1 Mira Madrid opened in 2019 at Argumosa 16, in Lavapiés. Its founder, Mira Bernabeu, had directed Espaivisor in Valencia for fourteen years alongside Miriam Lozano and brought part of the work she had begun there to Madrid. In 2025, he added 2 Mira Archiv, a second space on Doctor Fourquet dedicated to cultural archives. It is currently presenting *Las babas del diablo*, a joint exhibition by painters Chema López and Alain Urrutia.
Gallery Profile
Mira Bernabeu founded 1 Mira Madrid in 2019, but the gallery’s history began earlier in Valencia. Bernabeu (Aspe, Alicante, 1969) is an artist and gallery owner with a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from the Polytechnic University of Valencia and postgraduate studies at Goldsmiths College, University of London. Since 2006, he has combined his artistic practice with running galleries.
From 2005 to 2019, he directed Espaivisor alongside Miriam Lozano. The project originated at Visor, a Valencian gallery linked to photography since its inception and founded by Pep Benlloch, a photographer, professor, and later director of the Master’s Program in Photography at the Polytechnic University of Valencia. Under Bernabeu and Lozano, Espaivisor expanded its scope to include Spanish and international artists working in photography, video, performance, and other media.
The Caixa Art and Patronage Foundation awarded Espaivisor the prize for the best Spanish gallery of 2018. A year later, Lozano and Bernabeu announced the end of the project. In a statement released on November 1, 2019, they explained that they were going their separate ways professionally and that Bernabeu would open a new space in Madrid. The announcement specified that the Madrid project would build on the work done in Valencia and would continue to work with the same artists.
1 Mira Madrid opened at Argumosa 16 on November 30, 2019. The first exhibition was *Structures of Solidarity*, by Sanja Iveković (Zagreb, 1949), a Croatian artist who had previously exhibited with Espaivisor. Iveković has been working with photography, video, and performance since the 1970s and had presented Invisible Women in 2013 and What Do Women Want? Before or After? in 2016.
Some of the artists from Espaivisor remained connected to Bernabeu in Madrid. Among them is Esther Ferrer (San Sebastián, 1937), a Spanish artist associated with the ZAJ group since 1967 and with the history of performance art in Spain. In 2021, she presented at Argumosa Espacio/Tiempo/Presencia, featuring works from different periods, including Self-Portrait in Time, works constructed using prime numbers, and Satie’s Piano.
In 2025, Bernabeu opened 2 Mira Archiv at Doctor Fourquet 6. The space features an exhibition hall and a laboratory for the conservation, cataloging, and digitization of cultural archives. Its first project focused on the photographic archive of C.A.D.A. (Colectivo Acciones de Arte), formed in Chile in 1979, and the archive of Lotty Rosenfeld, a Chilean artist and member of the collective.
1 Mira Madrid and 2 Mira Archiv serve different purposes. The former continues as a contemporary art gallery in Argumosa; the latter works with archival collections from artists, private collections, and institutions. Both are directed by Mira Bernabeu.
Program
Why Go
Chema López and Alain Urrutia now agree on The Devil’s Drool, which opened at 1 Mira Madrid on September 10, 2026. It is an exhibition by two artists, not a collaborative work.
Chema López (Albacete, 1969) studied Fine Arts in Valencia and is a professor in the Department of Painting at the Polytechnic University of Valencia. Photography and printed materials consistently serve as sources for his paintings. In Els anys de plom, a series begun in 2012, López used photographs taken from police records. Two paintings from that series are part of the collection of the IVAM, the Valencian Institute of Modern Art. The museum explicitly notes the origin of the images—police records—in the works’ entry.
In 2014, the La Nau Cultural Center at the University of Valencia presented A Ghost Story for Adults. The exhibition was organized by the Martínez Guerricabeitia Foundation and featured paintings based on portraits and other photographic images. The university also published a catalog dedicated to the project.
López returned to the theme of identification documents in 2022 with a project developed simultaneously at both locations of the Rosa Santos Gallery. *Carta de Quebrados*, in Valencia, was based on police records and identification documents; *Retícula Quebrada*, in Madrid, incorporated residence permits and documentation related to migrants and refugees.
Between November 2025 and March 2026, the Chirivella Soriano Foundation in Valencia brought together its work with that of Santiago Ydáñez in Sesión doble / Double Feature. The exhibition also revisited a previous project by the institution itself: in 2007, it had dedicated the solo exhibition *El brillo del sapo*.
Alain Urrutia (Bilbao, 1981) is a painter who studied at the University of the Basque Country and the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan. His paintings are based on his own photographs, found images, and printed materials that he selects before transferring them to canvas. In 2017, he created *Mirror Rim* for the DIDAC Foundation in Santiago de Compostela. The paintings were designed to accommodate two mounting orientations. When the exhibition later traveled to Appleton Square in Lisbon, the paintings were displayed rotated from their original installation. Urrutia himself explained this approach in a conversation about the project.
In 2022, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao presented *Memento* as part of the exhibition dedicated to the Basque Artist Program. Urrutia gathered forty old frames—circular and oval—which at the time corresponded to his forty years of age. Some held found photographs, while others contained small paintings he had created. The project remains an ongoing endeavor: the artist proposed adding one piece for each year he turns.
What to Expect
The Devil's Drool brings together 16 paintings by Chema López and Alain Urrutia at Argumosa. The exhibition opened on September 10, 2026, and is scheduled to run through November 11. During the first three days, coinciding with Apertura Madrid Gallery Weekend, guided tours with the artists were scheduled.
The title comes from "The Devil's Drool", a short story by Julio Cortázar published in 1959 as part of *Las armas secretas*. Its protagonist, Roberto Michel, is a translator and amateur photographer. After photographing a scene in Paris, he enlarges the image and discovers details he hadn’t noticed when he took the picture. The story was one of the sources used by Michelangelo Antonioni for *Blow-Up*, released in 1966.
In The Devil’s Drool , the works of both artists are displayed in the same galleries, with the authorship of each painting clearly identified. Photography is present as source material, but the exhibition consists of paintings.
Represented Artists
What to Do Nearby
1 Mira Madrid is located at Argumosa 16, in Lavapiés. Just a few minutes away, at Valencia 30, is Parenthesis, an independent, bilingual bookstore with titles in Spanish and English. It carries fiction, essays, poetry, graphic novels, and children’s literature, and organizes book clubs, book presentations, and events.
Another bookstore in the area is La Independiente, located at Primavera 14. It’s open Tuesday through Saturday and is part of a network of independent bookstores based in Madrid.
There are several dining options right on Argumosa Street. Primadonna Pizza Bar is located at number 18 and serves Italian cuisine, pasta, and pizza, with continuous service throughout the afternoon and evening. A little further down the street, La Buga del Lobo is located at 11 Argumosa and offers a menu of tapas and dishes influenced by Mediterranean and Latin American cuisines.
Just outside the immediate vicinity of Argumosa, La Neomudéjar occupies a former railway facility next to Atocha, on Antonio Nebrija Street. The center opened as a space dedicated to contemporary art and hosts exhibitions, installations, and projects related to audiovisual and experimental practices.
