From September 10 to 13, the 60 galleries of Arte Madrid kick off the season. Here are some exhibitions to help you plan a route through Centro, Salesas, Lavapiés, Letras, Salamanca, and Chamberí, with a stop at the Lázaro Galdiano Museum to explore Ibero-American art.
Madrid returns from the summer break with a tradition that marks the start of the new season: sixty galleries open their doors almost simultaneously. From Thursday, September 10, through Sunday, September 13, the 17th edition of Apertura Madrid Gallery Weekend invites you to hop from one exhibition to another, chat with artists and gallery owners, and see what’s happening on the art scene after a summer that seems to go on forever in the city. We must make the most of this generous opportunity offered by Madrid’s galleries to combine culture with a break from the heat. The program is spread across seven areas and features extended hours, presentations, and free tours. On Thursday, the galleries are open from 1:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.; on Friday and Saturday, from 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.; and on Sunday, from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Since it’s unlikely you’ll be able to see everything—and the exhibitions will be on view for the next few weeks—your best bet is to pick a neighborhood, check the map, and leave room for that gallery you hadn’t planned to visit. Or for a few beers and a good conversation about what you’ve seen.
What’s happening in the downtown galleries
The longest route runs between Malasaña and Chueca. Espacio Valverde presents *Juguemos a gato en un toro* by Sandra Val, and on Saturday at 12:00 p.m., it will host a session with writer Claudia Rodríguez-Ponga. Nearby, David Bestué takes over Ehrhardt Flórez with *Gran ojo*(Big Eye), a series of installations that straddle “Op Art and catastrophe,” while Arma Gallery is showing *Manos de hacer* (Hands at Work) by Juana González.
The tour continues along San Lorenzo Street. The Elba Benítez Gallery presents Alejandro Cesarco. The Uruguayan artist and curator brings together twenty-seven works—spanning from the 16th century to the present—in *Group Show / Muestra colectiva* to explore how memory is constructed and repeated. The project aligns with a practice that bridges art and asks what changes when an image is viewed anew or a text is quoted in a different context. Cesarco represented Uruguay at the 2011 Venice Biennale and currently lives in Madrid. Meanwhile, La Cometa, as part of its consistently interesting lineup of Latin American artists, brings together Gabriela Pinilla and María Primo this time. Colombian artist Gabriela Pinilla works with archives, news clippings, newspapers, and family photo albums to reexamine political episodes that were left out of the official narratives of Colombia and Latin America.
At Travesía Cuatro, *Marrón Barroco* by La Chola Poblete and *Bajo el mango* by Vivian Suter come together, with the latter proposing a different relationship with the territory. Born in Buenos Aires and based since 1982 on Lake Atitlán in Guatemala, Suter allows rain and mud to act upon her canvases. She hangs them at different heights, unframed, until the painting becomes an environment that preserves the marks of the climate. In *Marrón Barroco*, Argentine artist La Chola Poblete works with painting, sculpture, installation, and performance, using pop culture alongside Andean references to address the exoticization of Indigenous peoples and the construction of a “marrón” and queer identity. The Mendoza-based artist received Deutsche Bank’s Artist of the Year award in 2023 and earned a special mention at the 2024 Venice Biennale. In 2026, she presented *Pop Andino* at the MASP in São Paulo. The Madrid exhibition thus comes at a time of significant international visibility.
Pedro Cera opens with *Piedras sobre agua* by Nico Munuera, and Prats Nogueras Blanchard lives up to its international reputation with *Feral Agency*, which brings together works by Agnieszka Kurant, Hito Steyerl, and Haegue Yang. Three or four stops make for a full morning and leave time to explore the galleries, so the visit doesn’t turn into a mere “reel,” as Luis Valverde explained to us in this interview.
Literature and Art
In the Barrio de las Letras neighborhood, Apertura Madrid Gallery Weekend is hosted by two galleries that revisit different moments in Spanish art. Leandro Navarro presents *Nuda veritas*, a retrospective spanning more than five decades of Carmen Laffón’s work. “Nuda veritas” allows visitors to trace how Laffón’s artistic vision evolved while remaining true to her recurring themes. The exhibition begins with *El abrigo de Marcelina*(1965) and extends to *La sal*, the project she developed in 2020 and 2021 centered on the salt flats of Bonanza. Between these two works, we find still lifes, landscapes of Sanlúcar, and drawings of the Generalife. Laffón began with recognizable places and objects; by working with light and reducing forms, a view of the Guadalquivir, a horizon of Doñana, or a coffee pot could approach abstraction. The catalog includes a study by Amalia García Rubí on this artistic journey.
José de la Mano celebrates its 20th anniversary with *Historia(s) recuperada(s)*, a group exhibition focused on artists whose contributions were left out of the most widely circulated narratives for years but who are now key figures in 20th-century art. Participating artists include, among others, Agustín Ibarrola, Manuel Calvo, Ángel Duarte, José María de Labra, LUGÁN, Aurèlia Muñoz, Maribel Nazco, and Inés Medina.
Ponce+Robles presents *Realidad disociada* by Volkan Diyaroglu, as well as a project by Javier Camps at LAB 20/30. Camara Oscura showcases *Sample Library* by Cristóbal Ascencio, with the artist in attendance every hour throughout the weekend. Formatocomodo opens *Lome* by Elan d’Orphium, and Villa Magdalena presents *Bermuda Run* by Tommy Malekoff.
An Art Tour of Salesas
The galleries in the stately Salesas neighborhood are spread across just a few streets. At Rafael Pérez Hernando, visitors can see Simon Callery ’s “Blue and Black Puncture Paintings ” alongside work by Susana Solano, who reminds us that in art, “there are realities that defy words.” Marta Cervera/FAHRENHEIT presents *Da Hen Li House* by David Diao, and Alzueta brings together eight artists in *Texto significa tejido*, with a curatorial text by professor and curator Isabel Tejeda Martín.
The exhibition continues in MEMORIA with a project by Raúl Zurita and Delight Lab. The Chilean artist and the Delight Lab collective present *Verás. The Last Project*. The exhibition documents a performance that took place in 2024 in Caleta Vítor, in northern Chile. A poem was projected with light onto the cliffs from a distance of approximately 1.2 kilometers. The words remained visible throughout the night and disappeared at dawn. Photographs and video footage now preserve a work conceived to vanish. Zurita thus completes a public trilogy that began in 1982, when several airplanes wrote verses over New York, and continued with *Ni pena ni miedo*(*Neither Sorrow Nor Fear*), inscribed on the sands of the Atacama Desert.
Max Estrella presents *Entelequia* by Diana Fonseca. The exhibition continues an exploration that Fonseca has been developing using everyday objects and remnants from the city. The Cuban artist deconstructs the utility of objects to explore visual saturation and everyday life. One of her best-known series, *Degradaciones*, is created using layers of paint peeled from building facades in Havana. These fragments appear abstract but retain the material history of the buildings. Max Estrella’s exhibition arrives in Madrid following its presentation at La Térmica in Málaga and will be on view through October 31.
At Barquillo, Yusto/Giner presents *Never Been to Heaven* by Adam Parker Smith, and Albarrán Bourdais combines *Tiempos Cíclicos / Futuros Pasados* by Simón Vega with a special piece by Carlos Amorales. The Salvadoran artist takes his inspiration from the stelae and zoomorphic sculptures of the Mayan city of Quiriguá in Guatemala, but replaces their inscriptions with icons of cell phones, sports brands, and other symbols of contemporary power. He constructs the pieces using metal, wooden pallets, plants, lights, and found materials. The result straddles the line between an archaeological monument and a makeshift spaceship. One of the works draws on the markers from the Mesoamerican ballgame and the Stone of Tízoc, linking them to soccer and boxing—spectacles where power and identity are still played out. Science fiction introduces the future, though Vega uses it to show that certain hierarchies return in a different guise. For his part, Carlos Amorales, born in Mexico City, often draws on his own graphic archives and employs techniques that combine drawing, animation, installation, music, and performance. His presence offers us another way of understanding Latin American art.
Lavapiés, the heart of art and bars
In Lavapiés, Doctor Fourquet is home to one of the largest concentrations of galleries. Maisterra is showcasing paintings and works on paper by Miguel Ángel Campano; The Goma is presenting *Sombra natural* by Javier Arce; 2 Mira Archiv is exhibiting *Bajo la piel del agua* by Clemente Bernad; and Moisés Pérez de Albéniz is opening a solo exhibition by Elvira Amor.
One of the main stops is at Espacio Mínimo. Elena Blasco returns with *MIX. La donna è mobile*, an exhibition that brings together works from 1986, 1989, the 1990s, and 2004, along with drawings and installations from 2025 and 2026. There are pieces of furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, Korean paper, and oil sticks. At times, the three rooms take on the appearance of a furniture store where every object has strayed from its proper place. The selection includes *Es muy difícil*, *El niño*, *Dos naranjas*, and *Cortina azul*. Luis Valverde, the gallery’s director, sums up Apertura Madrid very simply: “What we want is for people to go to the galleries and visit them.” This statement also sets the event apart from art fairs. Here, each exhibition retains its original installation and can be viewed without the stress of crowded hallways, the unusual poses in front of the artwork, or the ever-present controversial piece that will appear in every TV clip. Blasco has been exhibiting since 1976 and has built a body of work that is difficult to define by a single technique. At MIX, oil sticks, collage, screen-printed glass, bronze, textiles, and found objects coexist. Color and humor make the work accessible, though the domestic scenes ultimately challenge assigned roles, prejudices, and the idea of the home as a docile place. The exhibition avoids a chronological approach to demonstrate that the selection and blending of materials remain the starting point of his work.
In the same area, Galería Silvestre is presenting *Estorninos* by Vicente Blanco; Juan Silió is opening*Por un lugar en el sol* by Irene de Andrés; and T20 and F2 are co-presenting *Hay un vencejo volando dentro* by Julia Santa Olalla. Afterward, we’ll always have the neighborhood bars for a quick break and to check out the lineup at the Valle Inclán Theater —which we locals will continue to call the Sala Olimpia for years to come.
A map of Chamberí and Salamanca
In the elegant Salamanca neighborhood, Opera Gallery is dedicating “Tequila Sunrise” to Anselm Reyle. Fernando Pradilla presents *Más que vivir* by José Ramón Amondarain; Parra & Romero introduces us to *Diagramas de coherencia* by Ana Montiel; and Guillermo de Osma revisits the work of Óscar Domínguez, a Canarian painter of the Generation of ’27, and his relationship with Surrealism. Río & Meñaka is exhibiting *Page 180* by Julia Llerena, while Fernández-Braso is presenting a solo exhibition by Elena Goñi.
Further north, Chamberí is home to six galleries. Carlier | Gebauer presents *A Game, or So You May Think* by Iman Issa; Daniel Cuevas features *Ayuno de pintura* by Daniel Verbis; NF/Nieves Fernández presents Alberto Datas, and Cayón juxtaposes works by José Guerrero and Esteban Vicente—Spanish painters whom we can rightfully count among the American Abstract Expressionists. The exhibition proposes a dialogue between two Spanish painters who spent much of their careers in the United States and participated, from different perspectives, in American abstraction. José Guerrero worked with fields of color crisscrossed by tensions and breaks. Esteban Vicente constructed surfaces through layers and more atmospheric chromatic relationships.
Freijo dedicates *Objeto_Sujeto en Revolución* to Mar Solís. BAT Alberto Cornejo joins the lineup on Friday the 11th with *Eco* by Carlos Albert.
And also, a conversation in Spanish from Latin America
In the garden of the Lázaro Galdiano Museum, for the second consecutive year, Apertura Madrid Gallery Weekend is using Parque Florido as an open-air exhibition space. “Between the Grid and Life” brings together works by Carlos Albert, Andreu Alfaro, Dagoberto Rodríguez, Cristina Almodóvar, Pedro Calapez, Tamara Arroyo, David Magán, Nuno Nunes-Ferreira, Josep Maynou, Sandra Val, Simón Vega, and Mar Solís. The exhibition opens on September 9 at 7:30 p.m. and runs through November 15.
The exhibition brings together artists from Spain, Portugal, Cuba, and El Salvador. For a Latin American magazine, the interest lies in observing what happens when these works leave a gallery, a museum, or a studio and appear around a Madrid palace built in the early 20th century, within the garden that José Lázaro Galdiano and Paula Florido made part of their family and cultural project.
Dagoberto Rodríguez brings to this context a career marked by the intersection of design, architecture, and political criticism. Tamara Arroyo has explored the city, housing, and the objects through which we construct a sense of belonging. Simón Vega presents Mesoamerican monuments recreated using industrial materials—a clear sign of global culture. Their works deconstruct “Ibero-American” as a monotonous geographical label.
The title itself suggests an interesting dichotomy. The grid can represent structure, while life signifies chance and change. The sculptures share space with vegetation and paths where the light also changes throughout the day. A piece that seems to blend into the green surroundings in the morning may stand out against the palace’s architecture in the afternoon.
La Casa Encendida rounds out its institutional program with *Continentes como semillas* by La Chola Poblete, Niño de Elche, and Pedro G. Romero, and *The Circle Project* by Bouchra Khalili. The former once again fosters a dialogue between Europe and Latin America. The latter draws on stories of resistance and migration through moving images.
In the end, the Madrid Gallery Weekend is just an excuse to put together your own itinerary, revisit a familiar gallery, and step into a new one for the first time. I wouldn’t try to visit all sixty. I’d pick an area, select two exhibitions, and let the rest of the tour unfold by chance. The doors will remain open for weeks; admission will be free, and the staff will, as always, give their all to remind us that art will always raise more questions than it answers—and there will always be something left to see again.
