Best Contemporary Art Galleries of the Summer

This article is brought to you by Art Bike Tour Barcelona

With its long sunny days and warm Mediterranean nights, there’s no better season than summer to hop on your bike and explore new cultural hotspots in Barcelona. This summer is all about art, and we have put together a list of the city’s top ten contemporary galleries to visit by bike. Get to pedalling to skip the traffic, help the environment, and explore the best art that Barcelona has to offer.

• 3 Punts Galería

  3punts Galeria is an edgy space – floor to ceiling windows look in on loud, provocative and political pieces throughout the gallery. 3punts exhibitions are in-your-face representations of global trends, and its upcoming 'Intl. Airport' exhibition is no exception. It will feature the grotesque, crude and profoundly reflective sculptures of Samuel Salcedo that illuminate the absurd and cruel aspects of human consciousness

• ADN Galería

  ADN Galeria has a unique mission, priding itself on supporting the careers of the artists it features by plugging them into international contemporary art networks, securing media coverage and actively promoting their work online. Throughout the summer months, visit the Home Swiss Home/South of Heaven exhibition, featuring art with a political punch that deals with issues of destruction, fraud and global inequality. 

• Artevistas Gallery Barcelona

  Housed in the building where painter Joan Miró was born, Artevistas Gallery stresses diversity in styles and universes. It features a collection from more than 50 Spanish and international artists, emerging and established, of paintings, sculptures, photography, lithographs, among other forms. Artevistas comprises two spaces, one for its permanent collection and the other for temporary solo exhibitions. 

• Fundació Gaspar

  Fundació Gaspar is the recent iteration of Sala Gaspar, the legendary gallery that defined the avant-garde art scene of the 20th century by showcasing the works of Picasso, Miró, Braque, Calder and Tàpies, among others. The aim of Fundació Gaspar is to provide a space for top contemporary artists who have not consistently participated in the Barcelona art scene, as a way to facilitate international dialogue and interface. Throughout June and July, the gallery will feature the often provocative and antagonistic works of Los Angeles-based artist, Paul McCartney. 

• Galeria Balaguer

  Reputed as a top gallery for catapulting emerging contemporary artists onto the scene, Galeria Balaguer features works of diverse media—painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, video and performance—so as to promote the depth and breadth of the contemporary art scene. Monica Trastoy’s work will be on display throughout June in the Light and Lines exhibit, which challenges traditional definitions of space by using the wall as a large canvas filled with different media, and using LED lights with photography to create an extension of the piece outside the frame. 

• Galeria Carles Taché

  Carles Taché is among the most distinguished galleries in Barcelona. Located in the heart of Montjuïc, it is a leading member of the Art Barcelona Association and regularly represents Barcelona on an international scale. Galeria Carles Taché has participated in the industry’s top global contemporary art fairs since opening its doors in 1986. These fairs include the FIAC in Paris, the Chicago Art Fair, Art Brussels and ShaContemporary in Shanghai. The gallery has received several prestigious awards for its work, including the ACCA award by the Art Critics Association and the City of Barcelona Award.

  Through mid-June, the gallery is showcasing the work of esteemed painter Santi Moix in an exhibition named after the area of Moix’s studio, 'The Brooklyn Navy Yard'. The exhibition is a compilation of outstanding floral representations in large scale, wherein the flowers, at times, allude to other things or venture deep into the realm of abstraction.

• Galeria Joan Prats

  With pale concrete flooring, white walls and stark white pillars, Galeria Joan Prats is the ideal venue to showcase contemporary art of all media. Throughout June and July, enjoy the special exhibition of Jordi Alcaraz, a renowned Barcelona photographer whose style captures the dynamism, intensity and animation of everyday life. 

• Galeria Senda

  Since 1991, Galeria Senda has been at the forefront of promoting dialogue and debate throughout various art industries, collaborating with LOOP Barcelona, a world-renowned video and film fair, and Talking Galleries, an international platform for gallerists to connect. The 'Cristal House' exhibition by Ana Malagrida will be on during summer. In it, Malagrida uses photography, text and video to deconstruct the inside world of a horse race gambling house in Paris. 

• Galeria Trama

  Galeria Trama, nestled in a narrow side street just west of La Rambla, is a space where different aesthetics come to connect. It stresses plurality and innovation in painting and photography, and represents both established artists and up-and-comers, international and local. The gallery’s regular programme includes Mallorca painter Juan Cabrer, whose work is defined by geometric forms and saturation of colour, and the late Toni Catany, one of Catalunya’s most-celebrated contemporary photographers.