Building a New Platform for Local Artists

Barcelona’s creative scene continues to evolve, with new platforms and projects emerging to support local artists. BarcelonaArtists.com is one of fhese newer initiatives. Co-founder Mehran Sanei shares how the project came about and what he hopes to develop through it.

Why We Built BarcelonaArtists.com

For many years, I’ve worked as an animator, collaborating with artists from different creative disciplines and different parts of the world. Throughout that journey, I kept asking myself one simple question:

Why is it still so difficult for artists to discover one another?

Creative people are everywhere, yet their work is often scattered across social media, outdated websites and algorithms that reward constant content rather than genuine connection. Finding collaborators, discovering exhibitions or simply learning who is creating amazing work in your own city shouldn’t be this difficult.

That question eventually led my wife, children’s book illustrator Samareh Azadi, and me to create Artistivo, a global platform designed to help artists become more discoverable and better connected. Soon afterwards, our partner Erfan Shamabadi joined us, bringing not only his technical expertise but also helping shape the long-term business strategy and vision behind the project.

BarcelonaArtists.com is the first city platform to grow from that idea.

But the goal was never simply to build another artist directory.

What inspires me most about Barcelona is its independent creative spirit. Some of the city’s most memorable artistic experiences don’t happen inside major institutions. They happen in small studios, shared workshops, cafés, independent galleries, private homes and unexpected spaces where artists create opportunities for themselves and for each other.

I wanted BarcelonaArtists.com to reflect exactly that spirit.

Today, artists can create a free professional portfolio and become easier to discover by collectors, curators, collaborators and art lovers. But that’s only the beginning.

Over the coming months we’ll be introducing new features that allow artists to promote their own independent events directly through the platform. Whether it’s an open studio, a workshop, an artist talk, a pop-up exhibition, a private concert, a neighbourhood creative gathering or even transforming a basement into a temporary gallery for a weekend, we want artists to have a place where they can share these experiences with the wider creative community.

My hope is that BarcelonaArtists.com becomes more than a website

I hope it becomes part of Barcelona’s creative infrastructure—a place where artists discover one another, collaborations begin naturally and independent initiatives receive the visibility they deserve.

Another part of the project I’m especially excited about is documenting the people behind the work. Over the coming months I’ll be visiting artists across Barcelona to interview them and create short documentary films about their practice, their studios and their creative journeys. Every artist has a unique story, and I believe those stories deserve to be shared.

BarcelonaArtists.com has been built by artists, for artists. Every decision we make comes back to one simple question:

Will this genuinely help artists build stronger careers and a stronger creative community?

If the answer is yes, then it’s worth building.

This is only the beginning, and I’m excited to see how Barcelona’s artists shape what comes next.

Because the strongest creative communities aren’t built by platforms.

They’re built by artists.

By Mehran Sanei