activity

The Arsenal Gallery was founded in Białystok in 1965 as one of the Art Exhibition Halls (Biuro Wystaw Artystycznych). It was managed in turn by Mikołaj Wołkowycki, Władysław Sekunda, Maria Maranda, Irena Dojlida, Ewa Cywińska, and from 1990 by Monika Szewczyk. Presently, it is a city gallery, financed by the Local Government of Białystok. The Arsenal Gallery in Bialystok is a venue that has made its presence felt, both in Poland and in Europe.

The Gallery carries out a solidly planned and consistent exhibition programme – it presents and promotes the most modern art of different media (painting, sculpture, objects, photography, video art, intermedia installations, performance, etc.). The Gallery presents over 20 exhibitions annually, which are individual shows or presentations focusing on a particular problem. The Gallery also presents the programmes of other interesting galleries. We organize avant-garde concerts, film shows and launch events for books about art. The Gallery publishes catalogues or other publications to all the presented exhibitions.

We exhibit the works of the most splendid Polish and foreign contemporary artists:  Adam Adach, Paweł Althamer, Grupa Azorro, Mirosław Bałka, Anna Baumgart, Ivan Bazak, Kuba Bąkowski, Wojciech Bąkowski, Cezary Bodzianowski, Agata Bogacka, Bogna Burska, Rafał Bujnowski, Vesna Bukovec, Attila Csörgő, Hubert Czerepok, Oskar Dawicki, Kuba Dąbrowski, Marta Deskur, Dawid Diao, Stanisław Dróżdż, Esther Ferrer, Elżbieta Jabłońska, Katarzyna Józefowicz, Marek Kijewski/Kocur, Anna Konik, Jarosław Kozakiewicz, Katarzyna Kozyra, Maciej Kurak, Robert Kuśmirowski, Konrad Kuzyszyn, Kobas Laksa, Dominik Lejman, Norman Leto, Zbigniew Libera, Wojciech Łazarczyk, Marcin Maciejowski, Robert Maciejuk, Alastair MacLennan, Jacek Malinowski, Agata Michowska, Jarosław Modzelewski, Anna Molska, Marzanna Morozewicz, Claudio Moser, Olivier Mosset, Tomasz Mróz, Małgorzata Niedzielko, Dorota Nieznalska, Boris Nieslony, Odili Donald Odita, Zbigniew Oksiuta, Paul Panhuysen, Alexandre Perigot, Steven Parrino, Dorota Podlaska, Karol Radziszewski, Joanna Rajkowska, Józef Robakowski, Zbigniew Rogalski, Daniel Rumiancew, Wilhelm Sasnal, Jadwiga Sawicka, Grupa Sędzia Główny, Jan Simon, Mikołaj Smoczyński, Monika Sosnowska, Magdalena Starska, Twożywo, Marek Sobczyk, Paweł Susid, Radosław Szlaga, R.E.P., Grzegorz Sztwiertnia, Izabela Tarasewicz, Leon Tarasewicz, Agnieszka Tarasiuk, Slaven Tolj, Marek Wasilewski, Zbigniew Warpechowski, Krzysztof Wodiczko, Julita Wójcik, Piotr Wyrzykowski, Martin Zet, Artur Żmijewski
 

We seek to promote Polish art abroad by organizing exhibitions in renowned galleries and cultural institutions:
1. Germany, Berlin: Podewil, 1995; Artists' Space, 1998;
2. The Netherlands, Eindhoven: Het Apollohuis, 1996;
3. France, Paris: Espace Donguy/ Apegac, 1998: Polish Institute in Paris, 2006
4. Russia, Samara: Samara Art. Museum, 1998;
5. France: Strasbourg: Sielska Gallery, 2000
6. Czech Republic, Opava: House of Arts and former St. Vaclav’s Church, 2001;
7. Italy, Milan: Spaziotemporaneo di Patrizia Serra, 2002;
8. Hungary, Budapest: Platan Gallery(Polish Institute in Budapest), 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007;
9. Spain, Barcelona: Capella de l'Antic Hospital de la Santa Creu, 2002;
10. Czech Republic, Brno: The BrnoHouse of Arts, 2003;
11. Ukraine, Kyiv: Centre for Contemporary Art, 2004; The L. Kurbas State Centra for Theatre Arts, 2006; Polish Institute in Kyiv, Mystetskyi Arsenal galery, 2007;
12. The Netherlands, The Hague: Grote Kerk, 2004;
13. Germany, Düsseldorf: Polish Institute in Düsseldorf, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008;
14. Belgium, Brussels: La Centrale Électrique, European Centre for Contemporary Art, 2006;
15. Austria, Vienna: Polish Institute in Vienna, 2007;
16. Romania, Bucharest: MNAC / Etaj ¾ Gallery, 2008;
17. Georgia, Tbilisi: 2008, 2009, 2010;
18. Israel, Tel Aviv: Artists' House, 2009;
19. CzechRepublic, Usti nad Labem: Emil Filla Gallery, 2009
20. Northern Ireland, Belfast: Ormeau Baths Gallery, Golden Thread Gallery, 2009;
21. Belarus, Minsk: Museumof ContemporaryArt, 2009
22. China, Beijing: Li-Space Gallery, 2010;
23. USA, Nowy Jork: ChelseaArt Museum, 2010;
24. USA, Nowy Jork: White Box Gallery, 2010
 

Parallel to the exhibition schedule, the Gallery carries out a multi-level educational programme ‘Arsenal Playground’, curator – Magdalena Godlewska. It’s a common platform for various workshop-like projects run by artists. Its aim is to engage all those who care about self-development (parents and children, students, the youth and adults). The programme is realized with the funds from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage. Is art necessary and why? is a series of lectures and meetings with eminent art theoreticians, critics and curators, as well as artists themselves, which the Arsenal Gallery organizes in cooperation with Stanislaw Staszic College of Public Administration in Bialystok.

In cooperation with the Podlaskie Association for the Promotion of Fine Arts we have built up a contemporary art collection which has been hailed by the critics as one of the finest in Poland. The artworks of the Arsenal Gallery in Bialystok are split into two collections: "Three streams. Realism – Metaphor – Geometry” (the works from1965-1985) and "Kolekcja II" (1990-2010).

ABOUT THE GALLERY

 According to the “Polityka” weekly, in 2010 the Arsenal Gallery was ranked 3^rd place among the best public galleries in Poland.

“[The Arsenal Gallery] attracts the most prominent Polish artists by ensuring professional preparation and realization of their projects […]. As a truly cosmopolitan gallery, the Arsenal cooperates with cultural institutions worldwide, thanks to which it has organized a number of exhibitions by foreign artists. […]. After all, it counts among the very few galleries in Poland which boast superb contemporary art collections that have been systematically compiled; the one assembled by the Arsenal Gallery also happens to be one of the most valuable and comprehensive collections of Polish post-1989 art.”

(Kopania, Kamil. „Arsenał sztuki (art arsenal)”, Podlaskie Towarzystwo Zachęty Sztuk Pięknych (Podlaskie Association for the Promotion of Fine Arts), Białystok, 2006; p.28

„At that time the BWA Gallery (Buremu of Artistic Exhibitions Gallery) in Bialystok, renamed the Arsenal Gallery, took a new course under Monika Szewczyk’s dynamic and ambitious leadership. Her projects soon gained considerable renown both in Poland and abroad. The Arsenal Gallery has continued to thrive, deftly combining the works created by Polish artists with a more global context.”

(Anda Rottenberg, „Sztuka w Polsce 1945-2005 (Art. in Poland 1945-2005)”, Publisher Stentor, Warsaw 2005, p. 160)

„[…] the Gallery strives to shape a new artistic tradition in Bialystokby inviting truly gifted artists […]. People who work there deserve highest praise for creating place where contemporary art thrives, regardless of how radical it is. […] The Gallery’s art collection, which they continuously seek to expand, […] presents a wide range of genres, and is beyond all dispute one of the finest in Poland”

(Gorczyca, Łukasz.” 35-lecie Galerii Arsenał w Białymstoku (35^th Anniversary of the Arsenal Gallery in Bialystok)”. Art & Business, no.5/2000)