ARCO AWARDS 2023
In each edition, ARCO tries to add one more award. This year there are almost a dozen. We highlight:
the strict parity in the granting of “A” Awards for Collectibles by ARCO Foundation:
Juan Vergez and Patricia Pearson of Vergez; Collegium: Lorena Pérez-Jacome and Javier Lumbreras, and Alejandro Lázaro and Alejandra González, are the winners on this occasion.
Community of Madrid Award.
The regional government, since 2004, supports with this distinction the contemporary creation of young authors and their works will form part of the funds of the Collection of the Dos de Mayo Art Center Museum of Móstoles.
The jury was composed of the director of the Dos de Mayo Art Center, Manuel Segade; the Fine Arts advisor of the Council of Culture, Tourism and Sport and deputy director of the Dos de Mayo Art Center, Tania Pardo Pérez; the member of the Advisory Commission for the Acquisition of Works of Art of the Council of Culture, Tourism and Sport of the Community of Madrid, María Corral; the artistic director of the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum, Guillermo Solana; the director general of Cultural Promotion of the Council of Culture, Tourism and Sport, Gonzalo Cabrera Martin, and the deputy director general of Fine Arts of the Community of Madrid, Asunción Cardona.
In this edition, it has awarded its ARCO 2023 prize to Willow Palace, by Aizkora and Johnas well as Eva Fabregasfor his work Growth.
Willow Palace (Salvador de Bahía, Brazil, 1984) navigates through the symbology of objects and those that build identity, paying attention to the humanity that is impregnated in them. From this starting point, he builds sensual taxonomies that question the way to create collective imaginaries and build identities, allowing the soul of these objects to rebel against what they are supposed to be.
Eva Fabregas (Barcelona, 1988) explores the erotic of the consumer object and the engineering mechanisms of desire, through sculpture, video, installation and sound. His interest in affects has led him to produce works that address the culture of wellness and relaxation, psychodrama and the marketing industry, as well as therapeutic subcultures on social media. ‘Growth’, belonging to a series with the same name, configures a series of sensual biomorphic sculptures, created with latex, resin and synthetic fabrics, which could point to an allusion to motherhood, although the artist leaves any interpretation in this regard open.
The ONLY Collection has given his Acquisition Award in the current edition of ARCOmadrid to the work ‘La liberación del mito’ (2022) by the artist Sandra Vasquez de la Horrafrom the Senda Gallery.
The work will participate in the dialogue on the different notions of the sublime that the SOLO Collection proposes in its next exhibition, Protection No Longer Assured.
XVI Premio illySustainArt
Cristina Mejias (Jerez de la Frontera, 1986) has been awarded the XVI Premio illySustainArt at ARCOmadrid for his works in the Alarcón Criado and Rodríguez Gallery galleries. Mejías’ work breaks with the hegemonic and heteronormative narratives and introduces subjective and less appreciated truths to question existing hierarchies, orders and powers.
The jury, made up of Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo (curator and founder of the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation), Tania Pardo (deputy director of the Dos de Mayo Art Center Museum), Ianko López (journalist specialized in visual arts) and Carlo Bach (Creative Director of illycaffè), has recognized “the sensitivity, sensuality and poetry of this promising and interesting artist”. The prize is endowed with 15,000 euros to carry out a work that will be presented at the illy lounge during ARCOmadrid 2024.
Cristina Mejias, who currently lives and works in Madrid, is a visual artist with a degree in Fine Arts from the UEM, with an NCAD from the National College of Arts & Design in Dublin and a Master’s in Research in Art and Creation from the UCM. Recently, her work has been exhibited individually in various Spanish galleries and she has been awarded the Fundación ARCO 2022 Prize, the Comunidad de Madrid ARCO 2022 Prize and the Generation 2020 Prize.
He Catalina d´ Anglade Award has fallen on this occasion to the work of Ester Partegàs –nogueras blanchard-, which is added to the funds of the collection.
Lexus Award for Best Stand and Artistic Content
In its third edition, it has had a jury made up of two important personalities belonging to the world of contemporary art in our country: Estrella de Diego and Cuauhtémoc Medina, who have awarded the prize to the Portuguese gallery Monitorwith work of Lucia sang y Elisa Montessori.