The stand of the Centro de Arte Moderno with branches in Quilmes, Argentina and Madrid, was a lively and inviting space created by directors Raúl Manrique and Claudio Pérez and with work by María Angeles del Alamo, Juan Alvarez Cebrián, Silvana Blasbalg, Roxana Celman, Ana Erman, Javier Seco, Carla Rey and a dozen others.

Madrid artists Marta and Maruja Cantos get a quick introduction to the World Printmakers site from Maureen Booth. (Photo by Juan Videgaín)

The Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró, in Palma de Mallorca, is that artist's legacy to young artists, offering them a residence and workshops, as well as annual scholarships.

Julio León, resident printmaker at the Fundació, sees Estampa settling into a "comfortable mode" with few exhibitors taking many risks.

This digital mural by Montse Carreño was voted best print of the fair. One appreciates their acceptance of digital media, but is bigger necessarily better?

Frenchman Jean PierreTanguy and his wife, longtime participants in the Estampa fair, showed his bold and beautiful etchings.

The Taller de las Vistillas,Eric Kirksaether's print workshop, represented here by two Cecilias, has a 21-year history in Madrid.This year he presented his own work as well as that of Alacaín, Gordillo, Vaca Narvaja (who does images of cows, of course), and Eduardo Gruber.

Julia Pemartín's Madrid Zambucho Gallery and (since 1999) print publishing house offered a delicious selection of print/poetry portfolios. Their standard format is four prints accompanied by original unedited poems. "Ironically, we sell most of them to foreign collectors," says Julia.

Chinese artist Ming-Yi Chou, resident in Seville, presented his work with the Margarita Albarrán Gallery. Margarita, who specializes in Andalusian artists and foreign artists resident there, also showed work by Pavel Albert, Ricardo Castillo, Victor Pulido, Luis López Villamor, Manolo Belzunce and Javier Abad.

Since 1979 Paco Aguilar (at back in black) has done an admirable job, not only on his own distinguished graphic work, but in creating and sustaining the Galería-Taller Gravura, perhaps the most serious visual arts initiative in his home town of Málaga. In the foreground, Marian, his delightful helpmate. They showed work by Ana Bellido, Enrique Brinkmann, Christian Bozon and Javier Roz, among others.

The Hoy en el Arte gallery from Buenos Aires showed new work by the Gráfica Hoy group, mainly Argentine women with fresh ideas and bags of enthusiasm. They included Silvana Blasbalg, Irene Bogo, Emma Calviño, Luz Darriba, Melly Gómez, Ana Erman, Nestor Goyanes, Marisa Gill, Cristina Moscoso, Andrea Riccardi, Carlos Scannapieco, Ricardo Tau, Victoria Trench, María Vera and Carlos Villanueva.

José Ramón Alejandre y Kikis Alamo make a stellar variety of handmade papers in their Paperki paper mill in the Spanish Basque Country. Their hospitality and cuisine are also excellent.

Jesús Monzón (above) and Ramiro Undabeytia (below) are two of the fine artists represented by Galería de Arte La Luna from San Sebastian de la Gomera in the Canary Islands. Presided over with sympathy and good humor by Elena González Lugo La Luna is a regular and highly successful participant in the Estampa fair. Their other regular artists are Guido Kolitscher and María José Castillo.

World Printmakers / Grabadores Españoles were delighted to find that European printmakers, print workshops and editors are finally realizing that they need to be present on Internet.

Humberto Figueroa represented the Trienal Poli/Gráfica de San Juan: América Latina y El Caribe, based in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Though he has had experience in other international art fairs, it was Humberto's first visit to Estampa, which he found "more commercial than contemporary."

Baikal in Madrid is the creation of Pablo Rodríguez Guy and Carmen Pau. Sharing a stand with Centro Arte from León, their main attraction this year is Pablo's large composite of 100 mini prints, colorful, creative and beautifully executed.

Gabriella Locci, president, director and principal artist, is the driving spirit behind Casa Falconieri from Cagliari, Sardinia, which the catalogue describes as "a project of research and experimentation in print languages." Gabriella has valuable information for travellers to her native island: "Sardinian women carry knives."

Ruth López Diéguez and Iñigo García, of Photogalería.com and its parent company, La Fábrica Editorial, respectively, have undertaken the formidable challenge of selling art photography to the Spanish over Internet. Their list of artists includes Christine Spengler, Nicolás Müller, Miguel Oriola, Ramón Masats, José Manyuel Navia, Alberto Schommer, and others.

La Cheminée Bleue was represented by André and Agnes, the son an daughter in law of Simone and Henri Jean, artists and print workshop owners from La Couarde, France. The Jean's workshop specializes in large format etchings and works with artists like Jean Pierre Tanguy, Desmet, Ogaki, Perafan, Rauscher, Piza, Reid and Verdier.

The a cuadros gallery, under the direction of Carlos Velasco, has an aggresive marketing program which takes quality graphic art out into the provinces. In Estampa this year they showed work by Paz Algora, Ana Barrachina, Marc Boss, Maureen Booth, Inma Coll, Belén Gonzalo, Mario Marini, Cristina Sicilia, Juan Ruiz Ibañez and a host of others.

Paz Nosti's Nuevo Arte galley, besides being an important art-on-paper landmark in Seville, distinguishes itself with an annual 3,000-euro printmaking prize. This year in Estampa Paz showed work by Ana Bellido, Carmen Salazar, Diana García, Mario Marini, Oscar L. Pérez Ocaña, Oscar Méndez Lobo and Wenceslao Robles.

Alicia and Belén, of the Alfama and Taller del Prado galleries, respectively, showed work by Luis García Ochoa, Antonio Guijarro with some fascinating mythological themes, and Francisco Bores, as well as the usual established gallery breadwinners.

Moises Valdés attends visitors to the stand of La Siempre Habana, the print workshop and gallery founded by his father, Luis Miguel and the Mexican poet, Cuitláhuac Rangel, in Mexico City. Specialized in Mexican and Cuban artists, they showed a nice selection of them at Estampa, including Adigio Benítez, Augustín Bejarano, Alexis Leyva ("Kcho"), Arturo Montoto, Ever Fonseca, Rigoberto Mena, Luis Lara and others.

Valentín Kovatchev and his astute partner, Charo Escobar, of Art Studio Editions in Malaga have spun Valentín's portentous engraving talent into an important print publishing enterprise over the last few years. Besides his own engravings they also showed work by Scottish sculptor/designer David Marshall, Luis Caruncho, Anna Pownall, Eva Abríl and José Antunez.

Back to Estampa 2003 Wrapup