The ENAIRE Foundation displays works by Maruja Mallo and Paloma Navares in Santander

The ENAIRE Foundation brings to Santander two exhibitions by artists from the ENAIRE Collection. On the one hand, Maruja Mallo, at the Naves de Gamazo Art Centre of the ENAIRE Foundation, and on the other, Paloma Navares, at the Seve Ballesteros-Santander Airport.

Both exhibitions, featuring works of similar sizes made using different techniques, lithography and photography, will be open to the public free of charge from 5 September.

Margarita Asuar, Managing Director of the ENAIRE Foundation: “It is absolutely necessary that we bring the work of women artists to the fore”

Maruja Mallo's works are the lithographs of her Homenaje a la Revista de Occidente, which she made in 1979 and where she relies on the freedom of figurative surrealism to represent fruits and plant elements with geometric balance and harmony and a magical meaning.

Paloma Navares, who received the 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award from the ENAIRE Foundation and has been part of the ENAIRE Collection since 2006, is represented with a photographic series where she combines beautiful flowers and a profound feminist expression.

"It is absolutely necessary that we bring the work of women artists to the fore, since gender has consigned many great artists to obscurity and it is essential that we rediscover and learn about them to have a complete picture of the history of art", said the Managing Director of the ENAIRE Foundation, Margarita Asuar.

Maruja Mallo in the ENAIRE Collection

The works by Maruja Mallo (Viveiro, Lugo, 1902-1995), which have been part of the ENAIRE Collection since 1999, were made in 1979 by the artist in Homenaje a la Revista de Occidente in a large book of lithographs, of which only 200 copies were made. The Galician painter was one of the leading artists of the generation of '27, and she was part of the Sinsombrero group, upholding freedom and gender equality in her work. 

[Tribute to the Western Magazine from the ENAIRE Collection (lithography by Maruja Mallo)]

"Maruja Mallo is one of the leading Spanish women painters of figurative surrealism, with a strong personality, a critical mind, a cosmopolitan outlook, and a very free spirit. She led the Sinsombrero group and is one of the most representative figures of the Generation of '27. She started gaining recognition in Madrid in the late 20s thanks to the exhibition that Ortega and Gasset organized at the headquarters of the Revista de Occidente, with which she subsequently collaborated.  “We are displaying the works of the ENAIRE Collection that are part of the set of six lithographs made by the painter, based on some of the covers of the Revista de Occidente magazine that she made for this publication in the 30s. The motifs are fruit and vegetable elements with synthetic shapes, a geometric order and a surrealist accent", explained the director of the ENAIRE Foundation. 

Paloma Navares in the ENAIRE Collection

The Foundation has 8 small and 3 large works by Paloma Navares (Burgos, 1947), recipient of the 2024 ENAIRE Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. The ENAIRE Foundation is now bringing to Santander the 8 small works, which will be exhibited at the Art capsule at the Seve Ballesteros-Santander Airport. 

"Navares's works, which are part of the ENAIRE Collection, boast an exquisite artistic sensitivity. They are photographic representations of nature bursting with a resounding discourse on gender, which make her both a pioneer in her early days and relevant today", says Margarita Asuar.

The large works will come to Naves de Gamazo in 2025 as part of the PHotoEspaña programme, with the exhibition Luz de intuición, which can currently be seen on the virtual tour at the aforementioned art centre through the Art window installed by the ENAIRE Foundation.

[ENAIRE Collection. Black queens of Africa, Paloma Navares]

Digital museum resources applied to art

"We are connecting the Seve Ballesteros-Santander Airport with the Naves de Gamazo Art Centre by means of new digital resources we are developing. The public will be able to see works of art live and also digitally. And anyone who can't come to Santander can see it all by going to the ENAIRE Foundation website. We are promoting the democratisation of art 100%, our exhibitions are free and they are accessible from anywhere in the world”, Asuar noted. 

"From an artistic point of view, it is very interesting to see how women artists, Mallo and Navares, from different generations and using different techniques, have drawn inspiration from various elements of nature to convey different messages", concludes Asuar.

About ENAIRE Foundation

Is a cultural institution of the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility that, in addition to managing, preserving and exhibiting the ENAIRE Collection of Contemporary Art, engages in a comprehensive annual programme of activities that focus on aeronautical art and culture. Notably, it is one of the institutions that currently provides the most support to photography through its annual prizes - which have become a benchmark for professional photographers - and by hosting exhibits.

It is the only foundation in Spain that combines the two seemingly disparate themes of art and aeronautical culture, bringing them together by undertaking a programme of activities that promote the study, research, knowledge and dissemination of aeronautical culture, integrating history and modernity to raise awareness of the world of aviation in our country.

The Naves de Gamazo are the first permanent home of the ENAIRE Collection of Contemporary Art, an example of collaboration between government agencies that was made possible thanks to the partnership and joint efforts of the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, the Government of Cantabria, through the Office for Culture, Tourism and Sport, and the Port Authority of Santander, which share the operating expenses of the centre in order to ensure the present and future viability of this cultural project.

ENAIRE Foundation is implementing digital museum resources to boost the democratisation of art and make it accessible from anywhere in the world. These new museum resources are now available on the Foundation's website.

About ENAIRE

ENAIRE is the air navigation service provider in Spain.

As a company of the Ministry of Sustainable Transport and Mobility, it provides en route control services for all flights and overflights from five control centres in Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Gran Canaria and Palma, as well as approach services to every airport in the country.

In addition, 46 airports receive communication, navigation and surveillance services from ENAIRE, which also maintains their air traffic control systems, and 21 of them, including the country's busiest airports, rely on its aerodrome air traffic control services.

ENAIRE is Europe's fourth largest air traffic manager and participates in the A6 Alliance, a coalition of air navigation providers responsible for over 80% of European air traffic, and which is seeking to modernise the air traffic management system. It is also a member of other international alliances promoting the Single European sky, such as SESAR Joint Undertaking, SESAR Deployment Manager, iTEC, CANSO and ICAO.

ENAIRE, as the responsible agency identified by the Ministry of Sustainable Transport and Mobility to implement the U-Space system in Spain, will, through its digital platform, provide the Common Information Services (CIS), which are essential to facilitate U-space services to drones and Urban Air Mobility in cooperation with local air traffic services, so that all types of aircraft can fly safely in the same airspace.

ENAIRE has received the highest score in Europe on the aviation safety key performance indicator for four years in a row. It has also been awarded the EFQM 600 Seal for its safe, efficient, innovative and sustainable management of air navigation services.