poza. Emotions. 2024. Courtesy of Galería Alba Cabrera.

The works presented at the fair are not confined to a single medium. Through painting, sculpture, installation, and new technologies, artists explore how we position ourselves in a world where traditional structures are increasingly fluid. They do not seek easy answers but pose essential questions: What does it mean to belong to a territory today? How do globalization, the climate crisis, and the digital era affect us?

Art Madrid becomes a space where creators engage with the major questions of our time—from the geopolitical to the emotional. Their works are not just meant to be contemplated; they provoke, shake, and transform.

Okuda San Miguel. Born to Be an Angel. 2023. Courtesy of 3 Punts Galería.

The borders of art, like those of maps, are no longer fixed. That is the challenge the fair presents this year: to question them, expand them, and redefine the role of art in a constantly changing world.

In this reconfiguration, Art Madrid positions itself as a space where the voices of contemporary art help us redraw the map of humanity, both in its physical and emotional dimensions. Because today, true borders are not just geographical—they are also cultural, digital, and symbolic. And being an open window to that experimental exercise that is making art, is precisely the space where those borders can be subverted and even crossed.