When a foreign dignitary arrives in Spain, it is the custom of the royal family, as part of the normal exchange of gifts, to choose a work by a Spanish artist and designer. Last November, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier visited Spain.
During the stay of … A dignitary of our country received a gift, which in this case was a work of the Sevillian artist Cachito Vallés (1986). But the Royal Household also invited the artist to the reception and dinner which, as is tradition in this type of visit, took place in honor of the German president and his wife at the Royal Palace.
The artist himself remembers how the events unfolded, the call from the Royal House, “Honestly, this is something that surprised me. I receive a call in which they call me from the Casa Real protocol and they tell me that I can send information about some worksbecause they selected several artists to make an internal selection and choose a piece to make an institutional gift to the German president. At first I took it with disbelief, I didn’t believe it, but of course I sent the email with all the information and photographs of two pieces from the ‘Trais’ series. One day, during my exhibition at the Andalusian Center for Contemporary Art, I received a formal call from the Royal House and I was told that my work had been selected.
Incredulous, he quickly looked for transportation for the work: “I was going to go to Madrid those days to see the Pereñíguez exhibition, and Suddenly, they called me back as part of the Royal Household protocol to invite me to the gala dinner with the German president at the Royal Palace. I couldn’t believe it.”
The artist attended the reception and the dinner that followed. “There were around 170 people, not only from the political world, but also many representatives from the world of Culture,” he says. “First there was the greeting to the kings and the German president in the incredible rooms of the palace. I was very nervous, you stand in line and just say hello, but in my case King Felipe VI stopped for a moment and while I was greeting him he explained to the German president that I was the artist of the work that had been given to him. It was a unique and shocking moment.”
After the greeting and dinner, the artist spoke with the kings of Spain and they also introduced him to the German president and his wife, and “the kings were very affectionate and close, and I noticed that they knew the work and had seen it. They told me it was the first time they offered new media art and that they really liked the work. The German president also praised my work and this was an immense satisfaction for me. Let the institution of institutions validate you…it gives me great energy.. Now whatever happens. The experience was wonderful and the protocol was great, I felt supported at all times. I was fascinated by being there. These are things you don’t think could happen to you. »
Cachito Vallés says that this end of the year has been incredible, “and this last one was a Christmas present. I am experiencing things that I had never thought of, and seeing the reception that the exhibition had at the CAAC, you realize that all the winds are favorable, and that makes you feel ready for whatever happens.”
And the anecdote of this whole “adventure” was that protocol dictated that you had to wear a tailcoat, “No problem,” I thought, “I’ll rent a tailcoat in Madrid, and that’s what I did. But then I thought it was going to be cold and with a coat a tailcoat…, and they lent me a Spanish Seseña cape that belonged to one of my uncles. “It was more elegant to wear a cape in a place like the Royal Palace.”
This is not the first Sevillian artist that the Royal House has chosen to make an institutional donation; he has already done so on another occasion with a work by the painter. Miki Leal.
Cachito Vallés in front of the work from the “Trair” series, selected by the royal family as a gift to the German president during his recent visit to Spain
The artist admits that for him, not yet being 40 years old, “it was difficult to produce a monographic exhibition at the Andalusian Center for Contemporary Art. You are in Seville and your colleagues were going to look at you with a magnifying glass…, but in the end I did it and everything went very well, plus this climax. Now what we have to do is continue to work. I am very proud to have been chosen by the Royal Household. I’m ready for what’s next, whatever happens.”
The Cachito Vallés exhibition at the Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, inaugurated from October 30 to May 24, 2026, is entitled “The Eternal Present” and is curated by Yolanda Torrubia.
The exhibition is a commitment of the CAAC to contextual art, in particular innovative technological languages, less common among Andalusian artists, but with a future perspective. This is the most important exhibition of Cachito Vallés’ career to date, with 11 new productions made specifically for the south cloister and the Saint-Michel arch.
“The eternal present” is conceived as a kind of positioning, interval and place, which directly addresses, from experience, the idea of being, of crossing space, of crossing time, of being, through contemplation and the experience of living.
Cachito Vallés is a visual artist who focuses his plastic research on the notions of space and time. It uses a wide range of languages, materials and processes that constantly seek a balance between the aesthetic and the conceptual.
He has presented individual projects in spaces such as the Luis Adelantado Gallery (Valencia), the Carmen Thyssen Museum in Málaga, the Center for Contemporary Creation of Andalusia (C3A, Cordoba), the Contemporary Art Center of Malaga, ECCO (Cádiz), ICAS (Seville) and Sala Santa Inés (Seville). Among his collective exhibitions, those of the Andalusian Center for Contemporary Art (CAAC), the Pompidou Center in Málaga, the Russian Museum in Málaga, the Sala Vimcorsa (Córdoba) and the Valentín Foundation in Madariaga (Seville) stand out.
His work is part of collections such as those of the Andalusian Center for Contemporary Art, CAC Málaga, DKV Collection, Unicaja Collection and the Canarian Foundation for the Development of Painting.
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