ARCOmadrid 2026
A lot of talent onboard
One of the main promoters of Spanish art, Laura Revuelta, analyses the best of the best at the last edition of ARCO for Talento a bordo. As if returning to its origins, painting predominated the 45th edition of this contemporary art fair, which was sponsored by Iberia once more. Female artists were also the protagonists. Do you want to take a stroll alongside the best guide?
Laura Revuelta is a journalist, art curator and critic.
Author of the book Arte parece, plátano es. 21 claves para entender el arte del siglo XXI (Taurus, 2025). Included in the list of the ten most influential brands disseminating art by Elle Decoration magazine.
Pavilion 7 and pavilion 9 at IFEMA. X marks the spot. I walk in that direction, map in hand. ARCO — the International Contemporary Art Fair in Madrid sponsored by Iberia — opens the doors of these giant hangars once more. This is the meeting point for 206 galleries from 31 countries, presenting works by 1,300 artists, attracting close to 800 collectors and distinguished guests — directors of museums and institutions, curators, critics... — and around 95,000 anonymous visitors, those who pay the entrance ticket “for the love of art.” Numbers and more numbers that make us think that ARCO boils down to pure mathematics, dry economics, a business in all caps. I won’t lie; this is partially true. If it didn’t add up — a sum of positive results at the end of so many parties and events, of greetings and smiles, of awards, of networking; in short, of sowing the seeds so that in 365 we can meet here again — there would be no use for the work done by galleries, creators, collectors, sponsors and visitors who come here each edition to feel closer to the talent and creativity exhibited by international and Spanish art. For this reason, we all always leave ARCO with our pockets full of notes where we’ve written the names that we want to follow up on; this or that piece we would take home if we could or we would suggest for the collection of a museum; this or that proposal that has opened our eyes to new discourses, aesthetics and ethics. Now, I sit down to organize all those hastily scribbled ideas which bring this fair to life more than any of the others that make up the map of the art market, and write a few lines.
Women Artists: Present and Future
It is true that, this year, ARCO has left a good aftertaste. I have toasted friends who know what this is about, exhibiting talent one stand after another. And I tell them: I haven’t felt let down by the safe bets, artists who already grace art history books—Juan Uslé, José María Sicilia, Antoni Muntadas, Helena Almeida, Juan Muñoz, Olafur Eliasson, Daniel Canogar, Esther Ferrer, Susana Solano, Ai Weiwei…—for centuries to come. The fact that these creators are here at ARCO brings the fair certain prestige. And I’ve been driven crazy by other creators who I had seen at previous editions, like Eva Fábregas, June Crespo, Julia Llerena, Christian Lagata, Javier Garcerá, Imma Femenía… Female artists who are giving their all and whose up-and-coming generations are well-prepared, with solid speeches. Then there are those creators whose names didn’t even ring a bell, like Ludovica Carbotta and Óscar Abraham Pabón, who I’ll save in the cloud of my visual memory for future projects.
Talent Awards
This is what visiting ARCO is about: discovering new artistic territories to inhabit tomorrow or that make today, this moment, more liveable. I’ve also written down in red the awards that have been handed out here by different public and private institutions, and the ones I have given in my heart of hearts during the closing reflections of each day of the fair. I am pleased that Luis Gordillo has had his place of honour this year and that Elvira González has received the award bearing another female gallery owner’s name, the great Juana de Aizpuru. Without veterans, there is no present or future. There is no new talent if we do not recognize veteran talent one day after another.
Esther Gatón was one of the winning female artists at the latest edition of ARCOmadrid. © ARCOmadrid
In late 2025, Laura Revuela published the book 'Arte parece, platano es. 21 claves para entender el arte del siglo XXI'. © Penguin Random House
ARCO Lunch by Iberia is the meeting place for collectors, dealers and artists at the fair. © Iberia
How to get around ARCO
There are my notes and personal doodles that I have been telling you, and the ARCO map that drives me crazy every year. It is not the designer’s fault, but my own. I confess. It is like a chequerboard with 206 perfectly arranged squares, one per gallery. Then we need to add the institutional spaces, those dedicated to books, specialized magazines, sponsors… And since I’m not much of a strategist, I never know which way to turn. This is why I have always thought it is best to follow their guidelines in a disorderly manner. Perhaps, to never even open the map. Let yourself be guided by the compass of meetings scheduled weeks ago and chance encounters—the best, undoubtedly—like this one that has brought me closer to Iberia and its Talento a bordo. In the end, I’ve always worked like this. I examine the horizon while dragging my feet, which tire easily, because at ARCO I always feel exhausted from walking the halls and stopping to say hello here and there. I look at the scene again and again to get a general outlook of the fair. A sequence that, at a glance, summarizes what the art market is about or where it is going, its trends and discourses, which sometimes match those of the wise establishment and others do their own thing, to sell to big and small collectors and to generate a network, that is, so that more passengers step onboard the art market plane. This edition, the final vignette looks more like a painting because that is precisely what has been the most abundant at the different stands, paintings in every colour and style, to suit all tastes. Geometric, abstract, realist… Large- and medium-format… From newer galleries which are at ARCO for the first time this year, to the most experienced. There has been a lot of good painting. I have already mentioned a few names, like Uslé or Sicilia, but the names written on those scraps of paper that I am arranging on my desk include Secundino Hernández, Tania Blanco, Helena Lapas, Esteban Igartua, Kelton Campos Fausto, José Díaz, Gabriela Bettini, Sandra Gamarra, Jorge Queiroz, Vivian Suter, Marlon de Azambuja, Patricia Rengifo, Íñigo Navarro…
A pleasant surprise in the Guest Lounge
Does the abundance of so much good painting mean that ARCO has brought an end to conceptual art, photography, video… other languages that make up the supposedly most contemporary discourse? No, absolutely not. There is also plenty of that—there are Muntadas and Miranda, as original and interesting as ever—, but there is a tendency to everything being easier, more digestible, simpler… and less designed to shock, to make a scene because I can. The final vignette of this edition of ARCO is well-balanced, but there is always something or someone who calls at your door to give you a pleasant surprise. This year, I have loved two specific details. First, the consolidation of female artists who have decided to defend and update handcrafts: from loom work to ceramics. Particularly classic icons like Teresa Lanceta and Aurèlia Muñoz, and one new voice, like Sonia Navarro. And second, the Guest Lounge, under the title 350,000 hectares, an obvious reference to the area devastated by the epidemic of uncontrolled and deliberate fires that destroyed the north of Spain last summer.
If we don’t look after what is closest to us, I am afraid that the future will be quite uncertain. For this reason, long live talent at ARCO.
