An important element of all art fairs is the attention to new players – artists and galleries who are forming part of the fair circuit for the first time. As Artissima approaches, we were curious to know more about these newcomers, and so we reached out to Lisbon’s Galeria Madragoa, a gallery with a double presence at this year’s edition of the fair.
An important element of all art fairs is the attention to new players – artists and galleries who are forming part of the fair circuit for the first time. As Artissima approaches, we were curious to know more about these newcomers, and so we reached out to Lisbon’s Galeria Madragoa, a gallery with a double presence at this year’s edition of the fair: they will be forming part of New Entries, the section dedicated to emerging galleries, and also Present Future, the section dedicated to emerging artists, where the gallery will be showcasing the work of Renato Leotta.
Galeria Madragoa opened this past April, so it’s still a ‘baby gallery’ as co-founder Matteo Consonni affectionately called it. Nonetheless, a baby with a very clear vision for its future. In this interview, Matteo Consonni talks about his expectations for this year’s Artissima, and the responsibility of the art scene in Lisbon to make the most of the city’s current wave of popularity.
Artdependence Magazine: Looking through the work of the artists you represent, at first glance they all seem so different – there’s the vibrancy of Luis Lazaros Matos, and the monochrome of Joanna Piotrowska, Rodrigo Hernandez incorporates sculptural works, and Sara Chang Yang explores the universe in a sheet of paper. What, if any, is the unifier?
Matteo Consonni: Well, first of all, we started Madragoa with the desire to have a program with artists that we wanted to support, and whose practices we love. It’s true that the practices among these artists are very different, but for me this is enriching, because it means we are able to work and support practices that have very different dynamics.
With the gallery, we aren’t looking to make any statement in relation to any kind of specific art practice. But, I have to say that there is one unifying element for the program (which is not meant to be a statement, it is just something that happened naturally), and it’s the fact that all the artists are from my generation. So, all the artists that we are representing now are from the 80’s – ’82 to ’89. This happened quite naturally, in the sense that a young gallery working with artists that are from the same generation is doing nothing new. But, this is one thing all the artists have in common for now.
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Maria Martens Serrano
