Nacho Criado, winner of the National Visual Arts Award.

We are pleased that the National Visual Arts Award was given to the artist Nacho Criado, and would like to congratulate him effusively. The fact that he is the recipient of this award, following in the footsteps of Esther Ferrer (2008) and Isidoro Valcárcel Medina (2007), confirms the importance of conceptual art in the last four decades in our country. This recognition should make amends for the way in which the so-called “canonical” art history sees these artists as “strange” or as outsiders, leading to their exclusion from the art market, as well as their extremely small representation in our country’s private and public collections, which should end now. Sometimes, just sometimes, time puts things in their place.