Pradiauto Gallery in Madrid

Editorial Profile

Pradiauto is an independent, research-driven contemporary art space in Madrid that occupies a former car workshop on Calle Pradillo, in the Prosperidad neighbourhood of Chamartín — an address set at some distance from the city's established gallery cluster. It has kept both the original name and several of the building's industrial features, treating the site itself as part of the program rather than as a neutral container. Run by Sofía Corrales, it functions as much as a curatorial platform as a commercial gallery, favouring experimental and politically engaged practices over market-led programming. Its stated premise centres on risky, research-based work addressing cultural, political, and social questions, and its exhibitions lean toward site-responsive, materially inventive proposals — as in its inaugural show Hot Links, which brought together Esther Merino, Víctor Santamaría, and Gabriel Alonso in pieces that responded directly to the workshop's spatial and industrial history.

Part of a generation of independent initiatives reshaping contemporary art in Madrid — a shift formally acknowledged in the 2024 CentroCentro exhibition Ensanchar la puerta, which gathered Pradiauto alongside other recently founded spaces — it cultivates exchange between the local scene and international circuits through its collaboration with GAPS, a curatorial collective working between Madrid, London, Tehran, and Rome. Programming extends beyond exhibition-making to artist talks, encounters, and performances, reinforcing the space's character as a generative rather than purely exhibitionary structure. Within the broader landscape of galleries in Madrid, Pradiauto stands for a model that fuses spatial experimentation with an explicit commitment to audiences beyond the conventional art market, distinguishing it from more product-oriented commercial galleries in the same city.