The MAD in Antequera hosts an exhibition of 24 works by Conchi Quesada

The Museum of Art of the Provincial Council (MAD) of Antequera hosts until January 26 the exhibition ‘Gratia Plena’, a collection of 24 paintings, drawings, and sculptures by the Granada-born artist based in Málaga, Conchi Quesada.

The vice president and provincial deputy Juan Rosas, also a councilor of the Antequera City Council, inaugurated the exhibition yesterday afternoon along with the mayor of Antequera, Manuel Barón, in an event attended by the artist, the only Andalusian painter currently working as a copyist at the Prado Museum, as highlighted by Juan Rosas.

She has been doing this since 2014, being one of just a dozen painters, “prodigious artists like Picasso, Moreno Carbonero, Dalí, or Monet, who also undertook this task,” the deputy recalled.

Recently, the artist has been copying ‘The Annunciation’ by Fra Angelico at the national gallery. “Technically, it is admirable to see her paint without a prior sketch,” noted María de la O Pérez, a representative from El Prado's Copy Office.

Of the 24 works that make up the ‘Gratia Plena’ exhibition, most are of religious themes and reproduce carvings and images from Málaga, such as the Cautivo, the Rico, or the Expiración, and have served as promotional elements for their processional outings. These pictorial and sculptural representations are displayed permanently and have been loaned for the exhibition by various brotherhood houses of Málaga —like the brotherhood of the Cautivo and the Holy Sepulchre—, the Pollinica of Alhaurín de la Torre, the Cofrade Museum of the Regional Hospital of Málaga, the Bandolero Museum of El Borge, the Church of the Immaculate Conception of Zafarraya, the Peña Flamenca Torre del Cante of Alhaurín de la Torre, or the Peña de la Biznaga of Málaga. Other works, such as her oil on canvas ‘A Song to Life’ or the copies of ‘The God Mars’ by Velázquez, ‘The Half-Submerged Dog’ by Goya, or her recent reproduction of ‘The Annunciation’ by Fra Angelico, belong to private collections.