The project is co-financed by the governments of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through the Visegrad Grants from the International Visegrad Fund [Attention! The link opens in a new tab.]. The mission of the fund is to promote the idea of sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe.
acb in Budapest
Founded in Budapest in 2003, acb Gallery has consistently grown in the past two decades to become one of the leading actors in the Hungarian and Eastern European art market. The profile of the gallery was first defined by the representation of Hungarian and international neo-conceptual artists who became active after the political changes in the former Eastern Bloc in 1990. The mission of the gallery has always been based on the intention to constantly search for the roots and foundations of the local contemporary art scene. As a consequence, the gallery has broadened its focus, and it is now representing numerous Hungarian neo-avant-garde artists who have left their mark on local art history since the 1960s and 1970s. It is also important to highlight that the gallery also represents several members of younger generations beside the already established ones.
From 2016-2020, acb Gallery ran three exhibition spaces: acb Gallery, acb Attachment and acb NA. After rationalizing its structure during the lockdowns, acb is moving forward with its main gallery space and the acb Attachment, which functions as project space hosting more experimental exhibitions. Acb Gallery has also created various online projects in the past year, some of them are virtual exhibition walkthroughs, others are video-based. The exhibition program of the gallery consists of the represented artists’ solo and group exhibitions. In order to organize vast historical shows on a larger scale, the collaboration with international partners and local institutions is also of major importance for acb.
In 2015 the gallery has launched its newest department, the acbResearchLab, which focuses on research and publishing. This platform within the gallery is aiming to fill the gap in the reception and publication of Hungarian neo-avant-garde and post-avant-garde oeuvres. AcbResearchLab is also a key tool of the new identity of the gallery, which is based on recontextualization and story-telling in a wider sense.
Creating links with the audience and the collaboration with the gallery’s strong local and international collector base are also among acb’s principal pursuits. The gallery’s mission is to convince an increasingly wider audience to collect contemporary art and to build professional international partnerships with other galleries and institutions.
acb ResearchLab was established in September 2015 within the framework of the acb Gallery. The activity of the ResearchLab focuses on research, filling a gap in the presentation and publication of Hungarian neo-avant-garde and post-avant-garde oeuvres, with regard to the context of current international discourses and considering interregional aspects. The core activities of the ResearchLab – besides the dissemination of the research results to Hungarian and international professional audiences – include the serial publication of smaller monographic editions as well as the publication of scientific treatises summarising several years of research. ResearchLab is open to institutional and research cooperations within Hungary and abroad.
The research projects conducted by acb ResearchLab focus on the discovery and presentation of new artworks, previously marginalized oeuvres and artistic phenomena, as well as the creation of a database of artists represented by acb Gallery. During the first five years of its operation, acb ResearchLab produced a series of publications dealing with the work of the Pécs Workshop’s members, the enamel experiments at the Bonyhád Enamel Factory, the activity of the Bosch+Bosch Group, the oeuvre of Katalin Ladik, Árpád fenyvesi Tóth, Katalin Nádor as well as the Substitute Thirsters’ body of work. Also, acb ResearchLab published gap filling volumes focusing on the developments of art photography in the eighties and nineties, focusing on the activity of Tibor Várnagy and Ágnes Eperjesi.
acb Gallery in Budapest, Hungary [Attention! The link opens in a new tab.]
Ernest Zmeták Art Gallery in Nové Zámky
Collections and history
The Ernest Zmeták Art Gallery in Nové Zámky has a unique place among the Slovak gallery network. It was founded in 1979 on the initiative of a prominent figure of Fine Art Modernism of Slovakia, a collector and native of Nové Zámky, Ernest Zmeták (1919 - 2004). Together with his wife, Danica Zmetáková (1940), they donated a collection of European art of the 16th - 20th centuries to the gallery. At that time, it was the largest and most well-known private collection in Slovakia. A selection from this unique collection was made available in 1980 in the form of a permanent exhibition.
The second focus of the gallery (1986) consists of a selection from the legacy of the emblematic personality of the international avant-garde Lajos Kassák (1887 - 1967), a native of Nové Zámky. It represents a part of the artistic, literary and artistic-organizational legacy of the artist, which was donated in 1983 by his widow, Klára Kassáková. The exhibition is complemented by works of authors who responded to the work and myth of Lajos Kassák.
During its existence, the gallery has built a valuable collection of contemporary Slovak, Czech and Hungarian art. Among others, it also includes a selection from the mail art collection of the performer, poet and organizer of international festivals of intermediate art, Józsf R. Juhász (1963).
The institution has been situated in a building on Björnsonova Street since 2002. It presents re-installed permanent exhibitions (2004, 2015) and develops intensive exhibition activities. It has established itself on the Slovak scene as a gallery with valuable collections and a quality program focused on old and contemporary art. It develops this parallel line continuously. Since 2011, it has been named after its founder: Ernest Zmeták. Ernest Zmeták Art Gallery belongs to the founding members of the Council of Galleries of Slovakia (1990) and is a member of ICOM (2019). It participates in cooperation within the gallery network, establishes contacts at home and abroad. The gallery received the award of the Ministry of Culture: Gallery of the Year 2013.
Program and activities
As a memory and fund institution, the gallery focuses on the Central European region. It examines art in Slovakia and its connections to Hungarian and Czech art. It prefers a broad-spectrum program - in which, in addition to the central personalities and directions, it pays increased attention to the neo-avantgarde, alternative and marginal tendencies, experimental genres and solitaires.
Since 1990 the gallery has been collaborating with the performer, poet and organizer of international festivals of intermedia art, József R. Juhász. In the role of co-organizer, we participated in several years of TRANSART COMMUNICATION festivals in Nové Zámky. The result of this collaboration was an exhibition dedicated to the jubilee year of the festival: TRANSART ´30 (2018).
In 1999, the gallery launched comparative project PERTU focused on the search for analogies in contemporary Slovak and Hungarian art, implemented at two-year intervals. The gallery has realized 11 vol. with 22 renowned authors (László Fehér and Martin Knut (1999), Milan Bočkay and Gyula Pauer (2001), Július Koller and Sándor Pinczehelyi (2003), Ádám Kéri and Juraj Meliš (2005), Peter Bartoš and Tamás St. Auby (2007), Klára Bočkayová and Zsófia Pittmann (2009), Juraj Bartusz and István Nádler (2011), Károly Hopp-Halász and Peter Rónai (2013), Milan Dobeš and János Fajó (2015), Emese Benczúr and Emőke Vargová (2017), Endre Tót and Monogramista TD (2019).
Regarding solo exhibitions, the gallery presented the work of defining personalities of Slovak, Czech and Hungarian art (Juraj Meliš (1985, 1994, 2012), (J. Bartusz (1986, 2006), Milan Knížák (1990), Ľubo Stacho (1991, 2012), József. R. Juhász (1992, 2003, 2013), Július Koller (1993), Otis Laubert (1993, 1996, 2007, 2016), Milan Bočkay (1993, 2017) Olbram Zoubek, (1994), Jozef Jankovič (1995, 2018) , Vladimír Preclík (1995), Rudolf Fila (1996), Dalibor Chatrný (1997, 2009), Monogramista TD (1997, 2010), Peter Rónai (1998), Peter Kalmus (1998, 2009), Ladislav Novák (1998), Vladimír Kordoš (1999), Milan Dobeš (2004), Marián Mudroch (2004, 2019), Sándor Pinczehelyi (2006), Eduard Ovčáček (2008), István efZámbó (2008), Jindřich Štreit (2009), Imre Bak (2010), Rudolf Sikora (2011), František Lozinski & Block group (2012), Ladislav Čarný (2014), Veronika Rónaiová (2015), Imre Bukta (2016), Stanislav Diviš (2018), László Fehér (2020), Jiří Surůvka (2020), etc.).
A separate chapter consists of exhibitions dedicated to Lajos Kassák (1983, 1992, 2012, 2017) and mapping the radiance of his myth (1990, 1992, 1997, 1998, 2002, 2007).
The gallery pays attention to young artists (Ivona Žirková, (2014), Dávid Demjanovič-Jarmila Mitríková (2016), Lucia Dovičáková (2017), Rastislav Podhorský (2019) and regularly presents the studios of the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava (Studio of Illustration and Printmaking (2005, 2019), Studio of Metal and Jewel (2006), Studio of Painting (2011), Studio of Fiber Art (2019).
The gallery is currently launching Project -1, which focuses on site-specific installations for young authors. The gallery cooperates with a variety of institutions and members of the art scene - at home and abroad. It builds the image of an open institution that enriches cultural life and the knowledge fund of those interested in art and the professional public.
Ernest Zmeták Art Gallery in Nové Zámky, Slovakia [Attention! The link opens in a new tab.]
KUPE in Opava
KUPE is a cultural and artistic space located in the reconstructed water tower at the eastern railway station in Opava, operating since 2016.
“We decided to save the monument for future generations, we managed to buy it, reconstruct it, and now we run a cultural centre in it,” says Vladimír Peringer, founder of the construction company Unicont and president of the non-profit association Opava Water Tower, under whose auspices KUPE operates.
The gallery specializes in photographic exhibitions prepared in cooperation with the Institute of Creative Photography of the Silesian University in Opava. The curators of the exhibitions are Associate Professor Jiří Siostrzonek, Ondřej Durczak from the Institute of Creative Photography and Štěpánka Bieleszová from the Olomouc Museum of Art.
In addition to the gallery, the former water tower building houses a cinema and acts as a venue for concerts, lectures and other events.
The main objective of KUPE is to create an independent cultural space which will offer the inhabitants of Opava (and not only them) a varied programme ranging from theatre performances, through concerts, film screenings and exhibitions to site-specific projects and other new forms of artistic expression. The gallery's programme mainly includes presentations of contemporary art, but there is also a place for showcasing established artists.
In the coming years, KUPE is planning a number of new projects, among others Gallery on the Line, which will connect the eastern station in Opava with the station in Hradec nad Moravicí by means of an open-air exhibition of sculptural installations.
Silesian University in Opava (Kupe Art. Gallery), Czech Republic [Attention! The link opens in a new tab.]
Associated Partners
Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk
Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk (ASP in Gdansk), Polish higher-education institution, was founded in 1945 in Sopot as the State Institute of Fine Arts, later renamed the State College of Fine Arts in Gdańsk (PWSSP). In 1954, the headquarters of the PWSSP were moved from Sopot to Gdańsk, to the rebuilt Great Armory. In 1968, the university gained a new, modernist wing designed by the university professor Ryszard Semka. Since 1996 it has had the status of an Academy of Fine Arts.
Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk is a non-profit public higher-education institution located in the large city of Gdansk (population range of 500,000-1,000,000 inhabitants), Pomeranian Voivodeship. ASP is a very small (uniRank enrollment range: 500-999 students) coeducational Polish higher education institution. It offers courses and programs leading to officially recognized higher education degrees such as bachelor degrees, master degrees, doctorate degrees in several areas of study. It has a selective admission policy based on entrance examinations. ASP also provides several academic and non-academic facilities and services to students including a library, galleries, workshops, study abroad and exchange programs (Erasmus+).
Piotr Piotrowski Center for Research on East-Central European Art
Faculty of Art, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan
The Piotr Piotrowski Center for Research on East-Central European Art was created to continue the academic research conducted by Piotr Piotrowski (1952–2015) and to preserve his material and intellectual legacy.
In line with the scope of research undertaken by Piotr Piotrowski, the Center’s activities cover modern and contemporary art − beginning with the avant-garde movement of the early 20th century and ending with contemporary phenomena. The geographic scope of research conducted and inspired by the Center covers the art and history of Central and Eastern Europe in the global perspective.
The basic aim of the Center is to popularise and continue Piotr Piotrowski’s research, both through academic activity (conducting and supporting research both on Piotrowski’s legacy and on the art of Central and Eastern Europe in the global context) and through education (the development of an international offer of lectures and seminars). Our long-term goal consists of creating a critical methodological apparatus concerning the art of Central and Eastern Europe in the global context.
The Center serves as a platform to support and enable contact between researchers who explore the art of Central and Eastern Europe by organising a biannual event: the East-Central European Art Forum; by preparing publications; and through a broad offer of lectures crucial for experts and beginners alike. The Center enjoys a material foundation consisting of the Piotr Piotrowski Archive (donated to Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań by Maria Żuk-Piotrowska) and the Piotrowski library (bought by AMU), which was planned as both an introductory and comprehensive collection related to his field of research, and is being systematically expanded and developed.