The new Badr El Jundi gallery occupies different spaces within the Anantara Villa Padierna hotel in Marbella
Badr El Jundi carries the talent for business in the veins and the fondness for art in the heart. Heir to an important family of Lebanese merchants, he has been working as an art dealer for seven years. For him to open his own gallery was only a matter of time. And that it was in Marbella, where he usually resides –and where there are more millionaires per square meter in Spain–, a logical and intelligent decision.
The hotel Anantara Villa Padierna also carries art in its DNA. It is something as (or more) defining of its personality as its golf offer – it has three courses and a Michael Campbell school – or the impressive Roman-inspired spa.
Moffat installation, part of the Badr El Jundi Gallery, in the Linares Room of the Anantara Villa Padierna hotel.
Strolling through the corridors, halls, rooms and gardens of this Tuscan-style Marbella palace we find Italian statues and Sevillian paintings of the 19th century, Chinese vases, tapestries, Carrara marble cups brought from the Italian embassy in Cuba, the old alabaster shield of the Palace of Linares, two columns from the Villamagna Palace in Madrid and even an Iberian lion dated between the 2nd and 3rd centuries. In total, there are more than 1,200 pieces treasured over the years by their owners, Ricardo Arranz and Alicia Villapadierna.
The Anantara Villa Padierna is a museum hotel. Classical art that now coexists with the work of some of the most prominent emerging artists on the international scene, like the North American Wendy White or the very young Sola Olulode, of British-Nigerian origin, in whose work the protagonists are black women and non-binary people.
The young artist Sola Olulode, one of the protagonists of the Trace Evidence exhibition.
Together with Tom Anholt, much appreciated for his optical effects and pictorial strategies, Ivana de Vivanco, known for his handling of theatricality and light, and the Polish Igor Moritz, capable of giving his paintings a life of their own, are the protagonists of Trace Evidence, the first face-to-face exhibition of the new Badr El Jundi gallery, which can be visited at the Anantara Villa Padierna until next June 13.
The artist Ivana de Vivanco
But Badr El Jundi will not be a typical gallery, assigned within the limits of a single exhibition setting. His goal is for art to breathe, to be visible and, thus, in addition to the gallery's own space, the works of the Badr El Jundi artists can be enjoyed in the Sala Linares, in the hotel's extensive gardens, in the surroundings of the restaurant... “That art is not just going to a museum or a gallery. I want art to meet whoever wants to admire it”, the art dealer tells us, who has become a spokesperson for a wide variety of international artists from different backgrounds.
"The Merchant's Daughter" (2020), by Tom Anholt
The El Jundi gallery has María Gracia de Pedro from Zaragoza as its director, an expert with extensive experience, co-founder of Hiato Projects, professor of contemporary art at the Rey Juan Carlos University in Madrid and regular contributor to Daily Lazy.
The Badr El Jundi Gallery will be open from Wednesday to Sunday, from 11am to 8pm. Monday and Tuesday by appointment. Free entrance.
One of the spaces of the Badr El Jundi gallery, in the Anantara Villa Padierna hotel.