What to See in Barcelona’s Galleries

by Alison Hugill // Sept. 25, 2026

The 12th edition of Barcelona Gallery Weekend took place from September 17th to 20th, marking the reopening of the city’s art season after a summer hiatus. In 25 galleries across Barcelona and L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, works by more than 50 local and international artists were showcased to the public. On our trip to the city for Gallery Weekend, we also visited several major art institutions, including Museu Picasso, Museu National d’Art de Catalunya (MNAC), the Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona (MACBA) and the Casa Batlló, which recently launched its own contemporary art exhibition space inside the historic Gaudí house. Below, we’ve compiled some exhibition highlights from Barcelona Gallery Weekend, many of which extend beyond the weekend-long program.

Palmadotze

Pop-Up at Fundació FoodCultura: ‘Miralda: Open Archive’
Exhibition: Sept. 17–20, 2026
palmadotze.com
Carrer de Joan d’Àustria, 88, Sant Martí, 08018 Barcelona, click here for map

Barcelona-born, Catalan artist Antoni Miralda is well-known for his sculptures and installations, exhibited at biennials and in major exhibitions all over the world throughout his more than 50-year-long career. During Barcelona Gallery Weekend, visitors were offered the rare opportunity to step inside his elaborate warehouse studio space on the edge of the artistically vibrant Poblenou neighborhood, which features projects and archives from the last five decades. Its interior, bursting with color and organized around a central table in the form of a figure eight, is a living work of art in itself. Dubbed the “Fundació FoodCultura,” the studio doubles as a research platform, founded by Miralda in the early 2000s and dedicated to the cultural, social and symbolic dimensions of food—a topic that informs his practice to this day. Here, Miralda shows recent projects as well as older sculptures, including a famous series made with toy soldiers during the anti-war movement of the 1960s and 70s, when he lived in Paris and New York. His more recent food sculptures use organic materials, bread, dyed vegetables and popular artifacts to explore social identity and rituals.

The exhibition was a pop-up by contemporary art gallery Palmadotze, which is located about 50km outside of Barcelona, as part of the Gallery Weekend’s “Flash Program,” a series of fleeting exhibitions that only run throughout the weekend.

Palmadotze Pop-Up at FoodCultura: ‘Miralda: Open Archive,’ Barcelona Gallery Weekend 2026 // Photo © Cecilia Díaz Betz

Chiquita Room

Laía Argüelles Folch: ‘What Takes Flight’
Exhibition: Sept. 17–Nov. 6, 2026
chiquitaroom.com
Carrer de Villarroel, 25, Eixample, 08011 Barcelona, click here for map

At Chiquita Room in the central Barcelona neighborhood of Eixample, Spanish artist and writer Laía Argüelles Folch presents her multi-faceted exhibition ‘Lo que tiene vuelo’ (What Takes Flight). Birds are a recurring motif, however subtle and poetic, in the show. Two pieces from her ‘Marina’ series are on view, made up of found antique photographs, which the artist meticulously cuts into fragments containing textures of sky and sea, constructing a delicate arrangement that functions as a study of maritime horizons. In ‘Marina (solo)’ (2026), we see one bird flying on the horizon, while in ‘Marina (dueto)’ (2026) we find two. Elsewhere, the artist’s childhood drawings are repurposed in a work on tulle, ‘Vuelo (eres tú)’ (2026). Composed as a new flock through layers of screen-printing, the simple, V-shaped birds are disrupted by a small embroidered sentence, reading: “eres tú” (it’s you). Argüelles Folch’s emphasis on personal history, legacy and found materials is aptly described in the accompanying exhibition text by Manuel Asin: “This could even be thought of as diary writing, though it appears to me that is comes closer to a different genre of literature: the novel.” The characters that take flight in this exhibition demand a close reading, and new associations emerge with every viewing.

As part of the exhibition, Argüelles Folch also presents a full listening session of her sound piece ‘Hinterhof,’ composed from recordings of birdsong made in an inner courtyard in Kreuzberg, Berlin in April 2024. Throughout the exhibition’s run, the piece is activated daily only at the two times specified by the work: “Vormittag,” during the first half hour after the gallery opens, and “Nachmittag,” during the half hour before closing.

Laía Argüelles Folch: ‘Marina (dueto),’ 2026, installation view at Chiquita Room // Photo by Roberto Ruiz, courtesy of Chiquita Room, Barcelona

Prats Nogueras Blanchard

Lucía C. Pino: ‘Karim Rosa’
Exhibition: Sept. 17–Nov. 19, 2026
pratsnoguerasblanchard.com
Carrer de Méndez Núñez, 14, Ciutat Vella, 08003 Barcelona, click here for map

‘Karim Rosa’ is the first solo exhibition by Barcelona-based artist Lucía C. Pino at Prats Nogueras Blanchard in the Trafalgar neighborhood of the city. Through a series of autonomous pieces, taking the form of both images and sculptures, C. Pino presents the material breadth of their practice: textiles, metal works, archival materials and photographs are presented throughout the vast, white-walled rooms of the gallery.

Karim Rosa is the central character in C. Pino’s 2023 book of somatic autofiction, entitled ‘Crines’ (literally translating to “manes” in English), and also the title of one of the works on view in the show: a steel and iron, barricade-like sculpture on wheels made in 2025. Many of the works shown here were presented in C. Pino’s major solo exhibition ‘You Who Have Beautiful Manners’ at CA2M – Museo Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo in Móstoles, Spain last year. Drawing on queer archives, images of friends and lovers, family history and more, many of the works also have a political dimension. Some resemble makeshift blockades from demonstrations, speaking to architectures of resistance. There is an urgent appeal to be read in the work, as well as the title of the 2025 show (which references Arabic graffiti seen at a Syrian market in 2011): to consider recent acts of violence inflicted on bodies, whether in the act of genocide or in the protest of it.

Aside from the metal barricade works, denim also plays a big role in this exhibition. ‘Naskar Cilindro’ (2025) is made up of swathes of deconstructed jeans, hanging from a carbon and stainless steel bar like cuts of meat in an abbatoir. The combination of this heavy textile with industrial metal elements gives a decidedly laborious, even proletarian, feel to the show, which is underlined by a very human tenderness, concerned with the real implications of living in a shared community.

Lucia C. Pino: ‘Karim Rosa,’ 2026, installation view at Prats Nogueras Blanchard, Barcelona Gallery Weekend 2026 // Courtesy of the artist and Prats Nogueras Blanchard, Barcelona

ethall

Eulàlia Rovira: ‘Clin’
Sergio Prego: ‘Overflow’
Exhibition: Sept. 17–Oct. 30, 2026
ethall.net
Carrer de Salvador, 24, 08902 L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, click here for map

In the city of L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, part of Barcelona’s greater metropolitan area, a number of galleries have taken root in former industrial buildings. At contemporary art space ethall, Eulàlia Rovira presents her solo show ‘Clin’ in the main room of the high-ceilinged, barn-like gallery. A study in architectural angles, the show is a site-specific consideration of our physical relationship to the spaces we inhabit. Here, Rovira struggles with the proscribed angles that her cutting tools will allow, inventing new ways to achieve her aesthetic aims. The result is a series of geometric forms, propped against the gallery walls and surrounded by dried flowers, which periodically drop from the ceiling’s rafters and are later positioned by the artist in neat lines. On the walls, collages of corners reinforce the artist’s interest in lines and angularity.

Outside in the courtyard, Sergio Prego presents ‘Overflow,’ an exhibition of some of his series of vessels, appearing like breasts or mouths, which slowly spew water into lined basins below. Their serene sounds are reminiscent of water fixtures in a zen garden, but the PVC materials of the containers speak more to fetish and club cultures than tranquil spas. In the small courtyard, the falling water echoes across the space, adding a sonic dimension to the architectural considerations taking place inside.