On the Hunt for the Best Art in Ibiza

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The London art world in early summer may be a round-the-clock social whirl, but it could not prepare me for the Balearic party hub of Ibiza, where CAN Art Fair—the fifth edition of which closed on June 28—is determined to level up the vacation destination’s cultural game. Between fair booth browsing by day and club hopping at night, I searched for the best art on the island.

Two arty Ibiza residences delivered. Can Arnau, one of the island’s oldest , was lovingly restored over decades by the late Swiss fashion photographer Rolf Bichsel. During fair week, it housed a pop-up show by Ruttkowski;68 gallery; highlights included some charming, timeless bronze sculptures by Stefan Strumbel and Carolina Aguirre’s sweeping abstract planes imprinted with ghostly shadows of the female body.

Mexican conceptualist Stefan Brüggemann, meanwhile, has built a wholly contemporary temple to art, which has become a top destination for art world VIPs. On my visit to the sprawling compound, the spotless, shimmering silver box of Brüggemann’s house rose up from red soil and dense shrubbery. I soon realized every detail has been painstakingly perfected to create a “living sculpture,” from the gold-leaf interior to the artist’s silver-leafed plants, spray-painted marble benches, and a totem-like boulder erected outside.

Still recovering after CAN’s VIP afterparty at Akasha on Thursday—which I left early by Ibizan standards but much too late for someone with work the following day—I was grateful for a fish taco lunch (and a little hair of the dog) at Los Enamorados. The lively boutique hotel has allowed resident Dutch artist Frits Achten to take over its halls with wacky, primordial papier-mâché creations. Some of these bulbous, seemingly organic masses bloom out from the walls. Others take on the guise of a rusted, long-forgotten antiquity. A surprising but welcome addition.

Art in Ibiza offers what CAN curator Saša Bogjev called “cultural sprinkles.” It calls for only serious contemplation—and that’s more than enough sometimes. Appetite sated, my mind was as blissfully empty as the water was blue.