Galería de Arte Orfila

What is the history of your commerce?

The Orfila Art Gallery was founded in 1973 and since then has been under the same artistic direction and in the same street from which it took its name, in a noble and pleasant neighbourhood where some of the most important galleries in the city are located, as well as other museum centres and spaces dedicated to art. Today, we are the oldest gallery in Madrid and next year, 2022, we will celebrate our fiftieth anniversary, so, in a way, we are part of the artistic history of Madrid.

What is your professional experience?

Countless artists, both Spanish and foreign - although mainly Spanish residents - have exhibited in the gallery over the years, always with a focus on the originality and quality of their proposals, beyond fashions and trends, within contemporary art: painting, sculpture, engraving, photography, in a variety of formats and languages. Thus, artists with consolidated professional careers, together with other younger artists or those with incipient careers but of great talent and interest, offer their works through the gallery to a public that appreciates art and that can acquire them at prices adjusted to their purchasing power.

How has covid 19 affected your business?

Evidently, the uncertainty and fatigue accumulated after so many months of pandemic have had a particular influence on the decline in visits and, to a certain extent, in sales, although there have been several initiatives during this time to maintain the interest and loyalty of our clients and the general public, from group exhibitions in which we have offered part of our private collection at very interesting prices, to exhibitions whose subject matter could be of interest or relief in this difficult time, maintaining the loyalty of our clients. That is also why the gallerys collection, made up of works by the artists who regularly exhibit there, has helped us to carry on in these difficult times.

What services and products does your business provide?

We are very clear that a gallery is first and foremost a cultural enterprise, so that alongside the strictly commercial aspect centred on the sales of works of art, we significantly add what the mere fact of an art exhibition means: what it can contribute to society by establishing a dialogue with its reality and concerns, and that is our immediate contemporaneity, before art reaches the museums; the personal encounter between artists, the public and art lovers to revert this dialogue to society. As a complement, we publish monographs dedicated to our artists that form part of a collection with more than forty titles, as well as organising multiple events: book presentations, poetry readings, small music recitals, dance... everything that is of interest to culture in general.