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I meet Sofía Martínez Hernández at Léucade, the gallery she runs next to the Plaza de la Facultad de Letras. This is his corner, to which he dedicates 23 hours a day, he tells me and I know he is not exaggerating. She is a fighter who has set up a gallery that is recognized today inside and outside of Spain, but not everyone knows that, under that appearance of fragility, Sofía is a true athlete. When he was younger, he played professional futsal for the team in his native Totana. As there was no women’s team, “I played in the men’s team and the coach told me that it was a shame that I wasn’t a man, because I was the best.” He also dedicated himself to running, won some races in San Silvestre and currently goes to the gym to do boxing, “I have always known how to defend myself and I don’t want to lose strength or agility,” he says. He has a beautiful smile, but I tell him it’s not okay to show your teeth while boxing, in case they break. He agrees with me and tells me, amused, that some of them want him. I wonder that a girl who is like manna from heaven for this Region, can have, not even remotely, any enemy. It is more appropriate for her, due to her artistic sensibility, what she tells me about her passion for music: Sofía plays the guitar, the piano and, especially the violin, she has been a music teacher and, speaking of biblical food, she tells me that when Maná came to Murcia, she was one of those who played with the Mexican group.
From a humble family, she knows well, since she was a child, what it is to work. Before finishing his degree in Art History, he was already doing it in an important gallery in the city, over time he set up his own and with it he has brought new life and an infinity of creative, cultural and multidisciplinary proposals that have already attracted the public. the artists. Now he also runs the El Punto Rojo Gallery and the Keyhole Art Fair. I have to breathe hard when he details the thirty degrees he has, including master’s degrees and courses related to works of art, museum management or direction. It is also impossible to list the more than 170 exhibitions that he has curated or the 220 activities of all kinds that he has organized in halls in Murcia, Malaga, Madrid, Bogotá, Romania or Lisbon.
She says that “my competition is with myself, I set goals to improve myself.” He regrets that he has never received aid or subsidies from the City Council or the Community, although the Government of Spain has awarded two of his projects in keeping with the activities that he did not stop carrying out during this coronavirus pandemic.
As is becoming common among the people I interview in this section, Sofía acknowledges that she is better known and valued outside of her homeland: «I have been known and congratulated for my work or for having been the youngest gallery owner in Spain, both at international fairs, in Madrid or in various European capitals ».
In fact, Sofía confesses to me that she does not rule out moving the gallery to another city one day, “I don’t lack projection, because my gallery is present internationally at many fairs, but I miss a more determined, effective bet and, above all, , objective by the people of art in this Region ».
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