Our Gallery

The BWA Gallery of Contemporary Art is the largest state-funded art gallery in Olsztyn. It is situated in the town centre in an imposing building which it shares with the Olsztyn Planetarium and and multimedia library . The Gallery has been functioning in its present location since 1973, but was originally set up in 1958 in Olsztyn Castle.

The Gallery has very good exhibition facilities consisting of two spaces: the main hall with floor surface of 432m² and a hall for smaller exhibitions with a floor surface of 90m²; both with the most up-to-date lighting. The Gallery's entrance hall offers a further 100m² of exhibiting space.

The mission of the Gallery is to promote Polish and foreign contemporary art by organising exhibitions and by working in the fields of education and publishing. Since its foundation the Gallery has carried out its statutory functions by organising nationwide themed, single-issue and mongraphic exhibitions as well as promotional shows, art competitions and exhibitions devoted to artistic movements. Since 1975 the Gallery has been organising the renowned Polish Woodcut and Linocut Quadrennial; a well-established and prestigious nationwide print competition. Since 1998 it has also been the principal organiser of the Olsztyn Art Biennial, presenting the best of the region's most recent artistic output.

On average the BWA Gallery presents 25 exhibitions every year. Among the many noteworthy exhibitions organised and presented in recent years have been "The Work of Jewish Artists 1918-39", "The Atlantis of the North: the Former East Prussia in Photographs 1864-1942", "The Magnificent Seven - Jan Cybis and the Winners of the Cybis Prize", " Kontakt Direkt - Bezpośredni Kontakt: a Polish-Swedish Artistic Project", "Polish Paris" and "École de Paris" from the collection of Wojciech Fibak, "Towards a Vision - Late 20th Century Paintings from the Radom Museum of Contemporary Art", and "Man and Beast in the Paintings of Jan Lebenstein"

With the collaboration of the State Art Gallery in Sopot, BWA has on three occasions exhibited works from the famous collection of Polish paintings in the Lvov Art Gallery. It has also organised numerous single-artist shows devoted to (among others) Jan Tarasin, Tadeusz Dominik, Józef Szajna, Stasys Eidrigevicius, Władysław Hasior, Jerzy Duda-Gracz, Andrzej Dudziński, Henryk Musiałowicz, Jerzy Mierzejewski, Józef Łukomski, Kazimierz Mikulski, Józef Wilkoń, Roland Topor, Henryk Waniek, Andrzej Wróblewski and Wojciech Sadley.

Olsztyn's BWA Gallery of Contemporary Art already has an established presence and prestige which allow it to collaborate fruitfully with numerous artists, galleries and museums across Poland and Europe.