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GAC Awards 2025: Miquel Alzueta and Eugènia Balcells
The gallerist and the artist, two essential names in Catalan contemporary art, receive recognition for their influence and contribution to the country's cultural panorama.
On May 27, MACBA will host a new edition of the Night of Galerism, an event organized by the Galeries d'Art de Catalunya (GAC) association in collaboration with Art Barcelona. As part of this celebration, the GAC 2025 Awards will be presented, which recognize the most outstanding careers in the world of art in Catalonia. Among the winners, honorary awards will be given to two figures essential to understanding the evolution of contemporary art in Catalonia: the gallerist Miquel Alzueta and the artist Eugènia Balcells .
The Honorary Awards are awarded by the boards of Galeries d'Art de Catalunya and Art Barcelona, while the rest of the categories will be decided by a jury chaired by art critic Conxita Oliver and composed of artist Perico Pastor , curator Pilar Cruz , critic Jesús Martínez Clarà and journalist Antoni Ribas . The winners of the rest of the awards will be announced during the Nit del Galerisme itself, an event that highlights the work and career of those who have been key in shaping the contemporary art scene.
Miquel Alzueta is a central figure in Catalan gallery art and one of the most recognized for his career. His influence, however, transcends the world of galleries, as he began his career as an editor with the creation of the Columna publishing house, a company that he directed for 25 years and that played a decisive role in the consolidation of Catalan literature. In the late nineties, Alzueta transferred his passion for art to the creation of his own gallery, Alzueta Gallery, with which he began to represent internationally renowned contemporary artists. His gallery, with offices in Barcelona, Casavells (Baix Empordà), Madrid and Paris, is one of the reference points in contemporary art and has participated in prestigious international fairs such as NADA, KIAF, Zona Maco and Art Paris. In addition to his work as a gallerist, Alzueta is also a passionate collector and disseminator of French design from the 1950s, with special attention to names such as Jean Prouvé, Charlotte Perriand and Le Corbusier.
On the other hand, Eugènia Balcells is one of the most important artists of the second half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century in Catalonia, standing out especially for her contribution to video art, a discipline in which she was one of the pioneers. Her work, deeply conceptual, addresses themes as diverse as the critique of consumer society, the study of the relationship between matter and energy, and the vindication of the role of women as creative and interpretative subjects of reality. She has exhibited in highly relevant international institutions such as the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid, the CCCB in Barcelona, the Institute for Art and Urban Resources in New York, the Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil and the Centro Nacional de las Artes in Mexico, among others. In addition to her career as a visual artist, Balcells has also been recognized with awards such as the Medalla al Mérit en les Arts Visuals (2009) and the Premi Nacional de les Arts Visuals (2010), which underline her influence and commitment to the evolution of the visual arts and the role of women in the world of art.
Benito Padilla , president of the Art Galleries of Catalonia association and the organizing committee of the GAC Awards, has highlighted the importance of the figures of Miquel Alzueta and Eugènia Balcells in understanding the evolution of the visual arts in Catalonia over the last fifty years. According to Padilla, “their trajectories are marked by rigor, innovation and projection, factors that have profoundly enriched our cultural system”. In addition to the honorary recognitions, the GAC Awards 2025 include several categories that range from the career as a gallerist and artist to the promotion of the visual arts, collecting, criticism, the media, curating and the best programming of art galleries. In this sense, the awards allow us to draw a portrait of the current state of the gallery industry and the artistic trends that mark the evolution of art in Catalonia.
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