Non-descript. That would be one way to describe the Institut Valencia d’Art Modern’s external façade. As a single drab brown building, it might be unmistakable but it certainly isn’t striking. Don’t let that however, stop you from taking that first step in.

Through bent wire, colorful splotches of paint and innumerable other unexpected mediums popularized in early 20th Century art, the artistic heritage of countries miles away is strung together. Spaced out in terms of the historical and conceptual milestones they belong to, art by Spanish, European, Latin American, North American and of course Valencian artists is presented. This was a time of experimentation and innovation seen in Ignazio Pinazo’s interpretive portraits and the bright patterns Julia Gonzalez made famous. It isn’t just the advent of modern art that IVAM explores but how it relates to the modern lifestyle such as the growth of the urban space. Never static, the 7 galleries of IVAM bring together a collage of influences to show how modern art in Spain and around the world has bloomed to be what it is today.