Top 30 Art Cities

Art cities are cultural centers where artists, galleries, collectors, education, and institutions meet, making them true hotspots of the art world. A common question among artists is if they have to move to a big city in order to become successful artists. And if so, what are the best cities to live and work as an artist? In this article, we discuss the importance of major art cities for artists—encompassing the main benefits and drawbacks—and where to find them.

It is safe to say that living in an art city is beneficial for the artist’s career for various reasons. From an art market perspective, big cities naturally have a larger sales market. A population of more than a million will have more art collectors than a hamlet with less than a thousand inhabitants. Therefore, art market entities ranging from art galleries to auction houses are located in specific districts. The latest Art Market Report (2023) from UBS & Art Basel illustrated once more the importance of local private collectors, representing a whopping 50% of the share of all dealer sales. More people, more collectors, more galleries, more opportunities and sales to make a living as an artist.

In certain cities and countries, art has a prominent place in their DNA and history—thus, a strong interest and support in public opinion for the arts. This results in a historical tradition and behavior of visiting and collecting art that comes naturally to the cities’ inhabitants, but also efforts from the city itself to actively support artistic communities. Think of organizing open calls for public art or art prizes, providing artist residencies to nurture their artists, offering grants and stipends to support them financially, exhibiting or acquiring work from local artists with the city museum, and much more.

Art cities are also known for their renowned academies and universities, offering the best education, training, and renowned professors. Also, think about the convenience of networking with various galleries and other artists or being inspired by visiting great museum collections. Or what about the international recognition of your art city and/or education that can lift you up in the art world, and so on?

There are a few drawbacks as well when it comes to living in a major art city. More collectors, more galleries, but even more artists, hence a highly competitive field of thousands of artists targeting the same galleries in your city. Further, major art cities are cramped, resulting in often incredibly expensive prices for a couple of square foot apartments—so most artists can often forget about having a big studio in the city. If you want to live in a big city, you will have to accept the high living costs and the low comfort you get in return for your money. Therefore, please keep these drawbacks in mind before deciding to move to a major art city.

In the upcoming recital of the world’s best art cities, we will take into account the living costs (ranging from affordable, to normal, to expensive), but also include the population to have an idea of the sales market, discuss the art education opportunities, famous artists born in, or living and working in the city in question, which renowned institutions the city has, and also how many great galleries are hosted in the city. In the case of the latter, we use the analytical research tool of Artfacts ranking art galleries based on objective data and facts—think of the artists they represent, the talents they have discovered, participation in international art fairs, their exhibition program, and more. The first five are ranked as the biggest art cities in the world, followed by an alphabetical recital of the best medium-sized art cities from A to Z. Please note we recite just two academies, artists, or institutions of many more in our city overviews.

The Big Five: Mega-Art Cities

When it comes to major art cities, there is a consensus both in public opinion and in statistics that there are five cities head and shoulders above the others. Let’s start with the numbers first. Studies have shown that 34% of all art galleries are located in the United States of America, followed by 12% in Germany and 10% in the United Kingdom. A similar tendency can be found in the global art market share by value, with 45% of the value of all transactions in 2022 taking place in the United States of America, followed by 18% in the United Kingdom, 17% in China, 7% in France, followed by 2% in Germany—however, this also includes auction sales and the secondary market in general.

For artists, the primary market is the most important, with galleries being the direct intermediary between the artist and the first sale. When it comes to most galleries per city, 6% of all art galleries are based in New York City, 5% are in London, 4% can be found in Berlin, 3% are located in Paris, and to conclude, another 3% are situated in Los Angeles—resulting in the following top five:

1. New York, US

• Number of top-100 art galleries: 30
• Population: Over 8.4 million
• Living costs: Expensive
• Education: School of Visual Arts & Pratt Institute
• Famous artists: Jeff Koons & Cindy Sherman
• Art institutions: The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) & The Guggenheim

2. London, UK

• Number of top-100 art galleries: 10
• Population: Approximately 8.9 million
• Living costs: Expensive
• Education: Royal College of Art & Slade
• Famous artists: Damien Hirst & Tracey Emin
• Art institutions: Tate Modern & British Museum

3. Berlin, DE

• Number of top-100 art galleries: 7
• Population: About 3.6 million
• Living costs: Normal-Expensive
• Education: Berlin University of the Arts & Bard College
• Famous artists: Olafur Eliasson & Katharina Grosse
• Art institutions: Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart & KW Institute for Contemporary Art

4. Paris, FR

• Number of top-100 art galleries: 9
• Population: Approximately 2.1 million
• Living costs: Expensive
• Education: École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts & Paris College of Art
• Famous artists: Anselm Kiefer & Sophie Calle
• Art institutions: Louvre Museum & Centre Pompidou

5. Los Angeles, US

• Number of top-100 art galleries: 4
• Population: Over 3.8 million
• Living costs: Expensive
• Education: UCLA School of the Arts & Architecture & CalArts
• Famous artists: Ed Ruscha & Paul McCarthy
• Art institutions: The Getty Center & LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art)

Medium-Sized Art Cities: From A-Z

6. Amsterdam, NL

• Number of top-1,000 art galleries: 14
• Population: Around 1,000,000
• Living Costs: Expensive
• Art Education: Amsterdam University of Arts, AHK
• Famous Artists: Marlene Dumas, Rineke Dijkstra
• Art Institutions: Stedelijk Museum, Rijksmuseum

7. Antwerp, BE

• Number of top-1,000 art galleries: 9
• Population: Around 500,000
• Living Costs: Normal
• Art Education: Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp
• Contemporary Artists: Luc Tuymans, Wim Delvoye
• Art Institutions: M HKA (Museum of Contemporary Art), FOMU (Photography Museum)

8. Barcelona, ES

• Number of top-1,000 art galleries: 7
• Population: Over 1.6 million
• Living Costs: Normal
• Art Education: University of Barcelona Faculty of Fine Arts
• Contemporary Artists: Jaume Plensa, Miquel Barceló
• Art Institutions: MACBA (Museum of Contemporary Art), Moco Museum

9. Basel, CH

• Number of top-1,000 art galleries: 6
• Population: About 200,000
• Living Costs: Expensive
• Art Education: FHNW Academy of Art and Design
• Contemporary Artists: Thomas Hirschhorn, Pipilotti Rist
• Art Institutions: Kunsthalle Basel, Kunstmuseum Basel

10. Beijing, CN

• Number of top-1,000 art galleries: 10
• Population: Over 21 million
• Living Costs: Normal
• Art Education: Central Academy of Fine Arts
• Contemporary Artists: Ai Weiwei, Cai Guo-Qiang
• Art Institutions: Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Red Brick Art Museum

11. Budapest, HU

• Number of top-1,000 art galleries: 5
• Population: Around 1.7 million
• Living Costs: Affordable
• Art Education: Hungarian University of Fine Arts
• Contemporary Artists: Dóra Maurer, Péter Forgács
• Art Institutions: Ludwig Museum, OFF-Biennále Budapest

12. Brussels, BE

• Number of top-1,000 art galleries: 16
• Population: Approximately 1.2 million
• Living Costs: Normal
• Art Education: Royal Academy of Fine Arts Brussels
• Contemporary Artists: Ann Veronica Janssens, Michel François
• Art Institutions: Wiels Contemporary Art Centre, ING Art Center

13. Chicago, US

• Number of top-1,000 art galleries: 11
• Population: Over 2.7 million
• Living Costs: Normal
• Art Education: School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC)
• Contemporary Artists: Theaster Gates, Kerry James Marshall
• Art Institutions: Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, The Arts Club of Chicago

14. Cologne, DE

• Number of top-1,000 art galleries: 19
• Population: About 1.1 million
• Living Costs: Normal
• Art Education: Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM)
• Contemporary Artists: Rosemarie Trockel, Gerhard Richter
• Art Institutions: Museum Ludwig, Kölnischer Kunstverein

15. Dubai, AE

• Number of top-1,000 art galleries: 6
• Population: Approximately 3.4 million
• Living Costs: Expensive
• Art Education: Dubai College of Arts
• Contemporary Artists: Hassan Sharif, Monira Al Qadiri
• Art Institutions: Jameel Arts Centre, Concrete – Alserkal Avenue

16. Frankfurt, DE

• Number of top-1,000 art galleries: 7
• Population: Over 700,000
• Living Costs: Expensive
• Art Education: Städelschule
• Contemporary Artists: Thomas Bayrle, Hito Steyerl
• Art Institutions: MMK (Museum of Modern Art), Portikus

17. Istanbul, TR

• Number of top-1,000 art galleries: 4
• Population: About 15 million
• Living Costs: Normal
• Art Education: Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University
• Contemporary Artists: Kutluğ Ataman, Nejat Sati
• Art Institutions: Istanbul Modern, Borusan Contemporary

18. Leipzig, DE

• Number of top-1,000 art galleries: 4
• Population: Approximately 600,000
• Living Costs: Affordable
• Art Education: Academy of Fine Arts, Leipzig
• Contemporary Artists: Neo Rauch, Rosa Loy
• Art Institutions: Spinnerei, Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst (GfZK)

19. Lisbon, PT

• Number of top-1,000 art galleries: 6
• Population: Around 547,000
• Living Costs: Normal
• Art Education: Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Lisbon
• Contemporary Artists: Joana Vasconcelos, Pedro Cabrita Reis
• Art Institutions: MAAT (Museum of Art, Architecture, and Technology), EDP Foundation

20. Madrid, ES

• Number of top-1,000 art galleries: 22
• Population: Over 3.3 million
• Living Costs: Normal
• Art Education: Complutense University of Madrid Faculty of Fine Arts
• Contemporary Artists: Cristina Iglesias, Santiago Sierra
• Art Institutions: Matadero Madrid, La Casa Encendida

21. Milan, IT

• Number of top-1,000 art galleries: 20
• Population: About 1.4 million
• Living Costs: Expensive
• Art Education: Brera Academy
• Contemporary Artists: Maurizio Cattelan, Francesco Vezzoli
• Art Institutions: HangarBicocca, Fondazione Prada

22. Munich, DE

• Number of top-1,000 art galleries: 13
• Population: Approximately 1.5 million
• Living Costs: Expensive
• Art Education: Academy of Fine Arts, Munich
• Contemporary Artists: Thomas Demand, Isa Genzken
• Art Institutions: Haus der Kunst, Pinakothek der Moderne

23. Rome, IT

• Number of top-1,000 art galleries: 6
• Population: Over 2.8 million
• Living Costs: Expensive
• Art Education: Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma
• Contemporary Artists: Francesco Vezzoli, Maurizio Savini
• Art Institutions: MAXXI (National Museum of 21st Century Arts), Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Roma

24. São Paulo, BR

• Number of top-1,000 art galleries: 17
• Population: Approximately 12 million
• Living Costs: Normal
• Art Education: Escola São Paulo, Faculdade Belas Artes de São Paulo
• Contemporary Artists: Vik Muniz, Beatriz Milhazes
• Art Institutions: MAM (Museum of Modern Art), Instituto Tomie Ohtake

25. San Francisco, US

• Number of top-1,000 art galleries: 12
• Population: About 883,000
• Living Costs: Expensive
• Art Education: SF Arts Education Project
• Contemporary Artists: Julie Mehretu, Barry McGee
• Art Institutions: SFMOMA (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

26. Seoul, KR

• Number of top-1,000 art galleries: 9
• Population: Over 9.7 million
• Living Costs: Normal
• Art Education: Hongik University College of Fine Arts
• Contemporary Artists: Lee Bul, Gimhongsok
• Art Institutions: MMCA (National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art), Arario Museum in Space

27. Shanghai, CN

• Number of top-1,000 art galleries: 7
• Population: Over 27 million
• Living Costs: Expensive
• Art Education: Shanghai Institute of Visual Art, China Academy of Art, Shanghai
• Contemporary Artists: Xu Zhen, Cao Fei
• Art Institutions: Power Station of Art, Shanghai Contemporary Art Museum

28. Tokyo, JP

• Number of top-1,000 art galleries: 17
• Population: Approximately 13.5 million
• Living Costs: Expensive
• Art Education: Tokyo University of the Arts
• Contemporary Artists: Yayoi Kusama, Takashi Murakami
• Art Institutions: Mori Art Museum, Roppongi Hills Mori Tower

29. Vienna, AT

• Number of top-1,000 art galleries: 25
• Population: About 1.9 million
• Living Costs: Expensive
• Art Education: University of Applied Arts Vienna
• Contemporary Artists: Erwin Wurm, Brigitte Kowanz
• Art Institutions: Kunsthalle Wien, 21er Haus

30. Zurich, CH

• Number of top-1,000 art galleries: 25
• Population: Around 415,000
• Living Costs: Expensive
• Art Education: Zurich University of the Arts
• Contemporary Artists: Pipilotti Rist, Urs Fischer
• Art Institutions: Kunsthaus Zurich, LUMA Westbau

Last Updated on December 5, 2023