We are all about to dive deep into everything about art in Porto and our opening section will fully cover the best art galleries and museums near you.
Up next we will discuss a variety of other topics like local art supply stores, events, festivals, dealers, appraisers, walking tours, sculptures and statues, art classes, studios for rent, and the top frame shops in your area.
Contents
If you are searching for any specific section you can jump straight to it by using the table of contents on the left and we will also be sharing a Porto art map with all of the various venues we mention throughout the post pinned on it.
Those who are interested can look through more of art guides for Europe right there.
Best Art Galleries & Museums In Porto
When you want to check out the best art galleries and museums in Porto you can visit:
- Serralves Museum at Rua Dom João De Castro 210
- Espaço Mira at Rua de Miraflor 159
- Fernando Santos Gallery at Rua De Miguel Bombarda 526
- Galeria Pedro Oliveira at Calçada De Monchique 3
- Galeria Presença at Rua Miguel Bombarda 570
- Kubik Gallery at Rua Da Restauração 6
- Sismógrafo at Praça Dos Poveiros 56
- Nuno Centeno Gallery at Rua Da Alegria 598
- Museu Nacional De Soares Dos Reis at Palacio dos Carrancas Rua D Manuel II
- São Mamede Gallery at Rua Miguel Bombarda 624
Serralves is a cultural institution that ranks among the world’s most visited art museums as they have a contemporary museum, a park, and a villa that are all examples of contemporary, modernist, and art deco architecture. The museum is open from 10am to 7pm most days and until 8pm on weekends,was created by Álvaro Siza Vieira, and is the second most visited attraction in the city.
Espaço Mira is a gallery dedicated to photography and its intersection with various forms of art and knowledge and artistic residencies are an important part of MIRA.
Since its foundation in 1993 the Fernando Santos Gallery has provided support projects of emerging Portuguese artists in your area while offering the possibility to remain in close contact with names of reference to institutions and to a group of prestigious art collectors. Fernando Santos Gallery is open from 10am to 12:30pm and 3pm to 7pm Monday through Friday and from 3pm to 7pm on Saturday.
Galeria Roma e Pavia was established in Oporto in 1980 and changed its name to Galeria Pedro Oliveira while moving to its current position in the city’s historic area in 1990. It focuses on current conceptual art as exemplified by a small group of local Portuguese and international artists which you can check out from 10am to 12:30pm and 3pm to 7pm Tuesday through Friday and from 3pm to 7pm on Saturday.
You can visit Galeria Presença from 10am to 1pm and 3pm to 7pm Tuesday through Friday and from 3pm to 7pm on Saturday and it was established in Oporto in 1995 under the direction of Maria de Belém Sampaio. In 1998 the gallery moved from its original installations to Rua Miguel Bombarda being one of the first galleries to integrate what it was to become the art block of Miguel Bombarda where most galleries of contemporary art are still located nowadays.
Kubik Gallery is open from 2pm to 7pm Tuesday through Saturday and was founded in 2010 as a platform for contemporary art and artistic representation near you by Portuguese and international artists. By participating in international art fairs and partnering with other cultural and creative groups the gallery hopes to enhance the presentation and circulation of its artists’ work. Since 2015 the gallery has worked closely with Brazil allowing for the exchange of artists and various opportunities to further their careers.
Nuno Centeno was the son of well-known Portuguese artist Sobral Centeno who founded the gallery and established an international contemporary art programme. The gallery aspires to contribute to a healthy environment in which artists, dealers, and collectors all work together and also serves on the ARCO Lisboa art fair selection committee and is a member of the Oporto city cultural and art advisory council. Nuno Centeno is open from 3pm to 7pm Wednesday through Saturday if you want to see all they have to offer.
The Museu Nacional Soares dos Reis is open from 10am to 5:30pm Tuesday through Sunday and was the first Portuguese national museum, founded in 1833, to exhibit treasures of Portuguese art including a collection by António Soares dos Reis from whom the museum takes its name.
The São Mamede Gallery is open from 2pm to 8pm Tuesday through Friday and 3pm to 8pm on Saturday and was started in Lisbon towards the end of the 1960’s before expanding here in 2005. It was located on R D Manuel II just in front of the Crystal Palace until the end of 2012 when it was relocated to Miguel Bombarda Street,near the Soares dos Reis Museum where most of the city’s art galleries are located.
Materials & Supplies Near You
New materials or supplies can be purchased at art stores in your area like:
- Ponto Des Artes at Rua de Santa Catarina 125
- Peninsular at Rua De Mouzinho Da Silveira 67
- Note! Trindade at Praça Da Trindade 146
- Papelaria Modelo at Largo Dos Lóios 76
- Moldursant at Rua da Picaria 52
Ponto Des Artes was founded in 1989 and sells frames, mirrors, and other art materials as well as framing services. Screen printing, acrylic paintings, oil paintings, watercolour paintings, drawing, pastels, and even pottery and sculpture are all available.
Peninsular – Papelaria& Artes Gráficas is the name of a great firm with over 110 years of existence that wishes to assist you in getting the wedding invitations of your dreams. It has a team of highly skilled and dedicated professionals who promise to put the visual components that best represent you on paper.
A variety of services to make your life easier are available at Note! Trindade including copying, printing, binding, and laminating as well as a handy and practical scheduling tool, postal services in conjunction with CTT, and Santa Casa games among others.
Papelaria Modelo has been located in Largo do Lóios between the Clerics and the Allies since the beginning of the 20th century specializing in fine arts, painting, design, architecture, design, creative manualities, writing, calligraphy and premium stationary.
Moldursant’s main activities are the construction of timber frames, profile transformation, and the distribution of fine arts materials. It performs decapé work and gold and silver foil application on occasion while holding workshops on a regular basis.
Shows & Events
We highly suggest you check out some of these local art shows, events, and festivals:
- Fantasporto in February
- International Iberian Language Theatre Festival in May
- Serralves em Festa in June
- Porto Photo Fest in October
- Porto / Post / Doc in November
Fantasporto is Porto’s flagship international film festival that takes place each February and is the ideal late-winter festival. Out of 600 entries 100 short and feature films were selected with four competitions given in Fantasy, Directors’ Week, Orient Express, and Portuguese Cinema.
The FITEI (International Iberian Language Theatre Festival) is dedicated to promoting theatre and the performing arts on the Iberian Peninsula. This yearly festival takes place in late May and early June and has been going on since 1978 striving to encourage creative innovation by reaching out to new audiences and identifying new art initiatives.
Serralves em Festa honors Serralves as a welcoming venue for modern art and culture while also combining environmental and landscape-related concepts and activities. With hundreds of activities taking place at the Serralves Foundation’s venues it is the largest contemporary arts festival in Portugal and one of the largest in Europe. It has become a must-see event for thousands of Portuguese and international tourists throughout the years and in 2019 it smashed all attendance records with over 264,000 people.
Photo Fest lasts a week and includes events, seminars, presentations, and exhibitions by world-renowned photographers from National Geographic, Fuiji, and TIME, among others. The event takes place in a variety of sites across the city including the CPF and Avore, Seminário de Vilar, Casa Diocesana, and the streets of downtown.
Porto Post Doc is a Film and Media Festival that was named one of MovieMaker Magazine’s top 25 trendiest festivals in the world. The festival takes place at four local venues: the Teatro Municipal do Porto – Rivoli, Cinema Passos Manuel, Faculdade de Belas Artes da Universidade, and Maus Hábitos all of which are centrally placed in the city and near to restaurants, pubs, and metro stops.
Art Dealers & Appraisers
Art dealers and appraisers are where you can encounter new unique works or learn the value of something you already own:
- African Arte at R de D João IV 303
- Co Art Co at R Eugénio de Castro 244
African Arte is a premium and one-of-a-kind African art gallery in your area that sells only genuine and antique African tribal art and is the largest of its kind in Portugal.
The Co Art Co curation service is for those who enjoy and wish to own art but for whatever reason do not yet have the habit of purchasing unique and original pieces.
Walking Tours
The 3 hour Porto Street Art Tour at Rua Manuel Bandeira 21 will take you through the city’s gorgeous and colourful streets. Costa, Hazul, Lara, Mesk, Mr. Dheo, Selor, and Frederico Draw are among the renowned local street artists represented.
You will learn about diverse styles of street art, such as graffiti, stencilled work, and paintings, and get insider suggestions on additional things to do from the guide.
Sculptures & Statues
These statues and sculptures in your area can also be fun to check out:
- Rotunda da Anémona at Praça da Cidade do Salvador
- Treze a Rir uns dos Outros at Campo dos Mártires da Pátria 2117
- Statue Abel Salazar at R Dr Tiago de Almeida
- Sculpture Dom Pedro IV at Praça da Liberdade 137
- Abundância Os Meninos Sculpture at Av dos Aliados 69 71
Located at the Cidade Salvador Plaza Waterfront is the monument to Rotunda da Anémona that was created in 2005 by Janet Echelman.
Treze a Riruns dos Outros is a brilliant bronze sculpture which was the creation of Spanish sculptor Juan Muoz.
The Jardim do Carregal, aka Carregal Garden, houses this lovely bronze monument of Abel Salazar by sculptor Helder Carvalho.
Since 2009 Abel Salazar’s intimidating figure has been subtly pointing to the Instituto de CiênciasBiomédicas which is a research institute of the University. Architect Vasco Morais Soares is responsible for the monument’s granite pedestal and setting.
For a bronze statue near you that stands 10 metres tall on a massive limestone plinth check out Sculpture Dom Pedro.
AbundânciaOsMeninos is a full-body sculpture with an octagonal pedestal set in a circular platform paved with limestone cubes and surrounded by a granite border.
Porto Art Classes
It doesn’t matter if you want private lessons or group classes for kids, teens, or adults the best art schools in Porto are:
- Atelier da Ferraria at Rua dos Caldeireiros 250
- Faculdade de Belas Artes da Universidade do Porto at Av de Rodrigues de Freitas 265
- Espaço João Pedro Rodrigues at R de Nossa Sra. de Fátima 268
- Escola Utopia Arte & Ideias at Rua da Alegria 1910
- Gazete Azulejos at R do Duque de Palmela 230 4300
- Clube de Desenho at Rua de José Falcão 156
Faculdade de Belas Artes da Universidade do Porto (FBAUP)is a higher education institution dedicated to the teaching of fine arts. In this faculty is the drawing “Girl washing the feet of a child” by Leonardo Da Vinci from 1480.
João Pedro Rodrigues is a Portuguese filmmaker who has his own school after studying himself at the Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema de Lisboa. He began as an assistant director and editor in films by directors such as Alberto Seixas Santos attached to the Portuguese Novo Cinema movement and Teresa Villaverde among others.
Escola Utopia Arte&Ideias is a fine arts school that offers specialised training in painting, drawing, and art history that opened in 1998.
Expect to find a collective dedicated to resurrecting and preserving the traditional craft of hand-painting Azulejos tiles at Gazete Azulejos. In a city that was formerly home to several major tile making kilns this local organization is one of the few remaining instances of tile producers still working in the small-scale creation of Azulejos.
Since 2010 Clube de Desenho has promoted drawing courses, gatherings, exhibitions, and publications attracting people from many locations and age groups who are interested in beginning, restarting, or continuing a daily and diverse drawing practice.
Studios For Rent Near You
DAHome – Cedofeita Art Studio at 69 Rua de Cedofeita 2 Tras is located about 1.2 kilometers from Clerigos Tower and provides free WiFi.
Espaço Mira also has studio space available
Framing
For art framing services in Porto head to:
- Alla Prima Molduras at R de Costa Cabral 650
- Moldurart at R do Conde de Burnay 6
- DaVinci molduras at R de Adolfo Casais Monteiro 30-32
- Nasoti at R do Bonjardim 1174
- Santos & Irmãos at Tv de Liceiras 1
- Arte Em Acção at R de Damião de Góis 184
Alla Prima Molduras was created in 1984 and has been looking for personalized and quality solutions for their satisfied customers ever since.
Moldurarte’s name is synonymous with high-quality hardwood mouldings and it’s a go-to source for information on trends, innovation, and new product launches.
Individuals, artists, collectors, institutions, and other entities are all welcome to participate in the DaVinci frames initiative.
Nasoti was formed by dreamers who were always on the lookout for beauty. Two times a year they create their own collections which they show at fairs and exhibitions and a wide range of colours and styles are available in watercolours, prints, and paintings.
António dos Santos who was a student at the Porto Academy of Fine Arts at the time and didn’t have access to a studio where he could order frames for his paintings so he began to create his own models drawing inspiration from the frames manufactured at the time in France, England, and the Netherlands.
Handcrafted frames with bespoke finishes, technical and ethical assistance, lacquer with colour choice for each frame, museum glass with various forms of UV protection, Ph-neutral and acid-free cardboards, K-LINE of various acid-free thicknesses are all available through Arte Em Acção.
By the way we have also discussed local art in:
Have Fun Enjoying The Porto Art Scene
Well guys, we tried to cover the full art scene near you to the best of our abilities. We listed the best galleries, museums, events, shows, local supply stores, dealers, appraisers, walking tours, sculptures, classes, studios, and framers in your area.
If you made it all the way to the end then you probably love art as much as we do. You can let us know about any of your own tips and tricks in the comments at the end of the post, or please also let us know if we got anything wrong or if anything we posted has become dated.
Have fun going to the galleries, museums, buying supplies or doing anything that has to do with art in Porto!
