One of the more innovative (and unusual) art fair prizes was handed out over the weekend at the JustMad fair in Madrid (until 3 March), a fixture in the Spanish art calendar dedicated to emerging art. The Pilar Citoler Foundation’s Young Collector Award encourages younger generations to pick up the art baton and invest in works. Galleries nominate collectors and Citoler, a dentist and prolific collector, assesses the nominees. Andrés Bolagnos of Colombia, a 33-year-old conservator based in Asturias, has bagged this year’s award, and used the €1,800 cash prize to buy more art (the keen young collector bought a work by the artist Soledad Cordoba from Gema Llamazares gallery of Asturias).
After winning the prize, Bolagnos acquired further works by Otto D’Ambra (Burning Giraffe, Turin), Natalia Pastor (Guillermina Caicoya gallery, Gijón) and Job Sánchez (Espacio Líquido, Gijón) at the fair. “A part of my collection began when my son Pablo, now three years old, was born. Every year since then, my wife and I have bought a work of art for his birthday, each tied with a common thread touching on subjects related to childhood, games and playfulness. The work by the Italian artist Otto D’Ambra is for my son,” Bolagnos says.