Seven outstanding exhibitions from a growing Art Night

PalmEverything is ready for the twenty-ninth edition of the Noche del Arte (Art Night), which, with more than one hundred artists and fourteen galleries, confirms a trend that has grown in recent years: it's an event that has not only consolidated itself in the city's cultural calendar, but has grown year after year, especially in recent years. Thus, on the verge of beginning its third decade of existence—because no one hides the fact that the intention is to throw a big party next year, to mark its thirtieth anniversary, and that this year it's time for a sort of dress rehearsal—the September 20th edition is expected to be one of the most crowded of the Noche del Arte (Art Night).

"The fact that the press releases get longer each year must mean something, right?" comments Fran Reus, president of the Art Palma Contemporani association, the event's organizer, in conversation with ARA Baleares. After incorporating galleries from outside the city, such as Pollensa's Maior, which is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year, the gallery owners' association is celebrating the fact that this year's Art Night will also feature a Menorcan gallery: Hauser & Wirth Menorca, which will be participating with a projection that can be seen in the gardens. "We've also seen how the involvement of institutions grows each year, because this year the Official College of Architects of the Balearic Islands is also joining, and there are very interesting proposals in places like the Solleric and Es Baluard venues," explains Reus, who highlights the "collective nature" of many of the projects that will be inaugurated throughout the program. Furthermore, sources from the gallery owners' association have announced the addition of a new event for the 2026 program: the first edition of the Mallorca Photofest, which will take place between April and August of next year.

The spectator, protagonist in Baró

In any case, and as for the Night of Art, one of the most striking and unique proposals of this edition is in the Baró gallery, located on Can Sanç street, where you can see Pharmakos, color as medicine, a proposal by the artistic collective Assume Vivid Astro Focus (AVAF), founded in 2001 and collaborators with Lady Gaga, among others. It is the first solo exhibition in Mallorca by this collective, which stands out for its immersive and sensorial proposals with an activist and experimental commitment. On this occasion, in any case, the proposal is to invite the viewer, the centerpiece of the exhibition, to reflect on the body and disobedience, through paintings, neon lights, tapestries, and also performance.

Very close by is gallery 6a, specifically on Calle de la Pureza, which will host a solo exhibition by the Andalusian artist Lola Berenguer. With the title Pattern, Berenguer's works serve as a demonstration of an almost obsessive work around a series of geometric patterns, both in painting and in the graphic work he has produced during his stay at Taller 6a, throughout this summer.

As for the Pelaires gallery, once again the proposal is to enter into contact with new and diverse forms of contemporary art through a collective exhibition, in this case curated by Saša Bogojev. Among the artists who will fill the different floors of the gallery located on Can Verí street are the American Katherine Bradford, creator of a sinuous universe full of figures that become as real as they are metaphorical, and the German Matthias Weischer, worthy heir to the master David Hockney, among many others.

Plastic streets in La Bibi + Reus

Furthermore, this will be the first Art Night at La Bibi + Reus, a project born last January after the merger of the galleries La Bibi and Fran Reus. At the venue located on Vilanova Street (they have another one located in Establiments) visitors will be able to explore the contrasts offered by one of Mallorca's tourist epicenters, Cala d'Or, through the eyes of the artistic duo Maite and Manuel. Originally from Uruguay, these two artists based in the coastal area of Santanyí have left a record of their experiences in Plastic street, an exhibition consisting of fifteen works made using the technique of collage.

There will also be work in format collage, in addition to sculptures, in Ikigai, the exhibition that will fill the Aba Art gallery. Located in the Plaza de la Puerta de Santa Catalina, the gallery is once again betting on local talent for the most important event of the year, and this time it does so with a solo exhibition by Manacor native Miquel Mesquida. With a career characterized by philosophical and existential research through art, Mesquida has opened a new avenue for the imagination in the works that can be seen starting September 20th, which connect with concepts such as balance, curiosity, and chance.

Another of the protagonists of the Night of Art will be the Belgian sculptor Elisa Braem, whose work will be featured in two different exhibitions. On the one hand, Braem's unique and evocative sculptures will be part of the collective exhibition. Fit, which also includes works by Edward Lipski and Damaris Pan and can be seen at the Fermay gallery, on Padre Bartomeu Pou Street. On the other hand, the exhibition We met at night, which opens on Friday the 19th in Es Baluard, will offer viewers an opportunity to delve into Braem's sculptural universe through a series of pieces in which the artist experiments with clay, enamel, metal, and wood, using a language informed by poetry and philosophy.

Maior's 35th birthday

Finally, one of the essential stops of the new edition of the Nuit du Art will be outside Ciutat: the Maior gallery, located in Pollença, founded 35 years ago. Among the events planned to celebrate this anniversary is the exhibition The will of paper A cross-section of the gallery, curated by Mònica Galván and Jaume Reus, offers a conversation between artists from several generations who have passed through the gallery. The themes that shape this exhibition include both poetic and political idiolects, with names like AR Penck and Ferran Garcia Sevilla, and the public spaces of women marked by poverty and social stereotypes, represented by Santiago Sierra and Pilar Albarracín, and the memories of places, energies, and limits of Karinka Bock and Miguel Ángel Campano.