At a glance
Madrid opens its gallery season all at once: four days of new exhibitions, late openings and art routes that turn the whole city into one big contemporary-art walk.
Why go
You'll see
Contemporary art · Painting · Sculpture · Photography · Installation · Emerging artists · Established names · Spanish and international galleries · Gallery walks
Pace of visit
Half day to full weekend. The main gallery opening takes place 11 September from 13:30–22:00, followed by extended gallery hours on 12 and 13 September from 11:00–20:00. The wider programme continues later in the month with ARCO GalleryWalks, guided visits and public-art routes.
Don't miss
The best strategy is not to try to see everything. Choose one or two gallery districts — Salesas, Chamberí, Centro/Letras, Salamanca or Carabanchel — and build a route around 5–8 exhibitions. Several galleries open their major autumn shows specifically for APERTURA.
Artlovers Tip
Don’t treat APERTURA as an art fair. The city is the venue and the galleries are the booths — but with real exhibitions, more space and no entrance fee. It is probably the best weekend of the year to understand what Madrid’s contemporary-art scene actually looks like.
Use the official event map to cluster visits; starting in the Doctor Fourquet area near the Reina Sofía Museum offers the highest density of galleries within walking distance.
Inside the exhibition
Description
APERTURA Madrid Gallery Weekend has marked the beginning of Madrid’s contemporary-art season since 2009. Organised by Arte Madrid, the city’s gallery association, it brings galleries together for simultaneous openings and an expanded programme of artist talks, guided visits, museum collaborations and routes through public space. What makes it especially attractive is that it allows visitors to experience Madrid’s gallery ecosystem in concentrated form: established galleries sit alongside younger spaces, major artists alongside emerging names, and neighbourhoods become part of the art experience itself.
For 2026, the official programme already includes new exhibitions by artists such as José Guerrero and Esteban Vicente at Cayón, Carmen Laffón at Leandro Navarro, Óscar Domínguez at Guillermo de Osma, Mar Solís at Freijo Gallery and Alejandro Cesarco at Elba Benítez, among many others.
Madrid Gallery Weekend 2026
Artlovers relevance
Plan your visit
Madrid, Spain
