La Casa Amarilla

Yellow & Welcome!

La Casa Amarilla (LCAmálaga) is a centre for contemporary art and culture in Málaga, set up as a non-profit cultural association in 2008.

It was born in order to show the work of the artists who live and work in Málaga. It was conceived as a space of opportunity where every artist would have the chance to exhibit and sell work — a place from which working artists could be defended and professionalised.

Its aim is to house as many artists and contemporary art disciplines as possible, in an effort to make art visible as a way of life and thereby encourage people to enjoy and buy it; and equally to bring art closer to the public, to show the quality of the art made in Málaga and to help art become part of the city.

Exhibiting and selling art in an innovative format, within the classic gallery model, gives visibility to the work of new, mid-career and established artists from Spain and abroad, creating a heterogeneous, enabling and inclusive artistic fabric that turns the gallery into a complete map of the Málaga art scene.

The way it brings every artistic discipline together and puts painters, photographers, sculptors, musicians, performance artists and sound and audiovisual artists on the same collecting footing draws considerable interest from gallerists and cultural managers in other cities, who see the advantage in that formula and who also build on it by creating campaigns and actions to raise awareness of the importance of artistic creation and of buying art in today’s society, and of developing a personal rather than a received artistic judgement.

Protecting and professionalising artists and building a cultural community has led them to collaborate regularly with cultural institutions and exhibition and museum spaces in the city, such as the Ateneo, Museo Casa Natal, Museo Jorge Rando, Museo Carmen Thyssen, Centre Pompidou and the Russian Museum. Bringing all these spaces closer is the result of LCA’s professionalism and of its ability to create actions that lift and consolidate Málaga as one of the country’s cultural capitals. This synergy multiplies the artists’ opportunities and means their work is better valued outside the city, adding to their CV venues they would have had very little chance of reaching as artists were it not for LCA. Their ability to generate new visions, their absolute commitment to what they do and the conviction behind their motives for building a legacy for the future have won them recognition in the sector both inside and outside Málaga, with support from public bodies such as Málaga City Council and its tourism department, the Málaga provincial council and the Regional Government of Andalusia. Established artists also choose LCA as their showcase because they see in it a place they can trust with their work, and regard it as a byword for quality and effectiveness.

It is a landmark space in Málaga, currently home to more than 70 artists. Over 17 years it has given the city hundreds of activities, averaging 20 solo exhibitions a year inside and outside the gallery, 4 group shows and #ESTIVAL, the Málaga contemporary art showcase, which held its 7th edition in 2024. As well as gallerists, they are cultural managers and producers, promoting contemporary art as a natural part of everyday life. LCA’s activity is self-managed, generating a broad exhibition programme inside and outside the gallery, keeping the gallery running and creating free content for the public. Since 2016 its base has been at Calle Santos 7, with exhibition space and a work-studio room for resident artists.

LCA is run by David Burbano, founder and director — photographer, graduate in art history, lecturer at EADE in audiovisual studies, research and production, and cultural manager, and founder of La Casa Amarilla — and by Roy Laguna, playwright, screenwriter and writer, artistic director since 2019.

For LCAmálaga what matters is building a legacy that protects and defends artists and their work so that they keep producing, focusing its efforts on giving visibility and access to the contemporary art market, and on securing, widening and sustaining the project into the future. Distinctive features:

– An innovative approach in everything they do, and a showcase for the art and the makers of the Málaga art scene.

– Pioneers in giving recognition to artists who did not fit in other spaces.

– A launch pad for new artists to make themselves known and to carry on beyond LCA and beyond Málaga.

– Internationalisation and exchange: through mentoring and curating that allows their artists to exhibit in other Spanish cities and abroad, to set up exchanges and to create shared projects with foreign artists.

– An ambassador for Málaga artists abroad. Many of their artists have won critical recognition inside and outside Spain, and have taken part in solo and group shows in countries such as China, France, Italy, Norway, Mexico and the Netherlands.

– Invitations to outside artists to take part in group shows and other activities with resident artists.

– The ability to take art out into the street, which becomes and is understood as an artistic space, with activities the public enjoys free of charge so that nobody is left outside the city’s cultural movement.

– Democratising the sale of art: work can be bought from €10 to €24,000.

– A policy of social inclusion, with projects such as Discipuli, for people with autism spectrum disorder, together with the APA Andalucía Foundation: over a school year several artists work with teenagers through art and making, so that they can obtain a workshop assistant qualification that opens the way into employment.

– Work with schools, with visits to the exhibition space and talks in the schools themselves, broadening what pupils can study through aesthetic and artistic judgement.

– As a gallery, it makes its resident artists feel at home — a hallmark that sets it apart from other kinds of gallery. The respect they show for art begins with their interest in the artists’ creative process. That allows them to build a professional relationship grounded in the making, which in most cases turns into friendship.

#ESTIVAL, the Málaga contemporary art showcase. With this event they bring in cultural spaces and museums across the city, taking art out into the street with performances and group shows to show the public how important art is in our lives, to bring art closer to those outside it and to enliven the city culturally at a moment when tourists fill the streets and discover a city in motion in which local culture is represented. The showcase gives artists the chance to stage their actions outdoors and in front of a wide audience largely unfamiliar with such work, showing an innate calling to display the art and culture made in the city of Málaga.

In 2024 they received the Gold Medal of the Ateneo de Málaga. That same year they were invited by the Museo Carmen Thyssen Málaga to take part in the DEAC conference “Otro lugar” as an example of work between a private gallery and different museum institutions in the city, where they gave the workshop “Estrategias de seducción” alongside Eva Sanguino.

Over 17 years LCAmálaga has become an essential and unique reference point in artistic and cultural Málaga, and has managed to create a heterogeneous, enabling and inclusive artistic fabric that turns the gallery into a complete map of the Málaga art scene.

A centre for contemporary art and culture: a project, a space, a gallery, a workshop, a laboratory, a residency, a shop, a window, a temple and a home for the art and the artists of Málaga.

LCAmálaga, now 17 years old, has revolutionised the Málaga art scene. In artistic and cultural Málaga it is an essential and unique reference point. It has given the city a new view of art and makes visible the quality and standing of the art produced there. It has made Málaga the city of artists, championing local artists through its work and putting them in the spotlight, giving them the prominence they deserve as professional makers.

Sites and spaces:

Calle Carretería 23 bis — exhibition space

Calle Santos 7 — space for artistic production and occasional exhibitions

Espacio Casa de Socorro (Promálaga), where they run the cultural management of the space.