Madrid Chic

Cristina Carrillo de Albornoz, born in Madrid and a former United Nations diplomat, is an independent art curator for museums around the world. As an art critic and author, she has contributed to publications such as Spanish, Italian, German, and Mexican Vogue; The Art Newspaper and The Observer in the UK; Beaux Arts and L’Œil in France; El País and AD in Spain; and La Repubblica in Italy. She has written numerous books, including Balthus: In His Own Words; Santiago Calatrava; Fernando Botero; Jorge Luis Borges & María Kodama: The Infinite Encounter; and Sorolla: A Vision of Spain, all for Assouline. She has curated exhibitions in major institutions around the world on Rubens, Balthus, Fernando Botero, Santiago Calatrava, Manolo Blahnik, Picasso, and Nobel laureate (literature) Gao Xingjian. Over the years, she has worked with Arthemisia, Italy’s leading company for organizing art exhibitions, as well as photography archive-management company Iconic Images. Her work includes partnerships with galleries such as Marlborough in New York and White Cube in London and collaborations with many artists and architects, chief among them Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella, Ai Weiwei, Harland Miller, Tadao Ando, and Zaha Hadid.

Born in Scotland, Oliver Pilcher studied sculpture at the Edinburgh College of Art before embarking on a career in photography that has taken him all around the world and given him the opportunity to shoot for some of the world’s finest brands. Oliver has been a contributing photographer at Condé Nast Traveler for over ten years. He currently divides his time between New York and Costa Rica with his wife, Abigail, and their four children, Andalucia, Bianca, Constantina, and Herbie. He previously worked with Assouline on the best-selling Paris Chic (2020) and has contributed photos to Louis Vuitton Manufactures (2022), Riva Aquarama (2022), Saudi Coffee (2023), Saudi Dates (2023), New York Chic (2023), Budapest Gem (2024), AlUla Old Town (2024), and The Peninsula London (2024).