Arteko Gallery: San Sebastián’s iconic art gallery moves to a new location in the Gros District
Arteko Gallery: San Sebastián’s iconic art gallery moves to a new location in the Gros District
Arteko Gallery is embarking upon a new journey in 2025; an exciting expedition exploring art – one which began in 1996. The gallery’s great artistic adventure remains in full swing in the Gros District of San Sebastián. That’s where Arteko was born and, now, it has a new location in Gros. It is a 280 m2 space located at Calle las Dunas, number 1.
Arteko, which today is one of the most established galleries in the Basque Country, was founded with the aim of bringing art to the public: “Art within everyone’s reach” is one of its mottos. Dedicated to the promotion and dissemination of the work of Basque, Spanish, and international artists, the gallery publishes its own books and graphic editions, collaborates with other local, national, and international entities, and pays special attention to the ever-changing world of culture, accepting all types of disciplines and visions and acting as a pioneer in different areas: the promotion of works on paper, the vindication of the presence of women in the art world, and a special interest in artist’s books. Another of their pioneering proposals is their look at digital art. To that end, one of the last exhibitions organized in Arteko’s previous space on Iparraguirre Street is quite noteworthy: a solo exhibition dedicated to electronic artist Jaime de los Ríos, a new technologies poet and contemporary of systemic society and cybernetic thinking. Slow and concise, his computational algorithms are activated through programming language on large LED façades, as holograms, on screens, and in equations that do not require electricity. Arteko’s commitment to this “post-nature art” or “second-order biomimicry,” as it has been defined by critics, is yet another reason why the gallery has always been at the forefront of contemporary creation.
At a local level, one of the gallery’s features that set it apart is its commitment to group exhibitions within the framework of events taking place in the city of San Sebastian, aiming to familiarize the public with contemporary art: “Arteko City of San Sebastián,” “Festival at the Kursaal: A Tribute to Cinema,” “Aquarium 2000,” “Music-Opera-Verdi,” “Horses at the Hippodrome,” and “Contemporary Quijotes” (in 2005 on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the publication of Don Quixote), as well as “Jazza-art” (on the 50th anniversary of Jazzaldia 2015) and the “Gastronomical.art” project (art and gastronomy – in 2016, the European Cultural Capital year) are some examples.
On a national level, Arteko undertakes activities with other Spanish galleries like Raquel Ponce, José Robles, Estiarte, La Caja Negra, SKL Gallery, Taller Gravura, Galería Toro; with institutes like Artium, Huarte, Urdaibai, Casa Asia, Vallpalou Foundation; it also participates in fairs on a national level, like Estampa, De Arte, Just Mad, Masquelibros, Valencia Art, Foro Sur, Arte Santander, Sculto, Puro Arte Vigo, and Fig Bilbao. The gallery’s presence on the international scene dates back to 1999, with an exhibition by its artists at the Italarte Gallery in Rome. In 2000, the gallery attended the 52nd Frankfurt Book Fair where they presented “Recorrido” (“Journey”), one of their publications. Said publication shows an itinerary around the city of San Sebastián with drawings by Dora Salazar and a story by Bernardo Atxaga. Other notable publications include: “Sobre puentes, ventanas y fantasmas” (“On Bridges, Windows, and Ghosts,” 2008); “Cuentos para adultos” (“Stories for Adults,” 2011); and “Habitar desde el Arte” (“Living through Art,” 2020).
Subsequent participation in fairs has included, for example, KunstKöln, Mia Fair Italy, and Arte Lisboa in Lisbon. Other activities worth highlighting abroad include: the participation of Ibon Mainar, an artist from San Sebastián, in Guimarães, 2014 European Capital of Culture; the traveling exhibition “Arteko-Rome-Granada-Madrid,” with the publication “Lieder,” a tribute to romanticism that fuses music, art, and literature; as well as the exhibition “Cuadernos de Viaje” (“Travel Notes”) by Isabel Herguera at the Cervantes Institute in New Delhi in collaboration with the Etxepare Institute.
Arteko has presented the works of numerous established creators like Miquel Barceló, Esther Ferrer, Elena Asins, Eduardo Chillida, Vicente Ameztoy, Jorge Oteiza, Rafael Ruiz Balerdi, Antoni Tàpies, Manolo Valdés, Andrés Nagel, Mari Puri Herrero, Alfredo Alcaín, Antonio Lorenzo, Marisa González, as well as international creators like the French Bernard Pourrière and Matthieu Piffeteau, the German Evelyn Hellenschmidt, the Swiss HR Giger, Korean artists Kyungwoo Chun and Joo Myung Duck, the African Soly Cisé and Amadou Camara Guèye, the Cuban Gustavo Díaz Sosa, the Japanese Nori Ushijima, the Mexican Jan Hendrix, and Polish photographer Krzysztof Gieraltowski.
The gallery has also organized countless solo and group exhibitions in different disciplines with artists as important as Dora Salazar, Isabel Herguera, Monir, José Luis Zumeta, Marta Cárdenas, Raúl Urrutikoetxea, Marijose Recalde, Ángel Peris, Detritus, Esperanza Zabala, Javier Alkain, Enrique Brinkmann, Ibon Mainar, Eduardo Chillida Belzunce, Joxan Iza, Paco Aguilar, Diego Vasallo, Roskow, José Belmonte Rocandio, Juan Luis Goenaga, Ainize Txopitea, José Llanos, Don Herbert, Gonzalo Chillida, Bonifacio Alfonso, Koldobika Jauregi, Blami, and Juan Luis Baroja Collet.
Arteko –which is part of the Institute of Contemporary Art, the San Sebastián Association of Contemporary Art Galleries, Women in the Visual Arts, the Contemporary Art Gallery Consortium, and San Sebastián Premium– continues its fascinating journey through art this year in its new location, a creative space full of imagination and inspiration.
Arteko
Calle las Dunas 1, San Sebastián.
Tel.: +34 943 297 545
