The exquisite culture of Barcelona is nothing new, but every time you visit, it always feels like the first time.  There’s also often a sense that you’ve discovered it for yourself, that this gorgeous city in Spain is something that’s opened up to you.  It’s a spectacular way to find a way to get back to the reasons why you ever wanted to travel in the first place.  There are new cultural moments here that seem to form every single day, combining the creative energies of the people who are drawn here, and mixing with its amazing history, to create something unique and exciting.  Traveling here can make you feel like you’re a part of the creation, or at least a very fortunate witness.  It’s a splendid city with a magnificent and complicated history.

There are certainly many excellent choices for accommodations here, and the luxury Barcelona hotels are some of the finest, taking the amazing cosmopolitan nature of the place and reflecting it in design, hospitality, and style.  There are also tremendously sumptuous restaurants, preparing food that speaks to the best parts of Spanish culture.  Then there’s the art.  You can see all sorts of fantastic works, from antiquity up to the present moment, and probably a little bit into the future as well.  It’s one of the really great cities to see art, and if you do get used to the classical, and decide you want something a little more recent, make your way to Rojo(r).

This is a new space totally devoted to the contemporary art scene, paying attention to local phenomena as well as international works.  They also have spaces in Milano and Sao Paolo, and networks literally all over the world, so their focus is truly global, and one of the central ideas here is networking and forming coalitions across borders to help artists meet other artists and make new connections.  You can see interesting and evocative work here, like the French artist Diva, whose new evolution in art, her Sol Negro series, can be viewed.  These are fantastic black and white – mostly – designs that interrogate the biological order, with lush graphics that speak to a world that’s here and there, now and then.  This exhibition is in conjunction with her new book, and is just one of the many splendid offerings here.