BIO IN ENGLISH
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Llucià Homs (Vic. Barcelona, 1969) is a cultural consultant, exhibition curator, art advisor and art market analyst. His twenty years as a gallerist have given him the experience to lead projects such as Talking Galleries, the international think tank he founded in 2011 on gallery practices and the art system, or LOOP, the Barcelona video art fair and festival, as well as the cultural platform Hänsel* i Gretel*, which focuses on the culture-city-Barcelona triad. He is also a columnist for La Vanguardia, where he writes a weekly column on the international art market, he teaches at the University of Barcelona on the economics of art, and since 2019 he is also the Director of the Salvat Foundation.
His time in the public sector as Director of the Institute of Culture of Barcelona City Council (2011-2015) and of La Virreina Image Centre, articulates a multifaceted professional career, both as an entrepreneur in the cultural industries and as a public cultural manager. This allows him to understand, from a multidisciplinary perspective, the social debates and challenges posed by today’s changing and complex world.
In 2023 he won a GAC Award (Galeries d’Art de Catalunya) for the 10 years of Talking Galleries. That same year, Forbes chose him as one of the 25 most relevant professionals of the Spanish art scene.
From 2015 he lives between London and Barcelona.
* Education and beginnings as a gallerist
Lover of opera and literature, he studied Law at University of Barcelona and did a Business Administration Course at IESE Business School to strengthen the way in which he understands cultural management. He also took Visual Art courses as part of the History of Art Degree at University of Barcelona and in 2003-2004 he did a Postgraduate Course on Curating and Cultural Practices in Art and New Media at MECAD (Media Centre of Art & Design) which provided him with an educational background for his curatorial career.
In 1993 he started his career as a gallerist in Barcelona. At Galeria Llucià Homs he developed a path whereby he supported current artistic productions, representing a group of emerging artists by way of an elaborate programme consisting of more than one hundred exhibitions, activities and participation in international art fairs.
Due to his commitment with the profession, he was Treasurer and member of the galleries’ association Art Barcelona. Furthermore, he was Vice-president of the Board of the Catalan Association of Art Galleries, Vice-president of the Union of Spanish Associations of Art Galleries, and Member of FEAGA (Federation of European Art Galleries Association), which helped him to understand the debates and challenges of the profession. The knowledge acquired there resulted in subsequent projects.
* Cultural management
His experience as a cultural manager began in the early 2000s when he founded the company Binomio Gestión Cultural, while at the same time he was a member of the Board of Directors of the financial institution Caixa Manlleu (later BBVA Group) and its foundation. This experience allowed him to deepen his knowledge of the management criteria and rigour of the financial world to apply them to the management of culture, without shying away from the importance of its corporate purpose.
In 2003, together with other partners, he founded LOOP Videoart, a platform that has become an international meeting point specialising in video and artist film. The event includes a fair and a festival that fills the city of Barcelona with video art proposals every year, as well as the LOOP Talks debate space. For this project they received the Catalan Association of Art Critics Award in 2003 and the BMW Award for innovation in 2005. LOOP has spread to cities such as Berlin, Madrid, Paris, London, São Paulo, New York and Shanghai.
As a result of his interest in undertaking new projects related to culture, in 2009 he created La Fàbrica Barcelona together with the cultural management company La Fábrica in Madrid. As managing partner he promoted several projects, including the PhotoMeeting Ojo de Pez on documentary photography and the EUROPES contemporary culture festival.
* Experience in the public sector
As a result of his appointment as Director of the Promotion of Cultural Sectors of the Culture Institute of the Barcelona City Council in 2011, and as a result of his passion for this city, he gave up all of his previous responsibilities, closing a professional cycle as cultural manager and starting a new one focusing on his engagement with public service.
This new responsibility led him to think strategically about the city starting from a key element such as culture and contribute operational action plans: the city of Barcelona in relation to its cultural ecosystem, from which the relevance of creativity and knowledge is derived; as well as culture as a driver of innovation and as an element of participation and social cohesion, the promotion of cultural industries, the new urban centralities, the international projection of the city or its special relationship with tourism. Challenges for which he worked intensely and in which he acquired valuable knowledge in different areas and in team management.
In addition to direct dialogue with the different sectors of Barcelona’s culture, he managed, among other projects, the Barcelona Film Commission, the Art Factories programme, the new Barcelona Contemporary Art Centre at Fabra i Coats, the grants of the Institute of Culture and the City of Barcelona Awards. In each case he contributed with new organisational models, clear management criteria and a clear focus on objectives.
He was a member of the governing bodies of various cultural facilities, including Macba, Liceu, L’Auditori, Palau de la Música Catalana, Mercat de les Flors, Museu Picasso and CCCB; of institutions such as the Spain Film Commission and the Institut Ramon Llull, the body responsible for the internationalisation of Catalan culture. He directly directed La Virreina Image Centre, one of the city’s key facilities in relation to contemporary art. There, he presented exhibitions by leading international artists such as Ai Weiwei, Sophie Calle, Alberto García-Alix, Martin Parr and Michael Snow, together with an intense plan of public programmes.
* Return to the private sector
After completing the period in the public function, in 2016 he returned to the management of business initiatives with a combination of new projects and responsibilities, always within the cultural sector. These include strategic consulting and publishing with Hänsel* i Gretel*, where he works for organizations such as UNESCO or the Barcelona City Council, entities such as Caixa Foundation or La Pedrera Foundation. He also resumed his involvement as a partner of the LOOP platform, he is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Picasso Museum and of the recently created Strategic Advisory Board of the MNAC (National Art Museum of Catalonia), as well as curating exhibitions in projects such as those of Bill Viola and Josep Guinovart in Barcelona.
He advises private and institutional collectors as an art advisor and is an analyst of the international art market, leading projects such as Talking Galleries, the think tank on gallery practices that in recent years has expanded to cities such as London, Paris, Seoul, New York, Berlin and São Paulo. He also writes a weekly column in La Vanguardia on current affairs in the art market.
Since 2019, he is the Director of the SALVAT Foundation, whose mission is to promote and develop scientific research in pharmaceutical technology, to contribute to the promotion of culture through musical and artistic patronage, and to help other entities with a strong vocation to assist people and groups in situations of vulnerability.
* Teaching activities
Throughout his career, he has given talks, participated in cultural publications, and lectured in cultural management master degrees. In 2021 he returned to one of his most intimate vocations, teaching. He does so both in London, directing a programme with the Sotheby’s Institute on the art market, and in Barcelona, in the Master’s Degree in Contemporary Art: Context, Mediation and Management of the IL3 at the University of Barcelona.