Present day
25-12-24
Third Xabier Sáenz de Gorbea Artistic Commitment Award
The jury of the Xabier Sáenz de Gorbea Artistic Commitment Award—made up of Miguel Zugaza, director of the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum; Beatriz Herráez, director of Artium Museoa (Vitoria-Gasteiz); Frantxi López Landatxe former director of Koldo Mitxelena Kulturunea (San Sebastián); and Sonia Rueda, artist—has decided to bestow the award on the gallery owner Petra Pérez, the founder and director of the Galería Vanguardia, in this third edition.
Since it was founded, first in Getxo and later in Bilbao, Vanguardia has gained ground as one of the benchmark galleries in the Basque Country, a position it achieved thanks to its extensive, prestigious roster of artists who partner with it and show their works there regularly. Its watchful attention to the international scene and active support of the professional contemporary art gallery sector have also been essential.
The statement of the jury that chose Petra Pérez for the award recognised:
‘…her commitment to contemporary art, especially Basque art, during her constant forty-year career at the helm of the Galería Vanguardia of Bilbao, which she founded in 1984 as her own personal and professional project’.
The jury also applauded the plurality and quality of its exhibitions and highlighted:
‘… her constant, effective efforts to disseminate and promote the works of contemporary artists with the coexistence of diverse, open artistic proposals and processes’.
After studying Business, Petra Pérez graduated in Applied Arts and earned a bachelor’s in Fine Arts from the University of the Basque Country, which she complemented with PhD courses in Contemporary Art. Her professional experience is connected with the selling and nurturing contemporary art, which she has promoted from the Galería Vanguardia, which she has owned and directed for over forty years.
Her connection with the professional contemporary art sector has led her to participate in Talking Galleries, international encounters on mart galleries and the art market, from its first edition in Barcelona in 2011 until 2019. She was also the founder and president for eight years of the Association of Contemporary Art Galleries of the Basque Country (AGACE).
Her commitment to today’s art also entails her participation in different associations from the very outset, including the Consortium of Spanish Contemporary Art Galleries, the Institute of Contemporary Art (IAC) and Women in the Visual Arts (MAV), whose main goal is the real, effective equality between women and men in the sector. In 2014, Petra Pérez was given the MAV Award for her professional career.
With the goal of perpetuating the figure of the historian, critic and researcher Xabier Sáenz de Gorbea and his contributions to the art world, in 2020 his companion Sonia Rueda and the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum announced a biennial contest for the award that bears his name. Its purpose is to recognise dedication to the visual arts in any of its spheres, including creation, study and research, promotion and dissemination. It comes with a purse of €10,000 gross from the bequest of Xabier Sáenz de Gorbea, and any individual or organisation that has made a proven, decisive contribution to the development of the visual arts in the Basque Country can be a candidate. In the first edition, 2020–2022, the award went to the painter Marta Cárdenas (San Sebastián, 1944), while in the second, 2022–2024, it honoured the painter Juan Luis Goenaga (San Sebastián, 1950–Madrid, 2024).
(Getxo, Bizkaia, 1951–Bilbao, 2015)
After earning a bachelor’s in Art History from the University of Barcelona, he began his early career in 1980 in the Fine Arts Faculty of the University of the Basque Country. There, he served as vice-dean of Research and Cultural Extension and as a professor—with an extraordinary passion for teaching—of the classes Theory and History of Twentieth-Century Art, Introduction to Twentieth-Century Art and Latest Artistic Trends. During that time, he also actively participated in many academic activities, like summer courses and master’s and postgraduate programmes.
In 1971, he and his brother Roberto founded the Bilbao-based Windsor Gallery—later Windsor Kulturgintza—and he was a member of the Association of Basque Artists (Euskal Artisten Elkartea), founded in 1983 with artists associated with the Fine Arts Faculty.
His facet as a researcher focused on contemporary art, with particular attention to the Basque scene, which he also followed closely in the critiques he published weekly in the newspaper Deia since 1981. Along with articles in specialised journals like Lápiz, Ondare and Zehar, he also wrote numerous texts for exhibition catalogues. Also noteworthy was his work as an exhibition curator, his participation in juries for awards and grants and his work as a fine arts adviser for the Basque government between 1981 and 1991.
He was the recipient of the Gure Artea Award in 2012 in recognition of his fruitful career and his contribution to the development of the fine arts in the Basque Country.