21 Beautiful Art Gallery Websites for Inspiration
Art galleries are in the business of aesthetics, yet it’s amazing how generic and uninventive many of their websites can be. Minimal graphics, fonts, and color schemes are designed to keep the viewer’s focus on the art itself, often at the expense of creativity and attractiveness. As in any business, it’s important for galleries to make a website that stands out and is memorable.
The websites on this list have achieved that goal by making subtle, yet integral design choices that, in fact, often increase both functionality and the viewing experience.
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Beautiful Art Gallery Websites for Inspiration
The websites below are useful sources of inspiration, and they prove that there are multiple variations on similar themes which can be used when you make a website. They show the array of choices that designers have and the ways in which sophisticated, intricate, or visually interesting graphics can actually enhance the look of the art, not counteract it. By creating a balance between the work being sold and the design format, art galleries have the potential to optimize their website as a marketing tool and therefore increase their business.
01. The Pace Gallery
While many gallery websites take the minimalist approach, the Pace Gallery is not afraid to include elements of color, pattern, and interactive functions in a bulletin-like format. Their web page background images consist of a pale purple number “50,” in celebration of their 50th anniversary in 2010. Without tabs or links to separate sections, instead the gallery’s information is laid out in a series of boxes, with sections on artists, exhibitions, press releases, media, locations, books, news, and about the gallery. Click on an artist and the artists’ box transforms. Select the option to “expand” and the entire web page layout changes, so that sections where additional information appears are highlighted (perhaps old press releases, books, and the current exhibition), while irrelevant sections (maybe media or events) are darkened. It’s a unique system devised so that those looking for information on a specific person or exhibition can avoid skipping from section to section and, instead, find all the information they need laid out in one place.
02. SCAI The Bathhouse
Another website formatted in a bulletin style.
03. Galerie Emanuel Perrotin
And another version of the same concept.
04. Luhring Augustine
Luhring Augustine’s website may appear to have adopted the typically simplistic gallery approach, but here they show how to make a website where beauty is found in the details. They get their edge from a plethora of images, found in literally every section of the website, which create visual interest and easy navigation. Scroll your mouse over an artist’s name and a large sized image, rather than just a thumbnail, appears on the right hand side of the screen. Look up current exhibitions and find a long page dedicated to images from past and future exhibitions as well. Not a single news item is published without some sort of photo attached, so that the palette of grey in the web page background design becomes simply a canvas upon which a library of images is projected.
05. Galerie Thomas Schulte
Another deceptively simple website heavy on the images.
06. Bruce Silverstein
And a second example of rotating homepage images – this time of artists and collections.
07. Friedrich Petzel
This website allows scrolling back and forth between two main images that correspond with the gallery’s two locations.
08. Nature Morte
Here, the same concept with three gallery locations.
09. A Gentil Carioca
One of the most fanciful gallery websites around belongs to the Brazilian gallery A Gentil Carioca. While it may not be the most efficient website around, the colorful moving graphics and cartoon-like images speak to the art being sold, which is generally funky and irreverent itself. The gallery’s theme of a pool (instead of stairs leading to their second level, there is a pool ladder) is continued throughout the website, which shows an animated outlined figure walking through a doorway and jumping into the water. The musical accompaniment may be a bit overkill, but the point of this website is to show that art gallery websites don’t always have to be seriously somber and that, from a marketing standpoint, it’s an important goal to convey your gallery’s specific and personalized tone through the business website.
10. Galerie Gmurzynska
With a web page background consisting of full-blown, automatically rotating gallery images, Gmurzynska’s website immediately opens with an impact that demands attention. A moving timeline at the bottom of the screen permits visitors to browse through the gallery’s previous exhibition highlights, accomplishments, and events, while the main menu only appears when you roll the mouse over the gallery’s name. Click to view the artist list and the homepage’s layers and shifting images give way to complete functionality, with images laid out as thumbnails and information appropriately categorized. In this way, Gallery Gmurzynska offers an excellent example of how to make a website that combines the creative with the practical.
11. David Nolan Gallery
Another gallery website featuring a high impact, full-screen image.
12. Lisson Gallery
And another full-screen image.
13. Von Bartha
The Von Bartha website screams sophistication. With pared down images and a strong font, they show how simplicity doesn’t have to be boring, but instead can be quite evocative. With a palette of black, white, and sky blue, the homepage opens with three clean squares showing shots of each of the gallery’s locations and titled with the name of their current exhibitions. A strong, bold Von Bartha logo dominates the upper-right-hand corner of each subsequently linked page, while the web page background color alternates between white and black depending on the section. One visually notable choice occurs in the artists’ section, where each name is highlighted in a chunk of the same eye-catching blue.
14. Kamel Mennour
Another simple and elegant site that garners attention for its unordinary font and unique three dimensional graphic effect.
15. Galerie Urs Meile
Sophistication with a twist. Instead of a homepage image, this gallery turns its list of artist names into a surprisingly refreshing graphic.
16. Mitchell-Innes & Nash
Mitchell-Innes & Nash’s website inserts the viewer into their actual gallery space. Different views of the gallery provide the consistent backdrop to the web page design, yet the site remains dynamic with drop-down menus, shading, and website Flash templates that enable dynamic movement as images shift and pages turn. Perhaps one of the most interesting features here can be found in the artists’ section; browsing through images becomes a much more dynamic task, as each work appears projected against the gallery walls, rather than a solid background or color. The result is as though you are viewing the work actually hung up in the gallery space, a sensation which is almost interactive in its effect. This gallery knows how to make a website that is both straightforward and functional, but yet subtly involves the viewer.
17. Tony Shafrazi Gallery
Another website that opens with beautiful rotating images of the gallery space.
18. Galerie Thaddeus Ropac
And another that uses a washed-out photo of their skylight ceiling.
19. Galeria Joan Prats
Galeria Joan Prats makes the memorable artistic choice of photographing their floor.
20. Andrea Rosen Gallery
This website allows you to scroll through a range of gallery images at the top of the page.
21. Victoria Miro
Victoria Miro picks the outside of the gallery to display, rather than the inside. This shot alternates with an image from the current exhibition.
Find Something Missing?
While compiling this list, it’s always a possibility that we missed some other great gallery websites. Feel free to share it with us.
Nice collection about art’s web sites!
Thanks for sharing! And great site’s description!
great article about art gallery
What an awesome collection! Thanks for sharing!
That kind of Art is out of reach…..atleast design is possible!
Great collection. Here i have got an idea to my next design. Thanks a lot.
Nice collection
Nice collection thanks!
I am very thank you to share this interesting thing
You’ve done nice work! It’s quite helpful. Thanks a lot for providing awesome information. As a webdesigner I’m very interested in such post. Also I was wondering to know whether I can share with you my own works, cause I’m dealing with something similar and developing such thematic websites. You are welcome to see mu works.
thank you for this article..! :)
very2x inspiring..
thanks for sharing ,these sites are really inspiring me
The Pace website is the worst gallery website I’ve ever seen. It’s a confusing non-intuitive mess. I can’t believe you cite this as an example of good website design.
Really? I agree that it looks stupid, but this is actually brilliantly intuitive. I’d love to work with the developers who put this together.
It looks like Pace have redone their website recently – the screengrab above needs updated. The new design looks really good.
The websites on this list have achieved that goal by making subtle, yet integral design choices that, in fact, often increase both functionality and the viewing experience.
know whether I can share with you my own works, cause I’m dealing with something similar and developing such thematic websites. You are welcome to see mu works.
I really find the sites that show the actual galleries to be most appealing. You can’t help but want to visit looking at the amazing display for art work some of those provide.
The Amazing works that are comes form nature.
I guess I am not the only one having all the enjoyment here.
Nice Collection. It will be helpful if you include more Best Art gallery’s website. And also if possible please add Best Artist’s website.
güzel bir site olmus tebrikler..
smart send and you
“Beautiful Art Gallery Websites” good page :) thank you.!
güzel bir site tebrik ederim.
thnask admin very good blogs.
thnask admin very good blogs.
sir i will request to u i want put my art picture so i dont have a any idea about it so pls sir guide me
maybe add vickycampbellart.co.uk to the list?
This is a great site. I am a lover of all things art whether they be in New York, London, Sao Paulo or anywhere else. I recently came upon this great gallery galerialogo.com
i love this austrian artshop called the bunch of ITS. bunchofits.com There isalso an onlineshop.
If you want to launch their own online art gallery I can recommend myonlineartgallery.com
wow.. awesome designers some of these galleries have
But do they work? What I mean is do people click through and get the information they want. Convention is one thing, but good web functionality is a different thing. It isn’t a print medium and the rules are different.
I’m not wieghing in on the aethetics, but from a tech perspective, are people visiting the pages, clicking through, staying on the site etc. etc.
I’d be curious to find out which of these sites are successful in that.
Good Collection of art gallery websites
I don’t know what was the consideration while creating this list, but I believe that there are more better websites available in the market.
Hi. I think you misspelled Official on the button one clicks to see the actual galleries. Great analysis.