2023-05-26 18:52:42
Cycle change in Just. In Madrid, this began in February, when he took over the reins of the fair Oscar Garcia as solo director, after the departure of Semiramis González, who must also be thanked for his work in recent years. And now it was time to premiere in Lisbon, in the Portuguese branch of the Spanish event, which celebrates its fourth edition this weekend.
The person in charge of everything that has happened in recent years in the national and international market (with a pandemic involved) has taken a good note and is beginning to make decisions that, although they do not substantially change the nature of a proposal like this, do pursues that it does not run wild and generate confidence again in exhibitors and visitors.
JustLx, like JustMad, aspires to continue being a fair that is mainly committed to the freshest art, which in Portugal also implies giving visibility to a specific artistic scene such as the local one. She never counted on the restrictions of the previous management in Madrid that forced her to be ‘feminist’, ‘ecologist’ and ‘rabidly emerging’, Questions that, although they are totally legitimate, radically reduced the number of possible applicants in Madrid.
Without looking at the ID
In fact, not taking their own budgets so seriously is what makes it easier for spaces like Velázquez’s Third with some of the ‘most emerging’ veteran creators on the national scene, such as Pedro Castrortega, Mar Solís, o Javier de Juan and Rosa Munoz, Curiously, the only artists who bet on the video of the entire edition, which keeps its doors open until this Sunday.
Thirty galleries make up this year’s list. In the words of its director, the fair does not need to grow so much in number of stands, but rather in quality and breadth. The appointment continues betting on the Pavilion of the Lisbon Congress Center (the one that was in the past the headquarters of the local art fair) because it takes advantage of the circuit generated by the proximity of ARCOlisboa, but it is moved to other rooms with higher ceilings and larger spaces that make the walk more pleasant and the contemplation of the most restless works. It has the High Patronage of the Presidency of the Republic and the support of the Municipal Chamber of Lisbon and Turismo de Portugal.
Above these lines, detail of the works of Joao Paulo Sousa in Óriq. On the right, projects by the photolaters in Martín de Vidales. Above, a young man photographs Hal Messel’s mugs at RT Gallery
And Portugal continues to be the best represented country, like Spain, but galleries from other latitudes such as Peru, Iran, the Philippines or England are included. Here you don’t look so much at Africa. It is enough to be embraced by the local collector. On this occasion, the fair also seeks a special link with music (there are artists like Jose Antonio Torres in JAT Arts who work directly with her), with performances by DJs every afternoon that promote a more ‘trendy’ and unprejudiced way of enjoying art in a commercial environment such as a fair. The monumental head of Clo Bourgard at the entrance and the live painting actions of Peter Zamith and Ivan Villalobos well summarize the spirit of the proposal, which licks the wound of the claw of Urvanity in Madrid, and which is already growing on the right flank with CAN in Ibiza.
And walking through it, one wants this order and this average quality for Madrid, where organizational confusion still prevails on some floors of the Neptune Palace and the lack of interest in some of the issues offered. The more transversal nature of Just allows the presence of agents who do not become galleries, such as the aforementioned Tercero by Velázquez, or NFTmania, an online platform that is committed to this digital content. Also from artists without a gallery who make an extra financial effort to show their own work as samuel de sagas and your DsagasLab or Jacob Vilató; or that this is one of the few fairs with a direct link to the university (in this case, the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon, with interesting new proposals such as the pictorials of edward antonio or the three-dimensional Filipa Baptista).
Fair to approach art without prejudice, to encourage new collecting, and to meet new creators. In ArtDispersion stop the watercolors of Theresa Palma, the photos of Ines Correia and the drawings of Rodrigo Betancourt. Painting prevails, and even a figurative painting that finds it difficult to enter Spain (so the Portuguese gallery owners tell me). An example is that of vince garciarepresented as Sarah Maya, by Tank. Also the one of Mariana Duarte Santosvery cinematographic, in Bright Alfaite.
On these lines, some of the students of the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon at their stand. On the right, detail of the Art Dispersion space. Above, video works by Javier de Juan in El Tercero by Velázquez
As stands, they raise the quality as a whole those of S Gallery (Alejandra de la Torre) y Maternal and Heredity and the gestural and visceral drawing of I’ll take it. They are looking for José Luis López del Moral in 25&Art, the speeches about mattresses that take away sleep (or create them) and embroidery of Joao Paulo Sousa in Oriqthe ‘pride mugs’ that link historiography and the rights of the gay community of Hal Messel in RT Art Gallery, the magnificent work in progress of the ‘photolateras’, mapping the planet with their cameras built from the precarious (another interesting photographer, Roberto Braga in Boom!) and the ‘genital’ ceramics from Liu Xi in the iranian Hide Amin.
JustLX 2023
Fourth edition. Pavilion of the Lisbon Congress Center. Lisbon. Director: Oscar Garcia. Until may 28th
The paradox arises that it is Lisbon that now has the upper hand and marks the way to the mother house in Madrid. If Just comes out of the proposal gracefully here, it is because she bathes in humility. Let’s hope this spreads more than the coronavirus. Only then will we be able to enjoy great editions of the fair in Spain again.
#JustLx #sets #tone #Madrid
