“I never thought I’d need so many people”

garcía | galería opened its doors to the public in September of 2012 with the intention of becoming a reference contemporary art gallery in Madrid. Starting with its its name, we wanted it to make clear from the outset that this was a project born in Spain, developed to reflect, promote, and make known the art made being made in the country, with a particular commitment to contemporary practices.

Throughout these past 6 years and in 5 seasons at garcía | galería we have set up 30 exhibitions, out of which 25 were solo shows, 3 were group shows, and two were especial projects. But above all we have had the honour of showing the work of 25 artists and 5 art collectives. Our space has filled up with paintings, photocopies, drawings, photographs, torsos, heads, various projections, some monitors, vitrines, neons, display cases, ephemeral works, performances, traces of performances, documentation of performances, invisible works, and plenty of sculpture.

We have also had a great deal of visitors: people who knew us before we opened, but above all people who got to know us after we did: people who didn’t know who we were, Spaniards, Swiss, American visitors, housewives, museum directors, great collectors, newlyweds, independent professionals, school friends we hadn’t seen in ages, boyfriends, curators, art critics, Japanese specialists, Finnish guests… Many people who offered their support and encouragement, and whose response was more positive than we had ever imagined.

We never thought we’d need so many people. And yet there they were.

And here we are: 6 years and 5 seasons later, celebrating a birthday that in the life of a gallery is equivalent to a coming of age.

And we will celebrate with a group show of the artists we represent at garcía|galería, with works by Elvira Amor, Elena Bajo, David Bestué, Luz Broto, Carlos Fernández-Pello, Karlos Gil, Rasmus Nilausen, André Romão, and Francesc Ruiz.

Thank you all so much.