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Galician photographer Vari Caramés (Ferrol, 1953), an artist represented by Galería RocioSantaCruz, has been awarded the 2026 National Photography Prize by the Spanish Ministry of Culture. This recognition celebrates a career spanning more than four decades, dedicated to exploring the expressive possibilities of photography and developing a deeply personal visual language.

The jury highlighted the distinctive and contemporary nature of his work, as well as his contribution to the renewal of artistic photography and Galician culture since the 1980s.

Vari Caramés’ photography is characterised by a poetic vision and a particular sensitivity to light, movement and atmosphere. Through blurred imagery, reflections and compositions that approach pictorial abstraction, the artist transforms everyday scenes into evocative images that explore the relationships between reality, memory and perception.

We would like to extend our warmest congratulations to Vari Caramés on this well-deserved recognition, which celebrates his distinctive artistic vision, his sensitivity and his remarkable contribution to contemporary photography.

Congratulations, Vari!

The international contemporary art magazine FAD Magazine has published an article on the twelfth edition of Barcelona Gallery Weekend, held from 17 to 20 September 2026, exploring the diversity of artistic proposals presented by the participating galleries and highlighting UnaDonaUna · AutoRetratRetratat, de Mariaelena Roqué, en la Galería RocioSantaCruz.

In his article, titled Barcelona Gallery Weekend finds the city at a cultural crossroads, art critic Tabish Khan places Roqué’s work among the standout exhibitions of this edition. The author pays particular attention to the social and feminist dimensions of her practice, which addresses the realities of women in different contexts, and highlights the operatic performance that accompanied the exhibition’s presentation.

The exhibition offers a journey through the creative universe of Mariaelena Roqué, whose interdisciplinary practice spans sculpture, costume-as-character, visual arts, and performance. Through these artistic languages, Roqué explores the relationships between body, identity, and representation, challenging social conventions and gender roles from a critical and feminist perspective.

UnaDonaUna · AutoRetratRetratat will be on view at Galería RocioSantaCruz until 21 November 2026.

The full FAD Magazine article can be read at the following link: FAD Magazine

On 7 October, the Foto Colectania Foundation inaugurated the exhibition «Emancipations. Foto Colectania Collection» , curated by Florian Ebner, Head of the Department of Photography at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. The exhibition offers a new reading of the institution’s collection through a journey that connects the social, cultural and political transformations of contemporary Spain with the evolution of photography as a medium of artistic expression.

The exhibition is structured around two parallel processes of emancipation: that of Spanish society, which, particularly following the end of the Franco dictatorship, underwent profound changes in its structures and identities, and that of a photographic language that progressively expanded its expressive possibilities, moving beyond its documentary function to embrace new conceptual and artistic dimensions.

The exhibition also brings together works by Ouka Leele, Colita, Pilar Aymerich, Miguel Trillo and Francisco Ontañón, artists represented by Galería RocioSantaCruz, whose careers offer different perspectives on photography and its relationship with social and cultural transformations.

The exhibition is structured into three chapters exploring humanist photography, the representation of communities and social movements, and the re-examination of the boundaries of documentary photography. Through these perspectives, Emancipations presents the photographic image not only as a testimony to an era, but also as a tool for critical reflection on memory, identity and forms of representation.

The exhibition places particular emphasis on the materiality of photography and its different modes of presentation, incorporating press prints, albums, test prints, fanzines and other documents that invite a reconsideration of the relationships between image, medium and exhibition context.

The exhibition will be on view at the Foto Colectania Foundation in Barcelona until 7 February 2027.

For further information, please visit the following link: Emancipaciones. Colección Foto Colectania

Ouka Leele, Colita and Pilar Aymerich participate in Constelaciones fotográficas. Pensar desde las imágenes , the first exhibition drawn from the collection of the Centro Nacional de Fotografía, on view at the Centro Niemeyer in Avilés from 2 October 2026 to 31 January 2027.

Curated by Mónica Carabias Álvaro, Director of the Centro Nacional de Fotografía, the exhibition brings together 102 works by 38 artists and offers a broad overview of some of the key figures, visual languages and trends that have shaped contemporary Spanish photography. For the first time, the project brings together in a single exhibition works by all the artists awarded the Premio Nacional de Fotografía to date, alongside Premio Velázquez de Artes Plásticas recipient Marisa González and a range of voices from more recent generations.

Within this wider survey, Ouka Leele, Colita and Pilar Aymerich hold a prominent place. They were awarded the Premio Nacional de Fotografía in 2005, 2014 and 2021, respectively. Their careers offer different ways of understanding the photographic medium while also reflecting some of the profound social, cultural and political transformations that have taken place in Spain over recent decades.

Constelaciones fotográficas. Pensar desde las imágenes thus approaches photography as a space for encounter, from which new relationships between past and present can be established. The diversity of the works on display reveals both the evolution of the medium and its capacity to record, question and transform the imaginaries of each era.

«Constelaciones fotográficas. Pensar desde las imágenes»
Centro Niemeyer, Avilés
2 October 2026 — 31 January 2027

Further information about the exhibition is available at the following link: Centro Niemeyer

Lluís Hortalà is part of La transición estética. España, 1960-2020 , a group exhibition presented by the Fundación Juan March in Madrid from 16 October 2026 to 10 January 2027.

The exhibition spans six decades of cultural transformation in Spain, focusing not only on the artists and their works, but also on the ways in which art has been exhibited, received and experienced by the public. Exhibitions, museums, galleries and independent initiatives thus form part of a broader history that helps us understand how our relationship with modern and contemporary art.

Within this broad overview, a work by Lluís Hortalà from the Banco Sabadell Collection is presented. His work forms part of a selection of artworks, documents, photographs, publications, magazines and audiovisual materials that help trace the evolution of Spanish visual culture since the 1960s.

La transición estética thus brings together different voices, spaces and ways of understanding art to offer a collective perspective on the changes that shaped Spanish culture between 1960 and 2020, considering both artistic creation and the ways in which it has reached its audiences.

La transición estética. España, 1960-2020
Fundación Juan March, Madrid
16 October 2026 — 10 January 2027

You can find more information about the exhibition at the following link: La transición estética. España, 1960-2020

The Italian newspaper ParmaDaily features a report on Barcelona’s contemporary art scene, highlighting Mariaelena Roqué’s exhibition, UnaDonaUna · AutoRetratRetratat, presented at RocioSantaCruz.

The article focuses on the body as a space of identity, freedom and experience, while highlighting the interdisciplinary and feminist nature of Roqué’s practice, which brings together performance, visual arts, sculpture and theatrical language.

UnaDonaUna · AutoRetratRetratat can be visited at RocioSantaCruz until 21 November 2026.

You can read the full article at the following link: Barcellona, la scena contemporanea tra materia, corpo e nuove geografie

The newspaper Empordà features an interview with Fina Miralles, in which the artist reflects on her career, her understanding of artistic creation and, above all, on a conception of art that is inseparable from lived experience.

Throughout the conversation, Miralles advocates an attitude shaped by joy, gratitude and freedom, ideas that also run through an artistic practice deeply connected to nature, the body and the relationship between human beings and their surroundings. This perspective is consistent with a career that began within the context of Catalan conceptual art in the 1970s and which continues to receive recognition and renewed critical attention today.

You can read the full article at the following link: Fina Miralles: “Cal afrontar les coses que et porta la vida amb alegria, amb un agraïment total, traient-nos de sobre les culpes i les misèries”

The magazine La Siesta Magazine devotes an overview to the twelfth edition of Barcelona Gallery Weekend, held from 17 to 20 September, highlighting some of the proposals presented by the participating galleries.

Among them, the article focuses on RocioSantaCruz and on Mariaelena Roqué’s exhibition, UnaDonaUna · AutoRetratRetratat, highlighting the distinctive character of an artist whose practice moves between the visual arts, sculpture, costume-as-character, performative action and audiovisual language. The publication also recalls the performance held at the gallery to mark the presentation of her book, describing Roqué as a singular figure in Catalan contemporary art.

You can read the full article at the following link: Barcelona Gallery Weekend

Artists Mariaelena Roqué and Pep Duran are part of Un teatre Lliure, the exhibition with which Teatre Lliure and Palau Robert celebrate the institution’s fifty-year history. The exhibition offers a contemporary perspective on five decades of performing arts, bringing together costumes, set designs and other elements that have helped shape the theatre’s visual identity.

Among the works on display is a piece by Pep Duran created for Fashion Feeling Music (1999/00). It is a pink coat designed by the artist, who was also responsible for the production’s set design. The piece was part of a group of three coats conceived as a tribute to the Shakespearean universe and was later incorporated by Duran into the installation Fòbia, highlighting the constant movement in his practice between the stage and the visual arts.

The exhibition also includes a work by Mariaelena Roqué linked to L’adéu de Lucrècia Borja (2001/02), a production for which she created the set design, costumes and characterisation. The piece originated from the character La Vannozza, later transformed by Roqué into Mare de totes les guerres, a figure that the artist has continued to develop and reinterpret beyond its original theatrical context.

The presence of both artists in Un teatre Lliure highlights the close dialogue between visual arts, the body, costume and stage space that runs through their respective practices.

Un teatre Lliure can be visited in Room 3 at Palau Robert in Barcelona until 17 January 2027.

More information at the following link: Un teatre lliure. Palau Robert