The Círculo Ecuestre closed the fourth edition of its modern and contemporary art fair, By Invitation, with great success on December 17.

For five days, the cultural meeting established in the modernist palace of the Barcelona club managed to become a cultural enclave with the best location where it housed nearly a thousand works by modernist and contemporary artists of the stature of Miró, Picasso, Dalí, Barceló, Plensa or Tàpies, and digital artists of great international recognition.

Following the initial objective of promoting art and culture, it brought together the most representative figures in the sector, the exhibition featured 15 outstanding art galleries from Barcelona and the rest of Spain. Specifically, the following participated: Alcolea Gallery, Baró Gallery, Taché Art Gallery, Carlos Teixidó Gallery, David Cervelló Gallery, Dolors Junyent Gallery, Fernando Pinós Gallery, Marc Calzada Gallery, Marc Domènech Gallery, Max Estrella Gallery, Enciclopèdia Art, Petritxol Gallery , Senda Gallery, LAB36 and Piramidón, Center d'Art Contemporani.

In addition, he integrated digital art into his exhibition for the first time, through the Art Digital by OFFF exhibition. By Invitation influenced the promotion of digital art by exhibiting works by renowned international artists Sixnfive, Refik Anadol, Baugasm, Vasava, PJ Richardson, Mireia Ruiz, Diatomic and Birgit Palma. The digital pieces were displayed through the installation of very high resolution screens, provided by the Danish audiovisual products company Bang & Olufsen. This initiative managed to amaze attendees and turn the Circle into a pioneer in digital trends.

In this fourth edition, more than 5,000 attendees had the opportunity to contemplate and buy works of excellent artistic quality, in addition to seeing first-hand some of the most representative works of current modern and contemporary art in an environment different from that of the art fairs. traditional art.

As the organization of the exhibition was able to count, there were many sales and satisfaction is widespread.

To accommodate the thousand conventional and digital works, the Círculo Ecuestre gave up the entire space of its headquarters to the exhibition, for which not only the rooms that are distributed throughout the palace were set up, but transit spaces were also provided, such as stairs or hallways.

In its fourth year, By Invitation wanted to pay tribute to the businessman and patron Antoni Vila Casas, a great promoter of Catalan contemporary art, who died last September. During the opening dinner of the exhibition, Enrique Lacalle, as promoter and curator of the art fair and President of the Círculo Ecuestre, presented the first By Invitation Medal to the widow of Vila Casas, with the purpose of praising her figure and her work as a promoter of the figure of great Catalan artists, carrying out commendable and exceptional institutional replacement work in the Catalan artistic ecosystem, through its foundation.

Enrique Lacalle, promoter and curator of the art event and President of the Círculo Ecuestre, confirmed the success of By Invitation 2023: “During this fourth edition, it has established itself as a unique event in the world of art due to its location in a modernist palace. of a great city, such as Barcelona, in addition to the presence of the best painters, modern and contemporary sculptors and digital art artists. Without a doubt, the fair reaffirms itself as an essential meeting point for art lovers.”

Likewise, the promoter of the art fair predicted greater success for the fifth edition: "Although we are more than satisfied for having convinced and gained loyalty from great national gallery owners and for having built this unique and unrepeatable meeting in this extraordinary city that is Barcelona, we are convinced that the next By Invitation will be larger and will have a high artistic level.”


Renowned assistants

The modern and contemporary art cycle was visited by prominent figures from the world of politics, culture and art during the five days it was open. Among them, it is worth highlighting personalities such as the mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, who presided over the opening ceremony, or relatives of the renowned Catalan painter, Antoni Tàpies, whose centenary began on the first day of the exhibition.

Lecture series

Beyond artistic activity, By Invitation once again opted for a series of conferences, with top-level attendees.

The first dialogue was carried out by the director of the Tapies Foundation, Inma Prieto, the artist Daniel García Andújar, and Antoni Tàpies i Barba, doctor and poet, son of the painter Antoni Tàpies, who talked about the opening of the Tàpies year and announced the programming of events that will take place over the coming months under the moderation of Carlos Durán, founder and director of Galería Senda.

During the first day of By Invitation, Javier Lumbreras, collector, promoter of the Adrastus and COLLEGIUM collection; Nimfa Bisbe, director of the Contemporary Art Collection of the La Caixa Foundation, and Óscar Hormigos, project director of the Solo Foundation, were the excellent speakers at the Committed Collecting colloquium, moderated by Mercedes Basso, head of Philanthropy at Caixa Bank Private Banking.

The second day of the modern and contemporary art fair featured the interesting dialogue Art as an investment alternative, led by Teresa Ybarra, director of the Bonhams branch in Barcelona, and Lucía Tro, international specialist in impressionist and modern art , post-war and contemporary art and prints at Bonhams Spain.

The colloquium that closed the conference cycle of the fourth edition of By Invitation was led by Iris Brower, director of Moco Museum. The specialist in modern, contemporary and street art put the attendees in context about new artistic trends together with Sergio Vila-Sanjuán, head of La Vanguardia's Cultura|s supplement.

It is possible to watch the discussions again through the Círculo Ecuestre YouTube channel: