A Week of Art in Madrid
I saw a lot of amazing things last week, here's what you need to see
Last week, I took the train out to Madrid for a week of exploring art fairs around the city, enjoying some great food and drinks, plus getting to know the city better as it’s only a three hour train trip from Barcelona. Overall, the trip was great, despite the nonstop rain, which everyone told me was “unusual” and that it “doesn’t usually rain this much.” Dear reader, it rained from the moment we arrived till the moment we left, and the times it stopped were somehow only when we were sat cozy inside of our Airbnb. Thanks Madrid!
Over the week I visited a total of three art fairs, one museum, one gallery, and three artist studios. Looking at art is fun and nourishing and valuable for your brain! Yet, it can also be tiring and overwhelming, especially in the case of an art fair like ARCO, the largest of the bunch, which stretched across two convention halls. I was there for three hours, attempting to take it all in, and I could have easily spent another three hours to truly wrap my head around it all. It was definitely a worthwhile experience, though next year I think I’ll be in Paris enjoying the 2026 edition of Matter & Shape.
The Art
The three fairs I visited were ARCO, Art Madrid, and UVNT. Surprisingly, each was quite different. ARCO was quite contemporary, but also for rich Spaniards wanting to diversify their portfolio, Loro Piano outfits and strollers everywhere. This is the only place I saw Andy Warhol polaroids and the common modern art “staples” that are ever-present at American art fairs. Art Madrid felt the most commercial, meaning, people were there to learn about the art and make purchases, but the whole thing felt more egalitarian. UVNT is clearly the young upstart of the bunch, art that felt more exciting and edgy in many ways, for better or worse.
All had great work and I’m only going to call out one piece that bugged the shit out of me, which, if you follow my Instagram Stories, you know what I’m going to talk about. Plus, Kyle will be writing up a detailed trend report for Tuesday all about what we saw, so be sure you’re subscribed to him get his POV. First up, the three artists that stood out to me most, the ones that really made an impression on me that I spoke about with Kyle after everything we saw.
José Luis Carranza →
If you combined the video game Final Fantasy with an anime zombie film you might be in the vicinity of where José Luis Carranza’s art lies. It’s bold an detail-packed and I stood in front of his pieces for a very long time soaking in the colors and textures.
Alexander Grahovsky →
What if Hiernymous Bosch painted a scene inspired by Midsommar? That was the vibe of Alexander Grahovsky’s work, with lots of little humorous and bizarre vignettes that come together like a disturbing Where’s Waldo.
Carlos Aires →
Blind, the exhibit that Carlos Aires is currently showing at Sabrina Amrani, was a huge surprise I was not expecting. The image above is a small glimpse of the 2500 paper lanterns featuring images of pain and pleasure, with the lights intermittently turning off, leaving you to reflect on what you’ve seen. Absolutely worth digging in!
Beyond that, I saw so many great pieces, far too many to list out, so here is a round-up of artists I also really enjoyed and some key pieces that stood out to me.
Alejandro Monge — Lucrecia Píttaro — Jiri Hauschka — Iván Quesada
Juan de la Rica — Sachiko Kamiki — Flora Castiglia — Monica Figueroa
Lastly, we have to talk about this monstrosity. If you’re not familiar, there is a now famous piece of art called Comedian by Maurizio Cattelan which is literally just a banana taped to a wall. It’s a perfect example of absurdism, mocking capitalism in the art world, and pissing people off in the best ways possible. It was clear commentary of a ridiculous system.
Unfortunately, there were a lot of pieces at the fairs that felt like straight-up ripoffs. Not even falling into a category of inspiration, or being in conversation with other artists, just taking something that exists in pop culture, replicating it, and charging thousands of euros for it. Below is a marble version of Comedian, I didn’t bother to get the artists name. I know this is not a new trend though it was a reminder that people will try to get away with anything, and as you can see by the little red sticker, they did exactly that.
