The Museum of Latin American Art, Los Angeles (MOLAA) used the ARCO art fair to present its institutional expansion program through agreements with the Mapfre Foundation, the Tàpies Museum, and the Fundació Úniques. These agreements will make possible three photography exhibitions from the Mapfre Foundation's collections at MOLAA, dedicated to Paolo Gasparini, Paz Errázuriz, and Graciela Iturbide, as well as the presentation in 2029 at the Mapfre Foundation of a photography project featuring works from MOLAA's collections. The agreement with the Tàpies Museum will allow the exhibition *Marta Palau. My Paths Are Earthly* , curated by Imma Prieto, to travel to MOLAA, marking Tàpies' return to the American context through a museum institution—an essential setting for understanding the artist's evolution. The collaboration with Fundació Úniques will make possible the development of residencies for Latin and Ibero-American women artists, which will materialize in two exhibitions in dialogue between both institutions.
Lola Lasurt's Picasso-inspired frieze wins the second Arco Antoni Vila Casas Prize
The award includes the acquisition of artwork and an exhibition at the Can Framis museum
MadridFor the artist Lola Lasurt (Barcelona, 1983), history plays a fundamental role. "I reactivate very specific episodes from the past," she states after winning the second Arco Antoni Vila Casas Prize with Vase and dove (For pictorial curatorship I). It's a painted frieze on draped canvas (hanging from a metal structure) displaying eight frames from the film with which Italian filmmaker Luciano Emmer documented Picasso's 1953 transformation of an ordinary vase into a series of peace doves. "I always work with archival, historical documentation, and painting the documents means doing a slow and meticulous analysis of what I'm researching," says Lasurt.
Lasurt arrived at this historical work "impulsively." "I think it's quite a generational thing, and now we're at a point where perhaps it's difficult for us to envision a future. I truly believe there are things we've left behind that we can take advantage of and learn from. And if it's nostalgic, I try to avoid that," he notes. Instead, he believes it's "optimistic," and a reflection on pacifist symbols. "In the current context, are they still useful, or should we rethink them?" the artist asks. Likewise, the reference to Picasso and the years following World War II allows him to argue that the Spanish Civil War was the seed of the international threat of fascism.
The "pictorial curatorship" of the title refers to a curatorial exercise using images instead of text, which began in one of his last exhibitions at the Joan Prats gallery, before its merger with the Nogueras Blanchard gallery, where he showed works from the Vallecas School and ceramics. "In the same way that I revisit history, this format allows me to revisit the history of art, and to bring together works that would be impossible to physically possess," he says.
The prize also includes an exhibition at Can Framis, as Lasurt would like to continue his cycle of curating painting exhibitions. The award ceremony took place a few hours before the end of the opening day of the ARCO art fair, which was attended by the King and Queen of Spain. Upon arriving at Hall 9, some gallery owners booed the Minister of Culture in protest against the cultural VAT, in an action organized by the Consortium of Contemporary Art Galleries. Acquisitions by Patricia Dauder and Eulàlia Valldosera
Furthermore, the Vila Casas Foundation has acquired three mediumistic drawings by Eulàlia Valldosera at the Àngels Barcelona gallery and Sieve, by Patrícia Dauder, in the Projectesd gallery. Sieve It is the work that Dauder did for the Noguera Museum, in Balaguer, within the cycle Past/PresentPromoted by the Department of Culture, this work, crafted from reddish sapele wood and gold and silk threads, was displayed in a glass case alongside ceramic pieces, objects, tile fragments, sculptures, and capitals from the Andalusian period, all unearthed in the ancient medina of Balaguer. The greenish tones, some earthen pieces, and lapis lazuli are based on those used during that era.
Projecting Joaquim Chancho in Madrid
Once again, coinciding with the ARCO art fair, the Vila Casas Foundation has presented an exhibition at the Blanquerna Cultural Center in Madrid. This year's featured artist is Joaquim Chancho, considered a key figure in Catalan abstraction. The exhibition is titledHibiscusThe exhibition includes a selection of seven paintings from the collection of pharmacist Joan Puig Guillot (1929-2020), a friend and admirer of the artist, who over the years amassed a significant collection of paintings and drawings. Upon his death, Puig Guillot bequeathed the collection to the L'Escala City Council, which deposited it with the Vila Casas Foundation to ensure its preservation and dissemination. "Presenting Joaquín Chancho's work in Madrid reflects our desire to showcase one of the most important figures in the Catalan art scene," states Bernat Puigdollers, artistic director of the Foundation and co-curator of the exhibition with Mar Cuenca. "For us, this approach exemplifies how to continue Mr. Vila Casas's legacy: with the same commitment, rigor, and fidelity to the values that united Joaquim Chancho and Puig Guillot in their friendship. In this way, we wish to further strengthen our ties with institutions such as the L'Escala City Council, with whom I have collaborated for many years."
The curators highlight the introspective nature of the exhibited works. "Joaquim Chancho's work is slow and reflective. It requires time for execution and time for assimilation. Although the stroke may be quick, precise, and direct, it is always imbued with temporality, tension, and intention. Each stroke, each color, is the result of a slow maturation, of a wise and reflective attitude toward the wise and reflective."