ARCOmadrid’s 45th edition is well underway at the IFEMA exhibition center, bringing together 211 galleries from 30 countries through March 8th. The VIP day on March 5th began with flutes of Ruinart, pasteles de nata, and liqueur-filled sweets offered at the entrance—a convivial welcome to a fair that quickly filled with visitors.
One of the first works greeting guests was Jesús Rafael Soto’s bright yellow Esfera Amarilla (1984) at local gallery Elvira González, an Op art sphere that quickly became a photo stop. The atmosphere was lively and sociable, though a quieter political gesture threaded through the aisles: Several Spanish gallerists wore red stickers in support of a strike protesting the country’s high VAT on art sales, which remains unreformed despite reductions elsewhere in Europe.
Spain’s leading contemporary art fair, ARCOmadrid, is renowned for its strong dialogue between European and Latin American artists and exhibitors. Spanish galleries made up 34 percent of the fair, with 72 exhibitors, joined by strong contingents from Germany (24 galleries), Brazil (15), France (14), and Portugal (13). The fair’s longstanding emphasis on Latin America acts as “a geographical focus without being geographically binding,” as director Maribel López put it—helping attract collectors from across the region.
Galleries across the fair reported strong energy on its VIP day. In the fair’s Opening. New Galleries, featuring 18 spaces operating for less than eight years, New York’s Gratin sold out its presentation of works by painter Max Jahn before the end of VIP day. Highlight sales from the main section included Esther Schipper, which reported several works placed above €200,000 ($231,270) and Thaddaeus Ropac, which had sold roughly half its booth by the afternoon.
Here are our five best booths from the fair—group presentations that achieved a thoughtful sense of balance.
Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel
Booth 7B09
With works by Márcia Falcão, León Ferrari, Pélagie Gbaguidi, Cristiano Lenhardt, Ernesto Neto, Rivane Neuenschwander, Janaina Tschäpe, Luiz Zerbini
Latin American tastemaker Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel’s presentation emphasizes conversations across generations of artists in the gallery’s program. “For ARCO this year, we decided to show more works by fewer artists, to highlight dialogues within our program,” said Alexander Santema, the gallery’s associate international director.
At the booth’s center are Cristiano Lenhardt’s lithe metallic silhouettes from the 2024 series “Concentro Espelhar,” which establish an elegant sculptural focal point. These are flanked by Ernesto Neto’s wall piece Entre a terra e o sol (2025)—cotton thread stretched across wooden pegs, unfurling outward like an eager blossom—and Pélagie Gbaguidi’s brightly gestural painting Momento (2025), animated by floating red limbs.
Fechamento, 2026
Ana Claudia Almeida
Fortes D'Aloia & Gabriel
Festa Junina, 2026
Ana Claudia Almeida
Fortes D'Aloia & Gabriel
Pequena caixa explode, 2026
Ana Claudia Almeida
Fortes D'Aloia & Gabriel
Malandra não Para XXIX, 2026
Marcia Falcão
Fortes D'Aloia & Gabriel
Backyard, 2006
Janaina Tschäpe
Fortes D'Aloia & Gabriel
Green descending, 2024
Ana Claudia Almeida
Fortes D'Aloia & Gabriel
incandescence, 2023
Pélagie Gbaguidi
Fortes D'Aloia & Gabriel
Entre a terra e o sol, 2026
Ernesto Neto
Fortes D'Aloia & Gabriel
Vagalume, 2025
Luiz Zerbini
Fortes D'Aloia & Gabriel
Notícia de Jornal (Suely) | Tabloid Story (Suely), 2025
Rivane Neuenschwander
Fortes D'Aloia & Gabriel
Abricó de macaco 8, 2023
Luiz Zerbini
Fortes D'Aloia & Gabriel
Variações Corpo Mar Corpo/aisagem 19, 2025
Ernesto Neto
Fortes D'Aloia & Gabriel
Módulo Inexato AR, 2026
Cristiano Lenhardt
Fortes D'Aloia & Gabriel
Desfazer para ser VII, 2025
Cristiano Lenhardt
Fortes D'Aloia & Gabriel
Concentro Espelhar (Chapéu), 2024
Cristiano Lenhardt
Fortes D'Aloia & Gabriel
Nearby hangs a striking quartet from Rivane Neuenschwander’s small-scale 2025 series “Notícia de Jornal.” In these pigment and acrylic paintings, the chilling aftermath of violence appears through dripping blood and seeping stains that mark otherwise neutral interiors with geometrically tiled floors. Each work bears the name of a victim of domestic violence, drawn from real-life cases and media headlines.
Other highlights include Luiz Zerbini’s works inspired by fireflies and nature’s underlying grids, while Lenhardt reappears with perforated aluminum rectangles framed by enamel ceramics. Janaina Tschäpe’s lively abstract canvas Coração disparado (2025), rendered in oil and oil stick, offers a preview of the artist’s upcoming solo exhibition at the gallery’s São Paulo space next month.
Sabrina Amrani
Booth 9C12
With works by Carlos Aires, Joël Andrianomearisoa, Gabriela Bettini, Josep Grau-Garriga, Alexandra Karakashian, Timo Nasseri, and Wardha Shabbir
Local Madrid gallery Sabrina Amrani’s presentation highlights textile traditions and politically charged material histories. A longtime participant in the fair—now in its 13th year—the gallery places late Catalan artist Josep Grau-Garriga’s monumental textiles at the center of its booth. Standouts include the sprawling jute, hemp, wool, and synthetic fiber works Paisatge d’estreps (1981) and La llum i el temps (1987), the latter woven with the artist’s personal garments, including a light blue sweater and paint-spattered smock. Grau-Garriga sourced materials from a Barcelona factory that once produced textiles for Pablo Picasso and Joan Miró.
“Many of these artists from the ’70s were socialists, so they were working a lot with this popular material,” said Pedro Gohlke, the gallery’s international director.
The Eternal Essence, 2025
Wardha Shabbir
Sabrina Amrani
WORDS CIGARS WHISPERS AND CARESSES FOR YOU , 2022
Joël Andrianomearisoa
Sabrina Amrani
Labyrinth of Passions (JA298), 2013
Joël Andrianomearisoa
Sabrina Amrani
Labyrinth of Passions (JA299), 2013
Joël Andrianomearisoa
Sabrina Amrani
Labyrinth of Passions (JA309), 2013
Joël Andrianomearisoa
Sabrina Amrani
Labyrinth of Passions (JA320), 2013
Joël Andrianomearisoa
Sabrina Amrani
Close to Hand III, 2025
Alexandra Karakashian
Sabrina Amrani
Close to Hand VI, 2025
Alexandra Karakashian
Sabrina Amrani
Close to Hand VII, 2025
Alexandra Karakashian
Sabrina Amrani
La llum i el temps, 1987
Josep Grau-Garriga
Sabrina Amrani
Trencar el sac, 1976
Josep Grau-Garriga
Sabrina Amrani
Paisatge d’estreps, 1981
Josep Grau-Garriga
Sabrina Amrani
FACE TO FACE WITH DEATH III (Crisis edition), 2025
Carlos Aires
Sabrina Amrani
Lago Lacar, 2026
Gabriela Bettini
Sabrina Amrani
Playa Grande, 2026
Gabriela Bettini
Sabrina Amrani
Río de la Plata, 2026
Gabriela Bettini
Sabrina Amrani
Glaciar, 2026
Gabriela Bettini
Sabrina Amrani
Memoria del agua I, 2026
Gabriela Bettini
Sabrina Amrani
Memoria del agua II, 2026
Gabriela Bettini
Sabrina Amrani
Memoria del agua III, 2026
Gabriela Bettini
Sabrina Amrani
Memoria del agua IV, 2026
Gabriela Bettini
Sabrina Amrani
Memoria del agua V, 2026
Gabriela Bettini
Sabrina Amrani
Memoria del agua VI, 2026
Gabriela Bettini
Sabrina Amrani
Memoria del agua VII, 2026
Gabriela Bettini
Sabrina Amrani
Memoria del agua VIII, 2026
Gabriela Bettini
Sabrina Amrani
Memoria del agua IX, 2026
Gabriela Bettini
Sabrina Amrani
Memoria del agua X, 2026
Gabriela Bettini
Sabrina Amrani
Memoria del agua XI, 2026
Gabriela Bettini
Sabrina Amrani
I saw a broken Labyrinth L1, 2025
Timo Nasseri
Sabrina Amrani
I saw a broken labyrinth #16, 2021
Timo Nasseri
Sabrina Amrani
Line of Force I, 2025
Waqas Khan
Sabrina Amrani
Untitled VI, 2025
Waqas Khan
Sabrina Amrani
OUR LAND JUST LIKE A DREAM, 2022
Joël Andrianomearisoa
Sabrina Amrani
Mountain I, 2023
Manal AlDowayan
Sabrina Amrani
The Mermaid, 2015
Manal AlDowayan
Sabrina Amrani
Folding Drawing #72, 2023
Jong Oh
Sabrina Amrani
Folding Drawing (mimic) #1, 2023
Jong Oh
Sabrina Amrani
Light of Segovia #11, 2019
Jong Oh
Sabrina Amrani
Light of Segovia #7, 2019
Jong Oh
Sabrina Amrani
Light of Segovia #9, 2019
Jong Oh
Sabrina Amrani
Labyrinth of Passions (JA290), 2013
Joël Andrianomearisoa
Sabrina Amrani
Infinitesimal, 2015
Nicène Kossentini
Sabrina Amrani
Infinitesimal II, 2016
Nicène Kossentini
Sabrina Amrani
Undying XL, 2018
Alexandra Karakashian
Sabrina Amrani
Undying XLVIII , 2018
Alexandra Karakashian
Sabrina Amrani
Reverberación del verbo I, 2024
Julia Llerena
Sabrina Amrani
Reverberación del verbo II, 2024
Julia Llerena
Sabrina Amrani
Reverberación del verbo IV, 2024
Julia Llerena
Sabrina Amrani
Reverberación del verbo V, 2024
Julia Llerena
Sabrina Amrani
Reverberación del verbo VI, 2024
Julia Llerena
Sabrina Amrani
Reverberación del verbo VII, 2024
Julia Llerena
Sabrina Amrani
Reverberación del verbo VIII, 2024
Julia Llerena
Sabrina Amrani
Reverberación del verbo IX, 2024
Julia Llerena
Sabrina Amrani
Traspúa, 1976
Josep Grau-Garriga
Sabrina Amrani
Nearby, Carlos Aires presents more delicate yet biting works: pinned, laser-cut figures made from real paper currencies. In Face to Face with Death III (Crisis edition) (2025), silhouettes—including Donald Trump at a podium—cluster around skulls, cut from banknotes of the 35 richest countries by GDP. Displayed amid the commerce of an art fair, the work’s irony is intentional. “The security that we think we have when we have money is nothing compared to the fragility of the human being,” said Gohlke.
Elsewhere, Gabriela Bettini’s works, hung against a light green wall, depict marine life live-streamed from thousands of meters beneath the ocean’s surface. These scenes intertwine with charcoal drawings referencing members of the artist’s Argentine family who were disappeared during the 20th century dictatorship.
Meessen
Booth 9C19
With works by Ignasi Aballí, Robert Devriendt, Benoît Maire, Théo Massoulier, Jorge Méndez Blake, José María Sicilia, Thu Van Tran, and Xie Lei
Brussels gallery Meessen returns to ARCOmadrid with a tightly curated presentation spanning six artists from its program. Two—Ignasi Aballí, who represented Spain at the 2022 Venice Biennale, and Xie Lei, the latest recipient of the Prix Marcel Duchamp, also appeared in the gallery’s booth last year.
“The idea is to have a strong, fresh proposal,” said gallerist Olivier Meessen, achieved through “a balance between conceptual art with Aballí or some pieces by Jorge Méndez Blake, and other works more related to material, like José María Sicilia, or aesthetics, like Xie Lei.”
Colors of grey, 2025
Thu Van Tran
Meessen
Petit roman sans titre, 2025
Thu Van Tran
Meessen
Petit roman sans titre, 2025
Thu Van Tran
Meessen
Les couleurs du gris, 2023
Thu Van Tran
Meessen
Les couleurs du gris, 2024
Thu Van Tran
Meessen
Petit roman sans titre, 2025
Thu Van Tran
Meessen
In the Fall, in the Rise, 2017-2025
Thu Van Tran
Meessen
Exit highway, 2021
Robert Devriendt
Meessen
Fête galante, 2022 -2023
Robert Devriendt
Meessen
Exit highway, 2022 -2024
Robert Devriendt
Meessen
Light on Light, 2019
José María Sicilia
Meessen
Silenced Kafka (Inside), 2025
Jorge Méndez Blake
Meessen
Untitled (Door Knocker) I, 2025
Jorge Méndez Blake
Meessen
Untitled (Door Knocker) II, 2025
Jorge Méndez Blake
Meessen
From an Unfinished Work (Casse-pipe), 2025
Jorge Méndez Blake
Meessen
From an Unfinished Poem (Constantine Cavafy. My Soul Was on My Lips), 2025
Jorge Méndez Blake
Meessen
Teal walls erected at the center of the booth create a quieter enclave—“when you’re inside, you’re a bit kept from the surroundings and from the noise,” Meessen noted. There, Méndez Blake’s installation From an Unfinished Work (Casse-pipe) (2025) unfolds across the floor: 100 crumpled “sheets of paper”—silkscreens on aluminum—clustered together.
On the other side of the teal partition hangs Robert Devriendt’s hyperrealist polyptych Exit highway (2022–24). Its fragmented scenes—roadway, hiking boots, a jacket, a woman glancing askance, underwear abandoned in the woods—form an elliptical narrative across multiple canvases. “What I like is the void between each canvas,” Meessen said, likening the work’s eerie undercurrent to something Lynchian.
carlier | gebauer
Booth 9B08
With works by Anna Bella Geiger, Luis Gordillo, Philip Guston, Arturo Herrera, Iman Issa, Tarik Kiswanson, Julie Mehretu, Laure Prouvost, Jessica Rankin, Leonor Serrano Rivas, Nida Sinnokrot, Ian Waelder
Spanish artist Leonor Serrano Rivas’s work announces itself before it comes into view at Berlin and Madrid gallery carlier | gebauer’s booth: The steady sound of dripping water leads visitors to A Freshwater Serpent (2026), a newly completed sculpture-fountain in which water circulates and spills onto the booth’s floor.
Serrano Rivas explores “the relationship between science, magic, [and] nature,” noted artist liaison Alberto Arribas Rufes. Electroformed flowers—real plants submerged in electrolytic baths to form a metallic skin—rise from a metal base, nearly eclipsing the artist’s Patrones de ritmo (2025) behind it, a vibrant jacquard depicting Venice’s sunken lagoons.
Human Showcase, 2025
Erik Schmidt
carlier | gebauer
Background Vehicle (Running Scene), 2025
Ian Waelder
carlier | gebauer
All Of My Shoes (Tempo), 2025
Ian Waelder
carlier | gebauer
Variations of a Shoe (Clock), 2025
Ian Waelder
carlier | gebauer
Breather, 2025
Ian Waelder
carlier | gebauer
Man by Clock, 2024
Iman Issa
carlier | gebauer
Dream Variations, 2023
Jessica Rankin
carlier | gebauer
Mind bend drawings (June), 2025
Julie Mehretu
carlier | gebauer
Mind bend drawings (June), 2025
Julie Mehretu
carlier | gebauer
Mind bend drawings (June), 2025
Julie Mehretu
carlier | gebauer
Mind bend drawings (June), 2025
Julie Mehretu
carlier | gebauer
Mind bend drawings (June), 2025
Julie Mehretu
carlier | gebauer
For Turiya, 2024
Nicole Miller
carlier | gebauer
Rubber-coated rocks, All-Stars (5), 2022
Nida Sinnokrot
carlier | gebauer
Rubber, coated rocks, All, Stars (7), 2022
Nida Sinnokrot
carlier | gebauer
A freshwater Serpent, 2026
Leonor Serrano Rivas
carlier | gebauer
Patrones de ritmo, 2025
Leonor Serrano Rivas
carlier | gebauer
The Hidden Paintings Grandma Improved, Puzzled, 2026
Laure Prouvost
carlier | gebauer
El Alfabetizador, 2026
Ian Waelder
carlier | gebauer
There's no land but the land, 2026
Ian Waelder
carlier | gebauer
Walter Benjamin (Fragment), 2026
Ian Waelder
carlier | gebauer
Untitled, 2025
Arturo Herrera
carlier | gebauer
Untitled, 2025
Arturo Herrera
carlier | gebauer
Untitled, 2025
Arturo Herrera
carlier | gebauer
Planisférios Ditos Modernos / So-Called Modern Planispheres, 2015
Anna Bella Geiger
carlier | gebauer
Untitled, 1963
Luis Gordillo
carlier | gebauer
Untitled, 1960
Luis Gordillo
carlier | gebauer
Untitled, 1972
Luis Gordillo
carlier | gebauer
Untitled, 1962
Luis Gordillo
carlier | gebauer
Behind the fountain, a cabinet-like arrangement of drawings brings together three distinct artistic voices: previously unshown works from the 1960s by the 91-year-old Spanish painter Luis Gordillo, alongside ink drawings by Philip Guston made between 1950 and 1970 and new works on paper by Julie Mehretu from 2025.
Also present is a dedicated section of works by Ian Waelder that offers a small preview of his 2025 exhibition at Gesellschaft in Germany. Nearby, two understated sculptures by Palestinian artist Nida Sinnokrot from 2022 gather found objects—stone, rubble, a soccer ball, a football, and string—collected from the occupied territories, imbuing the humble materials with quiet gravity.
Galería de las Misiones
Booth 7C18
With works by Rafael Barradas, Tomás Maldonado, Joaquín Torres García, Pablo Atchugarry, Antonio Asis, José Pedro Costigliolo, María Freire, Julio Le Parc, César Paternosto, Carmelo Arden Quin, Antonio Seguí, Francisco Sobrino, Bruno Widmann, Yvaral, and Ignacio Iturria
Campesino, ca. 1925
Rafael Barradas
Galería de las Misiones
Formas, 1928
Joaquín Torres-García
Galería de las Misiones
For visitors whose eyes feel saturated after perusing more than 200 fair booths, Montevideo, Uruguay, and Madrid’s Galería de las Misiones offers a refreshing reprieve with a presentation of Constructivist and kinetic works—avant-garde in their time and still visually arresting today. Director Pablo Pedronzo Dutra noted the gallery’s aim to “make a dialogue with some artworks from Spanish and Italian artists from the same period of time.”
A wall of bright, graphic compositions by the late Argentine artist Tomás Maldonado highlights the dynamism of his practice. In the 1950s, Maldonado joined the Hochschule für Gestaltung school in Ulm, Germany—the philosophy of which diverged sharply from that of the Bauhaus—as an educator, later teaching at universities in Milan and Bologna, Italy.
Touches Colorées, 1965
Antonio Asis
Galería de las Misiones
Untitled , 2025
Pablo Atchugarry
Galería de las Misiones
Catalina Bárcena entrando a escena, ca. 1921
Rafael Barradas
Galería de las Misiones
Composición vibracionista, ca. 1918
Rafael Barradas
Galería de las Misiones
Escena de teatro , ca. 1921
Rafael Barradas
Galería de las Misiones
Pilar, ca. 1919
Rafael Barradas
Galería de las Misiones
Teatro, ca. 1919
Rafael Barradas
Galería de las Misiones
Untitled, 1986
Alberto Biasi
Galería de las Misiones
Línea roja, ca. 1955
José Pedro Costigliolo
Galería de las Misiones
Formas, 1956
María Freire
Galería de las Misiones
Camión, c.1917
Joaquín Torres-García
Galería de las Misiones
CONSTRUCTIF / STRUCTURE, 1927
Joaquín Torres-García
Galería de las Misiones
Dama del 1900, 1900
Joaquín Torres-García
Galería de las Misiones
Formas, 1928
Joaquín Torres-García
Galería de las Misiones
Viñetas de Nueva York, 1921
Joaquín Torres-García
Galería de las Misiones
Volumes dans léspace, 1968
Rafael Martinez
Galería de las Misiones
Continuel lumière mobile, 1968
Julio Le Parc
Galería de las Misiones
Composición, 2006
César Paternosto
Galería de las Misiones
Alternance, 1945
Carmelo Arden Quin
Galería de las Misiones
Diagonales, 1945
Carmelo Arden Quin
Galería de las Misiones
Forme Galbée, 1971
Carmelo Arden Quin
Galería de las Misiones
14 Colas y ninguna Flor, 2018
Antonio Seguí
Galería de las Misiones
Transformation instable A.Z.3, 1964-1971
Francisco Sobrino
Galería de las Misiones
Tes- todo negro, 1976
Jesús Rafael Soto
Galería de las Misiones
Bodegón constructivo, 1965
Augusto Torres
Galería de las Misiones
Variaciones, ca. 2016
Bruno Widmann
Galería de las Misiones
Variation sur le carré, 1960 -1969
Yvaral
Galería de las Misiones
Constructivist, ca. 1935
Joaquín Torres-García
Galería de las Misiones
Untitled, 2020
Ignacio Iturria
Galería de las Misiones
Scorrimenti e Capovolgimenti, 2009
Tomás Maldonado
Galería de las Misiones
Homage to Ptolemy 3, 2005
Tomás Maldonado
Galería de las Misiones
Across the booth, a suite of small-scale canvases by Rafael Barradas reflects how the painter “wanted to express the movement and the rhythm of the cities,” as Pedronzo Dutra noted, pointing to his ties with Italian Futurists as well as his involvement in choreography for theaters and playhouses in Madrid. Nearby, fellow 20th-century Uruguayan stalwart Joaquín Torres-García is represented by both drawings and a charming selection of wooden toys.
A rare contemporary presence in the booth comes from Pablo Atchugarry, whose Carrara marble sculptures appear improbably soft, their surfaces carved to resemble delicately pleated folds.
