Sala Parés

Well-established in 1877, Sala Parés is the first art gallery founded in Spain. It has three different spaces in a single building located at heart of the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona, where the work of the 35 contemporary artists with whom the gallery works is exhibited. The Gallery usually holds individual exhibitions of its resident artists in three separate display spaces.

As for painting, it has both authors who work from contemporary figuration and realism, as well as others who express themselves in abstraction. There are also some artists from the gallery that focus on sculpture, photography and video art, as well as others who formulate their proposals from hybrid approaches with the intersection of various techniques and disciplines. Besides, Sala Parés organises extraordinary curated exhibitions on specific episodes in the history of Catalan art and on its most renowned historical artists. 

Sala Parés collaborates with museums, cultural institutions, universities, foundations and other international and foreign art galleries. The gallery also organises concerts, guided tours and various cultural activities.

Represented artists:

Carmen Alvar, Alberto Bañuelos, Joan Boy, Marcos Cárdenas, Ángel Mateo Charris, Greta Chicheri, Garikoitz Cuevas, Carlos Díaz, Dis Berlin, Stefaan Eyckmans, Leticia Feduchi, Carlos Forns, Gorka García Herrera, Federico Granell, Rafel Joan, Michael Kenna, Juan Carlos Lázaro, J. M. Guerrero Medina, Juan Antonio Mañas, Eva Miquel, Carlos Morago, Ramon Moscardó, Josep Moscardó, Gloria Muñoz, Marcos Palazzi, Magí Puig, Alejandro Quincoces, Miguel Rasero, Xavier Rodés, Joseba Sánchez Zabaleta, Josep Segú, Gonzalo Sicre, Brigitte Szenczi, Manuel Velasco, Lluís Ventós, Albert Vidal, Miquel Vilà

The exhibition takes as its starting point the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, an iconic work of modern literature whose centenary was celebrated in 2025. Drawing on this literary universe —shaped by themes such as capitalism, excess, desire, the construction of identity, social appearance, and the modern dream— artists Ángel Mateo Charris, Juan Cuéllar, Marcos Palazzi, Gonzalo Sicre and Cuqui Guillén present pictorial interpretations that establish an open dialogue between narrative and image, reality and fiction. The works depict scenes, atmospheres, and characters that evoke the novel’s imaginary world while revisiting it through a contemporary sensibility, suggesting multiple readings and reflections.

This collective exhibition project reflects on the representation of reality, time, and the construction of the imaginary through the work of key artists associated with the New Realist movement. The proposals of these five painters engage in a compelling dialogue, taking the visible world and the literary narrative as their point of departure to create scenes and new pictorial narratives, as well as other approaches that transcend immediate reality and inhabit a symbolic and timeless realm.