The International Contemporary Art Meeting, organized by the Cultural Institute of Alicante Juan Gil-Albert, marked its 22nd anniversary with a major exhibition at the University of Alicante Museum (MUA). The show features 24 selected works, including pieces by Juan Carlos Nadal, who earned the competition’s top prize of 9,000 euros for the sculpture Cos d’agua/Bohai.
The exhibition runs at the MUA through July 24, inviting visitors to experience a diverse range of contemporary practices. In addition to Nadal, two artists from Alicante were awarded second prizes of 2,500 euros each: Greta Alfaro and Fernando Bayona. Two other second prizes were awarded without a financial reward to Louis Shepherd and Alfonso Almendros, recognizing their standout contributions to the program.
Beyond Nadal and the prize recipients, the show spotlights a wide group of participating creators, including Aurora Alcaide, Bibiana de la Soledad, María Carbonell, Juan Gil Segovia, Jorge Isla, Abel Jaramillo, Fernando Jiménez Fernández, Fermín Jiménez Landa, Elena Jiménez, Eva Mauricio, Lucía Morate, Cristina Peralta, Daniel Doemp Silovia Ponce, Daniel Doemp Silomp Solanas-Díaz, Josep Tornero, Llorenc Ugas Dubreuil, and Verónica Vicente. In total, 24 proposals were selected from more than one hundred submissions, forming a compelling cross-section of the current postmodern art scene.
Julia Parra, Vice President for Culture, commented on the value of the competition: this event allows new talents to be discovered and their work to reach a broader public, highlighting the high level of creativity and artistic quality present among emerging artists.
Through these awards, the Juan Gil-Albert Institute aims to showcase innovative perspectives across multiple artistic languages and to foster participation among young visual creators not only from the province but from around the world. The selected works in this edition span a broad spectrum of media, including painting, collage, sculpture, photography, engraving, digital art, and installation, reflecting the varied vocabulary of contemporary practice.
Overall, twenty-four proposals were chosen from more than a hundred submissions. The jury, chaired by Julia Parra, included Susana Guerrero, an artist and professor at UMH; Remedies, a MUA technician; José Luis Pérez Pont, director of the Valencian Community Museums Consortium; Shell Ros, a leader at the Valencian Community-Murcia Institute of Contemporary Art; and Pilar Tebar, cultural director of IAC Juan Gil-Albert. The jury emphasized the richness and diversity of themes, proposals, and techniques, noting how the call connects contemporary creation with the university community and broader society.
Sources and context: the Gil-Albert Institute’s initiative seeks to blend university engagement with global artistic dialogue, supporting young creators as they navigate postmodern expression in a rapidly changing cultural landscape. The exhibition at MUA serves as a living archive of this moment, inviting audiences to reflect on how contemporary art negotiates memory, materiality, and meaning in a dynamic social fabric.