The name alone makes the visitor most versed in Sanluqueña language immediately identify this contemporary art space with the municipality of Sanlúcar.
A ‘pitijopo’ is, in this locality, a dragonfly. And now it is also an art gallery: Pitijopos Gallery is the most personal adventure of the artist Manuel Puente Piazza ‘Momo’, and is located in the Plaza de las Infantas, in the heart of the city.
Manuel Puente, from Seville and married to a Sanluqueña, opened the doors of this space almost a year ago, in June 2023, with the aim of it being a gallery for emerging artists. “The problem that those of us who move in the art world encounter is the impossibility of finding spaces, because it is a somewhat closed world,” he explains.
He himself is an artist. A chemist by training, in his works he experiments with chemical processes and reactions. He has exhibited his own work in national galleries and at international meetings, so he already had a network of contacts to draw on. After the pandemic, the idea was already in his head and he started talking to friends, thinking about it… Until he made Pitijopos Gallery a reality.
For this reason, because he knows how hard it is to find galleries and spaces to start exhibiting, he wanted his to be available for those artists who “are just starting out, or have just graduated from Fine Arts, or have a few years of career, or have achieved take it back over time and start exposing…”; those artists for whom traditional galleries are usually off limits.
The other key element of their approach is diversity. “Abstraction, figuration, photography, mixed techniques…”, he lists, all through a “curatorial system” that he carries out, above all, through his network of contacts and social networks, searching for emerging artists who fit your gallery.
As part of its cultural work, it is also planning, in collaboration with the Sanlúcar City Council and the Cádiz Provincial Council, the Gloria Mundi Fest festival, based on an exhibition by ‘Momo’ himself. The festival will be inspired by Magellan and Elcano’s trip around the world, and will fill Sanlúcar with concerts, exhibitions and cultural events between June and September, although the programming is still being finalized.
In the field of art, for example, three simultaneous exhibitions will be held with works by artists from the province of Cádiz. “Spain is full of artists, Andalusia I won’t even tell you, and the province of Cádiz is going through a very strong moment,” says Puente Piazza.
More cultural space than art gallery
Although Pitijopos is, by definition, an art gallery, for Manuel Puente it is more “a cultural container”, a space where different cultural events can be carried out. He says that soon they will begin to introduce gastronomy, holding “paired tastings, reflecting the works that are on display,” in his words.
Furthermore, its location, in a quiet and familiar square, as he himself defines it, has made children suddenly become one of his audiences. “We hold painting competitions, they sometimes come to help me set up and take down the exhibitions…”, he says. And it is reaffirmed: “We do not have the typical gallery concept with everything closed, very elitist, which are art cemeteries, as I call them. Not this, this is all very open, and the city in that sense helps, because it is also a very open and dynamic city.”
The reception from the Sanlúcar public has been growing, and although the mornings are more complicated, in the afternoon people always come to visit the gallery, according to Puente. Little by little, interest has been growing and everyone now knows the gallery. The gallery owner explains that the name, Pitijopos, also influences this. “I wanted to give it a name that identified with the city. It is a word that is very rooted here and gives its name to many shops, clubs…”, he says.
Puente says that in the last two exhibitions, two works have already been sold in each one. Could the Government’s announcement of the reduction in VAT for works of this type influence this increase in interest in contemporary art? The gallery owner is blunt: “It has no effect whatsoever.” And he remarks: “Taking into account that 70-80% of artists when they sell directly to their clients do so without VAT, this drop will not be noticeable in interest.”
He also points out in this sense that “if the patronage law also applied to the purchase of art, even if the VAT did not drop below 21%, the acquisition of works would be much higher, and consequently the art market would generate more interest.”
From Pitijopos they have also entered the art market, representing artists exclusively at international art fairs. Although international artists also have a place in its gallery, Puente makes a firm commitment to local artists. At the recent International Contemporary Art Exhibition held in Nantes (France), Pitijopos has attended representing, for example, the Jerez artists Cristina López and Isabel Ortuño.
His next exhibition opens this Saturday, April 27 and is titled ‘Infinite Horizons’, and can be visited until May 10. In it, various styles come together, as is usual in this space, although this exhibition will have a particular focus on abstraction and photography. “In some galleries, photography is a little reviled and I love it, it’s something I bring a lot,” says Puente Piazza.
Everything always with the objective, he affirms, of “educating the eyes” of the visitors.
