The oldest and most important gallery in Lisbon

Celebrating its 60th anniversary, Galeria 111 has become a sort of institution in Portugal: it has launched the careers of some of the most important Portuguese artists, such as Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, Paula Rego, and Lourdes Castro. Founded by Manuel de Brito, the gallery is now run by his son, Rui Brito, who generously opened the gallery in and the storage to tell the trajectory of the gallery bit by bit to our collectors, in March 2024.

His father first started showing books that weren’t allowed during the dictatorship in Portugal. Artists started to come see him to show their work, and he discovered and pushed their careers, being one of the responsible for nurturing the contemporary art scene in Lisbon. 

The exhibition on view pays tribute to the two major Portuguese artists, Lourdes Castro and Paula Rego—perhaps the most important of contemporary history—who presented their works at the gallery for half a century and who sadly left us in 2022. The show gathered some of their drawings, a very intimate and personal language that tells viewers a lot about the creative process of one artist. 

Later, the big surprise was Galleria 111’s storage space. It is very big, organized, and brand new, almost as if it were a museum. He has actually put in place a museum system to preserve the pieces, which are both personal collections and gallery collections. No wonder our 100 Collectors were amazed by this space!  

After showing some of the pieces, Rui answered all the collectors’ questions about the artists and how the gallery was run business-wise.

The visit ended with a stroll to the other part of the gallery, right nearby, which is actually the space where it all started back in 1964.