JOIN the AFICIONADOS
Get the insider news and lowdown on what we've been up to, where we've been, and who we've met along the way. Be the first to discover new places and get the scoop on our favourites.
Much of Madrid’s artistic energy is sustained at street level. Neighbourhoods such as Lavapiés and Malasaña support a dense network of independent galleries and artist-led spaces where exhibitions are accompanied by talks, readings and informal gatherings, allowing ideas to circulate through conversation and return. These spaces function as sites of exchange as much as display, fostering long-term relationships between artists, curators and audiences. Galería Marta Cervera remains widely respected for its intellectually rigorous programme, while Maisterravalbuena connects Madrid-based practices with international discourse through carefully positioned exhibitions. Galería Elba Benítez continues to play a key role through its sustained focus on photography and new media, reinforcing the city’s interest in image, narrative and documentation.
Larger cultural platforms extend this contemporary ecology. Matadero Madrid, with its retained industrial character, provides flexible environments for exhibitions, residencies and interdisciplinary projects. Its scale supports ambition, while its openness preserves a working culture grounded in experimentation, collaboration and time, qualities that align closely with how art is made and discussed in Madrid today.
This present-day activity sits on deep foundations. The Museo Reina Sofía anchors modern and contemporary discourse through exhibitions that situate art within social and civic life, offering critical context that continues to inform current practice. Nearby, the Museo del Prado remains a quiet but constant influence, its collections forming a shared visual language absorbed through familiarity and proximity.
Madrid’s art scene gains strength from this relationship between present activity and historical depth. Contemporary work remains forward-facing while drawing confidence from long-standing cultural presence, allowing art to function as part of daily life. For artists and culturally attentive readers, Madrid offers a scene shaped by access, continuity and time, where culture is made, discussed and sustained without separation from the city itself.
Madrid is built on routine, conversation and urban life, shaped by historic quarters, modern ambition, design culture and food, revealing itself through daily use to artists, architects and curious minds.
read more
Gorgeously flamboyant, Casa Vicens is a riot of colour and fantastical architectural detailing - bearing the hallmarks of Barcelona hero, Antoni Gaudi.
read more
A think tank for the bold, the curious, the creators of tomorrow. Where minds collide, conversations spark, and urban life gets redefined. If you shape the future, you belong here.
read more
The true 'Golden Age Painter', Rembrandt recharged might well describe the recent renovation of the Rembrandt House Museum, found in Amsterdam.
read more
Radical, sometimes political and always on the pulse of Athens’ ever-evolving art scene, The Breeder Gallery is housed in an old ice cream factory, redesigned by architect Aris Zambicos.
From the cliff-carved tombs of Tlos to the ghost village of Kayaköy, trace the soul of ancient Lycia along the Turkish Riviera’s sunlit coastline and mountain-framed archaeological wonders.
read more
At Durslade Farm in Bruton, Hauser & Wirth Somerset fuses art, architecture and landscape with exhibitions, Piet Oudolf’s gardens, Roth Bar, Da Costa restaurant and farm shop: a cultural campus rooted in Somerset.
read more
Palma de Mallorca's Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Es Baluard hosts a collection taken from the Serra Art Foundation, the museum’s permanent collection boasts works from Joan Miró, Picasso, Magritte and local contemporary artists like Miquel Barceló.
read more
Travel to Portugal's fairytale den of Sintra, just outside Lisbon, for a world full of rolling hills and castles, once referred to by Byron as "glorious Eden".
read more
Porto for culture seekers - we explore the Serralves Foundation comprising of a dusty pink 1930-40s’s Art Deco villa designed by Porto architect José Marques da Silva, a landscape-specific contemporary museum designed by Álvaro Siza.
read more
Paestum Temples in Southern Italy is one of those ancient antiquities that you have to visit – this UNESCO World Heritage Site in Cilento Campania is a treasure trove of ancient Greece including three of the world’s best-preserved temples.
read more
Where modern art meets coastline and clarity, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art turns a museum visit into a coastal walk, framing global creativity through architecture, light and landscape.
read more
Get the insider news and lowdown on what we've been up to, where we've been, and who we've met along the way. Be the first to discover new places and get the scoop on our favourites.