At least 14 art galleries created by Latin American professionals, often subsidiaries of other galleries active in Mexico City, Lima, Bogotá or Buenos Aires, open their doors in Madrid. Crisis, La Cometa, Villa Magdalena, El Apartamento, Bombón, Hilario Galguera, Fernando Pradilla, Iberoamérica Art Gallery, Yuri López Kullins... The Latin American art boom is an expression of the impact of American expatriates who in the last decade have chosen Spain as their residence, attracted by the security, public services, prices and, also, the appearance of a cultural offer tailored to their needs.
"When someone leaves their country and settles in another, they need to show their story, tell where they come from, what their roots are," explains Colombian Paloma Jaramillo, director of La Cometa, in Madrid. «Art is a way to maintain that bond. I would say that our clientele is 20% Spanish, and 80% Latin American. And Latin American means Latin American, from anywhere in America, from Argentina to Mexico and even the United States. We have more Colombians because of our personal relationships, it is natural, but Latin American clients identify with us wherever they are from.
«There are many Latin Americans who have bought a house in Madrid in recent years. Some of them were already clients from Mexico and we have met them again in Spain," says Paloma García-Moreno, director of the Madrid headquarters of the Hilario Galguera Gallery, originally from Mexico City. «We also have European, German and Belgian clients who are looking for Latin American art and for whom it is very easy to come to Madrid than to travel to Mexico. The Spanish client is scarcer for us. With institutions it is very noticeable that it is difficult.
In the quotation marks of Jaramillo and García-Moreno the case of Latin galleries could be summarized: as is known, rich Latin Americans who previously settled in Miami now go to Spain, because Spain is often the idealized country of their grandparents and a place where high-end housing is still cheaper than in Florida and where the way of life is friendlier.
29,000 Latin American citizens live in the Salamanca neighborhood of Madrid, according to INE data. Not all of them are rich, not all of them buy art, but the critical mass is enough so that, behind them, the galleries that have had them as clients in their cities have crossed the Atlantic. Furthermore, rich Latin Americans have new apartments to furnish, they need to adapt to the social codes of their new old world and, at the same time, they need works of art from their country that remind them of where they come from, what their memory is.
That's the summary. Álvaro de Benito is the European correspondent for Arte al Día International, a magazine dedicated to Latin American art that also promotes fairs throughout the Hispanic world. He is also the witness who can expand the news from his professional experience: «20 years ago, there was a Latin American gallery owner in Madrid, only one: Fernando Pradilla, from Colombia. It brought contemporary Latin American art, recognized artists. Keep at it. The takeoff began six or seven years ago. Latin American galleries have wanted to be in Madrid just as South African galleries want to be in London. There is a kind of neocolonial political trend that makes great fortunes return to the old metropolis. Sometimes settling here is not a great economic deal, or does not offer an immediate direct benefit. "The investment has more to do with being close to the artists and Arco, with being in the circuit and getting to know the institutions."
According to De Benito, galleries do not only come to Spain following their clients. They also come because their suppliers and the services they need are here: «The artists who 20 years ago settled in London and Berlin are now going to Madrid. What about Carabanchel and the artists is how they tell it, it is not a legend. Those who have their studio in Carabanchel are high-level artists: Teresa Margolles, Dagoberto Rodríguez, Carlos Garaicoa... Some are also in institutions. They teach, work in museums, advise administrations... Many go through the Reina Sofía master's degree with the Autonomous and Complutense universities. "They have woven their own networks."
«Before I had two or three individual [Latin American art] exhibitions a year. Now there are four a month. There are Latin American exhibitions at the Reina, at the Thyssen, at Centro Centro, the CA2M... The institutions pamper that fabric. The discourse of the new Miami is not an idea,” explains De Benito. The Reina Sofía National Museum has scheduled three exhibitions of Latin American artists this fall: the Cuban Félix González-Torres, the Argentine Marta Minujín and the Colombian Miguel Ángel Rojas. And at the Thyssen, the TBA21 Foundation shows the work of the Chilean Seba Calfuqueo.
Is it something that happens in Madrid or does it also happen on another scale in Seville, Barcelona, Bilbao? «In Barcelona there is a Brazilian gallery, Zielinsky, and the usual galleries also explore Latin American art. But there is more presence of Africa and the Mediterranean world,” explains De Benito.
So we returned to Madrid. Paloma Jaramillo says that her gallery, La Cometa, was born in Bogotá in the 80s as a family business that today is shared by six brothers. Eight years ago, Paloma spent a few months in Madrid and represented La Cometa in some specific operations. Since there was a demand for work, he thought about setting up an office, "a showroom more than a gallery." But then “a wonderful place appeared next to the Elba Benítez gallery. Elba helped us a lot, he guided us. We took the step. We gave ourselves five years to try. We have seven and a half. We have had moments in which we have thought about quitting but as happens in all businesses. And we have had good years.
«Latin American clients are more impulsive. Some enter the gallery with the decision to buy already made from the window. Spaniards are not like that, Spaniards think much more about it,” Jaramillo continues. «We try to be part of the city we live in. We look like La Cometa de Bogotá but not completely. We are bringing Spanish artists. We took them to Bogotá too: Luisa Pastor, Juan Baraja... The institutions? In November, the Reina Sofía inaugurates the exhibition of Miguel Ángel Rojas, who is an artist in our gallery. We have worked with them and the experience has been good. We are not a Spanish gallery, they do not always know us nor are we the first option for them, but it is a door that is not closed.
Naturally, Spanish galleries also fight for this clientele of new Madrid residents. The advantage is for those who contacted their clients years ago, in their countries, before the great migration. Inés López-Quesada, co-director of Travesía Cuatro, says that the firm opened a headquarters in Guadalajara, in Mexico, in 2013, at that time when Spanish companies launched themselves into the world to save the great slowdown in the domestic economy. In 2019, Travesía Cuatro settled in Mexico City. «Being there was a way to find American clients as well. In Guadalajara we have had an important impact, we launched the collector's weekend. His path has been followed by gallery owners from all over Spain, "not only from Madrid and not only from current art. The great art galleries of the 20th century also bring their Tàpies to America.
The implementation of Latin American art galleries in Spain also has a strictly economic angle. Although Álvaro De Miguel estimates that its massive arrival began shortly before the pandemic, its origin is on September 28, 2013, when the Government led by Mariano Rajoy launched the golden visa policy. Then, the economic crisis led to offering resident status to non-European citizens who bought homes worth at least 500,000 euros or invested in public debt and Spanish companies, in order to attract foreign investment to Spain. The rule was in force for years until its repeal in 2025 and attracted 10,014 million euros, more than 900,000 euros per investor. 22,430 golden visas were granted thanks to the acquisition of homes. So the golden visa policy was designed for upper-middle class professionals but ended up attracting the rich in Latin America.
José María Mollinedo, general secretary of the Union of Technicians of the Ministry of Finance (Gestha), reports that the inspectors do not have a protocol that encourages them to supervise those golden visa residents arriving from Latin America, as happened in the past with Eastern European citizens who bought chalets in urbanizations in the interior of the province of Alicante. «The incentive to come to Spain is not to launder money but rather anonymity and discretion. Life is more comfortable for them in Spain.
And the art? Galleries, explains Mollinedo, "are businesses subject to the obligation to report on their operations and to alert them of any suspicion of money laundering." The same as notaries, real estate agencies, jewelry stores, antique dealers... According to the report of Sebplac, (Executive Service of the Commission for the Prevention of Money Laundering and Monetary Offenses), the Treasury has opened investigations into art galleries regularly but not with special emphasis: between two and five files a year.
