Barcelona's Art Scene

By the waterfront you meet a bright pop-art head that greets the sea and the city. Roy Lichtenstein made it for the 1992 Olympic Games, but in doing so, he gave a clear and beautiful nod to Catalonia’s own art history. Glazed ceramic tiles in red, blue, yellow, black and white give a clear nod to Barcelona’s trencadís. It rises above Port Vell with clean lines that feel playful and monumental at the same time.

One of Barcelona’s most impressive pieces of street art is The Kiss of Freedom, which consists of hundreds of small photo mosaics that together illustrate two mouths in a kiss. The work is created by artist Joan Fontcuberta, who works from the concept “The world begins with every kiss”. The work was purchased by the newspaper El Periódico, which asked readers to submit a photograph of a moment of freedom. The artist collected the images and assembled them into the final work, published in 2014 to commemorate the fallen during the War of Succession. You’ll find the 8 x 3.8 metre piece in a small square, close to the cathedral. Also note the sign next door quoting Oliver Wendell Holmes: “The sound of a kiss is not as loud as a cannon, but its echo lasts much longer.”

In the heart of El Raval you find Barcelona’s museum of contemporary art. The white building by Richard Meier opened in the 1990s and fills with daylight through long glass walls and ramps. The collection looks from the second half of the 20th century to today with Catalan and international artists. You see installations, video and changing exhibitions. Outside, Plaça dels Àngels is a meeting place for skaters.

In Parc Joan Miró you meet a tall, colorful sculpture by Joan Miró that rises above the trees like a signal. It stands 22 meters high and is clad in bright ceramic trencadís laid by his collaborator Joan Gardy Artigas. The work was dedicated in 1983 in the park that occupies the old city slaughterhouse grounds, a quiet green space with palms and pines a short walk from Plaça d’Espanya.

In the Raval you find a cultural center inside the old Casa de la Caritat, redesigned in the 1990s by Helio Piñón and Albert Viaplana. A glass façade leans toward the courtyard and reflects the rooftops, linking historic brick vaults with clean, bright galleries. The program looks at how we live now: exhibitions, debates, film and city ideas under one roof.

In Sant Andreu you find a quiet neo-Gothic church with an early work by Antoni Gaudí at your feet. Joan Torras Guardiola designed the church and asked his former student to draw the floor mosaic. It runs along the central nave and transept with floral and geometric motifs and the initials J and M from the original convent school.

In the stylish El Born neighborhood, you can step into this small but mighty analogue camera shop and community space. The philosophy here is wonderfully simple: learn by shooting, developing, and sharing. Inside you see film, cameras and accessories, and a weekly rhythm of workshops that bring the local film scene together. They also handle developing and repairs, so you can drop a roll and pick up tips at the counter.

Explore more than 4,200 works by Pablo Picasso in a cluster of beautiful mansions in La Ribera. Barcelona shaped him, and you see it here: student drawings from the Escola Llotja, the El Quatre Gats years, Paris, and the Blue and Rose periods. The museum opened in 1963 on the initiative of his friend Jaime Sabarté and has grown ever since.

You'll find this fascinating cultural space dedicated to the enigmatic street artist Banksy right in the center of Barcelona. It’s an incredibly smart way to experience his work. Inside, the exhibits feature large, life-size recreations of famous murals, prints, and photo essays that place the pieces perfectly in context. The rooms are deliberately dark and quiet, using projections and short, insightful texts to explain precisely where and how these powerful images originally appeared around the world. Since new elements are added year round, each visit feels fresh and unique.

A historic quarter of narrow medieval streets with a lively, creative rhythm. Walk the Passeig del Born and small side streets filled with cafés, boutiques and bars. Here you find a lot of street art. Just be aware, that it changes over night. So if you are looking for a specific piece of work, it might be gone. Santa Maria del Mar and the Picasso Museum sit a short walk away and anchor the neighborhood’s history and art.

Inside a beautiful modernist building by Lluís Domènech i Montaner you find a museum devoted to Antoni Tàpies and to modern and contemporary art. The house once held the Montaner i Simón publishing company and reopened as the foundation in 1990 after Tàpies created it in 1984. Before you even step inside, remember to look up. The instantly recognizable sculpture, Cloud and Chair, sits playfully yet powerfully on the roof, marking the skyline and welcoming visitors. Inside there are changing exhibitions, a strong core of Tàpies works and a library that supports research.

In Gràcia you find a small illustration gallery and studio that feels local and welcoming. Since 2013 they mix original works, prints, screen prints and small editions. The team curates solo shows and a recurring collective with Catalan and international illustrators. Exhibitions change often, so each visit is different.

In Eixample you arrive at a broad square where Avinguda Diagonal meets Passeig de Sant Joan. At the center rises a noucentista monument to the poet Jacint Verdaguer: a tall column crowned by his bronze figure, set on an architectural base with allegories of poetry and a ring of bas-reliefs from his works. The ensemble was designed in the early 1900s by architect Josep Maria Pericàs with sculpture by Joan Borrell i Nicolau. The reliefs are by the brothers Llucià and Miquel Oslé. A fountain frames the monument and the metro stop sits just beside it.

A former cinema from 1917 turned into southern Europe’s first space dedicated to producing and showing digital art. A cultural center meets art gallery, with changing exhibitions of large-format projections, interactive installations, holography and virtual reality.

In Sant Andreu you step into a former textile factory that now lives as a home for artists and makers. Red brick buildings, a tall chimney and wide courtyards set the scene. Inside you find studios, rehearsal rooms and the Fabra i Coats Centre d’Art Contemporani with changing exhibitions. It is a living place where work is created and then shown.

In the beautiful Eixample district, you can discover this focused museum devoted exclusively to Catalan Modernisme. It is housed inside a perfectly restored factory building from the early 1900s by the architect Enric Sagnier, a space once connected to the city’s textile trade. The museum brings together a stunning collection of furniture, painting, sculpture, and decorative arts from the movement. This entire project grew out of the private collection of antiques dealers Fernando Pinós and Maria Guirao.