Colita, Artur Ramon Art, Jordi Gimferrer, the Cadaqués Gallery and the digital The time of the arts, GAC Awards 2023

Colita, Artur Ramon Art, Jordi Gimferrer, the Cadaqués Gallery and the digital 'El temps de les arts', were some of the awardees this Tuesday in the framework of the GAC 2023 awards, which were presented during the celebration of the Night of Gallerism The sixteenth edition of the awards has distinguished figures with a long career, such as the artist Eulàlia Grau and the gallerists Pepa Quintero and Llucià Homs, who have received the honorary award, but it has also opted for other names from the current projection, as well as the talent emerging In fact, as Pilar Parcerisas, art critic and president of the awards jury, has highlighted, this year the focus has been on parity and the emphasis has been placed on balancing territorial distinctions.

The awards are organized by the association Galeries d'Art de Catalunya and were held this evening at the Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA). This year, the career of the artist Eulàlia Grau and the gallerist Pepa Quintero have been recognized among the awardees, who have received the Honorary Award-Fundació Banco Sabadell, the highest distinction of the awards. In the case of Grau, his dedication in various disciplines has been valued, as well as his concern when looking for "new geographical and cultural frontiers" in an era where cultural consumption was limited "to the established canons".

As for Quintero, director of Anquin's Galeria d'Art Reus, her "long journey" in gallery management, following the family path, has been rewarded through an international projection of Catalan art. It is also noteworthy that she was the first woman to enter the Sant Jordi Academy. Apart from these two prizes, this same night an honorable mention will be given to Llucià Homs for Talking Galleries.

Jordi Gimferrer has received the prize for collecting "for having treasured for 60 years a magnificent set of works of Catalan painting with outstanding names of modernism, noucentisme and avant-garde". The jury highlighted "the passion" of what it considers an "authentic art history lesson". The critic's prize, on the other hand, went to Marga Perera, for her "continuous task of reflection on contemporary art with rigor and sensitivity, from a constructive point of view".

The award for the media has recognized the work of 'El temps de les arts', for the "punctuality, rigor and good judgment of its collaborators in the critical commentary on most exhibitions", and the curatorial award has ended up in the hands of Jorge Satorre for Alberto Peral's exhibition: Redonda redona, at the Tecla Sala de l'Hospitalet Art Centre, "a successful selection", according to the experts.

The Cadaqués Gallery and Artur Ramon Art have received the awards for the best historical gallery exhibition and the best gallery programming, respectively. In the first of the cases, the jury highlighted the Ulysses 100 exhibition, Richard Hamilton in Bloom and in the second, the fact of having created an art space that works "like a laboratory of ideas".

Finally, the emerging artist award for the best gallery exhibition went to Daniela Ortiz, for her "artistic activism and critical thinking that denounces the hypocrisy of the Western world". The established artist award for the best gallery exhibition has gone to Colita, for the exhibition Dona situación limita at the RocíoSantaCruz gallery, and the mid-career artist award for the best gallery exhibition for Toni Giron The experts have assessed Revelations 2013-2019 in the Quadern Robat gallery, a display of unpublished drawings "that emerge from obscurity".

A feminist year with a territorial vision

The jury for the GAC 2023 awards has been chaired by art curator Pilar Parcerisas and made up of critic Juan Bufill, artist Gino Rubert, curator Àlex Mitrani and curator Natalia Chocarro. According to Parcerisas, this year, "it cost them a little more" because there were about seventy candidates. "After the pandemic the situation recovered quite a bit, but this year even more so. We have seen a normalization and a desire to push forward all kinds of proposals", he explained. In addition, he remarked that, as the main innovation, the emphasis has been placed on two very specific criteria: territorial and gender "without having done so expressly".

As for the president of the Awards Committee, as well as of the Association Galeries d'Art de Catalunya, Benito Padilla, he has claimed to place art at the center of "the cultural equation" as is being done in other countries. Benito has stated that greater "visibility in all aspects" of life is needed. "Before it was more present, but currently it is in a "critical" time in which it is not taken into account neither in the economic activity, nor in the social one.

"The galleries must try to go further", he asked, "beyond the shops, the spaces and look for landscapes and scenarios where society can meet them again", he added. For this reason, he concluded, his task as president is precisely for this "broader and more ambitious" objective.