ARCO 2019, like every year at this time, manages to place contemporary art on the news or on the front pages of the newspapers. There there is present the most current art, that of the highest quality, the art-show, that which brings with it denunciations and also controversy, the ephemeral without any possibility of passing into posterity, in short… an X-ray of the artistic panorama of our times.
With its hundreds of trends, with the most traditional materials or wrapped in technology. Also with messages that speak of sustainability, consumerism, or the opposite. Although of course, as in any artistic showcase, ARCO 2019 has its space for divism, pleasure and aesthetics for aesthetics’ sake, empty of content.
There are artists from all backgrounds. More than 205 galleries from over thirty countries are present. Many of these galleries are Latin American, as ARCO 2019’s commitment to the art of Latin America has been reissued. On this occasion, Peru will be the guest country.
In short, from 28 February until 3 March it is possible to take a stroll through the art of our times. The most current art. In Horse Magazine we have done it. And here we bring you some of the works and artists that we liked the most.
Our selection at ARCO 2019
Untitled by Ángel Duarte
The gallery José de la Mano brings us a good sample of the sculptural work of Ángel Duarte, a creator born in 1930 in Extremadura and who died in 2007 in Sion, Switzerland. Here we see a stainless steel model he made for a monumental sculpture. Proof that this artist is perhaps the leading representative of kinetic and optical art in Spain.
Requiem for a Falling Man by Harm Weistra and Eddi Bal
The Rotterdam gallery Joey Ramone brings a whole installation by Harm Weistra and Eddi Bal. A group of works conceived in 2017 and very much attached to that moment. In reality it is a denunciation of the murders provoked in Syria by ISIS. Where they did not hesitate to throw men from the windows of buildings.
Wall objects by Willi Sibel
Now we go to the exhibition at the Anita Beckers Gallery in Frankfurt. There is a good representation of the most current German art, with artists of different interests and aesthetics. Of all of them, we have opted for the elegance and colour of Willi Sibel, who proposes this brilliant and variable work, depending on the place where it is exhibited.
Untitled by Anselm Reyle
Another German artist, in this case Anselm Reyle, whose works are exhibited in several galleries present at ARCO 2019. Among them is the König in Berlin, where the work shown here hangs. One of his usual sets of plates, mirrors and neons that fuse painting, sculpture and light. Impossible compositions in which each viewer sees something different.
DVIR Gallery
DVIR Gallery
One of the spaces that we liked the most in this edition was the one prepared by the DVIR Gallery. Two artists of different generations and origins converge there, but at times they seem to generate works that complement each other. We see The world in blue by Jonathan Monk made in 2014, and Work on Felt by Naam Tsabar, created in 2012.
Emoticons x M2 by Patricia Camet
Here we have a magnificent representative of Peruvian art: Patricia Camet. Her work arrives for the first time in Spain and she has prepared some striking murals evoking the emoticons that we handle every day with our mobiles. She has made them with waste materials to talk about the necessary conservation of the environment in such a technological society.
Teresa by Stephan Balkenhol
Not all the art on view at ARCO 2019 is abstract or created from technological elements. In the 21st century there are still artists who remain faithful to the most manual work and close to the creators of centuries ago. This is the case ofthe German Stephan Balkenhol who with the Finnish gallery Forsblom brings us this figure carved in wood.
Installation by Tomás Saraceno
And we would like to end this tour of ARCO 2019 by mentioning the installation of an Argentinean artist. He is Tomás Saraceno and his creations bring together at the same time many of the things we like to talk about at Magazine Horse: design, art, architecture, performance, new materials and elegance.
To see his work and that of the thousands of artists present in this edition of ARCO you will have to hurry, as the fair ends next Sunday 3 March at IFEMA, Madrid.
