Absolutely. Four Exhibitions I Won’t Miss During Warsaw Gallery Weekend 2025

This year’s program is divided into two sections: the “official” WGW, featuring long-established Warsaw galleries, and WGW+, a space open to non-profit institutions and private galleries from outside the capital (including a few international guests), often present only for a few days. For several years now, WGW has been a reliable barometer of the trends shaping Poland’s art market. Contemporary painters reign supreme – from the well-known and beloved Aleksandra Waliszewska (Dawid Radziszewski Gallery), to the terrifyingly fascinating Agata Słowak (Fundacja Galerii Foksal), the cool and analytical Agata Bogacka (Gunia Nowik Gallery), and Marta Nadolle (leto), winner of the 2024 Polityka Passport Award. But WGW is not just about the younger generation of artists – many galleries are also revisiting classics of Polish postwar art, presenting them in fresh contexts, new constellations, and intergenerational juxtapositions. Don’t miss exhibitions of Ewa Partum (Ewa Opałka Gallery), Wojciech Fangor (Olszewski Gallery), the duo Zofia Rydet & Edward Dwurnik (Raster), or photographer Wojciech Plewiński (Jednostka Gallery). This edition also makes clear that artists from beyond Poland’s eastern border –primarily Ukraine and Belarus –have become an integral part of the country’s artistic life. Exhibitions by Anastasi Rydlevska, Jan Bačynsjkyj, and the presence of gallery TBA remind us that they bring not only new perspectives but also difficult subjects that can effectively knock us out of our carefree comfort zone.

And so you don’t get lost in this urban jungle, here are four exhibitions I personally have no intention of missing!

A Punk-Baroque Queen at Monopol Gallery

I couldn’t hide my surprise when I spotted the name of an icon of New York’s 1980s art scene in the WGW program – Colette Lumiere! An artist whose practice blends performance, installation, fashion, street art, painting, and photography – turning her very life into one grand work of art. Since the 1970s, the American-Tunisian artist has been setting trends and breaking boundaries – both aesthetic, fusing punk with baroque exuberance and camp excess, and ideological, challenging entrenched notions of femininity, gender roles, while also critiquing the commercial machinery of the art world. Colette’s legendary performances and her unmistakable style have inspired artists like Madonna, Jeff Koons, and Lady Gaga. And in Warsaw, in an exhibition curated by Monika Branicka, she will present her series Records from the Story of My Life – a collection of vinyl record covers transformed into collages that reveal the artist’s many personas, photographs, and installations. I can only hope that at the opening at Galeria Monopol we’ll get to see her in person, dressed in one of her signature looks.

A Retrospective of Mirosław Bałka

The next exhibition strikes a completely different chord – a comprehensive presentation of Mirosław Bałka’s work. The artist employs raw materials – steel, wood, asphalt, wax, earth – to speak of history, memory, trauma, the body, and its entanglements with power. Curated by Anda Rottenberg, the critic who has accompanied Bałka almost from the very beginning of his artistic journey, the exhibition Arbeit brings together sculptures, objects, and large-scale charcoal drawings on paper, tracing the arc of his practice from the 1980s to his most recent works. It is a rare opportunity to see, in one place, the creations of an artist who in recent years has exhibited primarily abroad. The exhibition has been made possible thanks to the private collection of the Common Arts Foundation and in collaboration with the renowned international Nordenhake Gallery, which represents Bałka worldwide.

Toward the Unconscious

What Says the Shadow’s Mouth –a poetic title that leads us into Aleksandra Liput’s exhibition at Le Guern Gallery, tucked away in a house with a garden in Saska Kępa. For over a year, the artist has been developing a cycle of monochromatic pencil drawings –semi-abstract works created under the influence of the subconscious. These drawings guide her into reflections on returning to oneself, delving deep into the inner self in search of safety, and confronting what is dark, hidden, and ambiguous. The exhibition will take the form of an installation composed of works in various techniques that recur in her practice: ceramics, stained glass, and textiles, together forming a cohesive, evocative environment. A younger-generation Warsaw-based artist, Liput is known for exploring themes of magical thinking, healing, contemporary anxieties, and myths. Here, she invites the viewer on a philosophical journey through the symbolism of the cave – a space of mystery and transformation.

Amateurs of Softness

For several years now, I’ve been following with interest the activity of Milan-based gallery eastcontemporary, which – right in this Italian city increasingly asserting itself as the capital of European art and design –showcases the work of women artists from the broadly defined Eastern Europe. The gallery maintains strong ties with the Polish art scene and regularly appears at major events in Warsaw. This time, it has prepared a group exhibition of three younger-generation artists who are seeking a new language through textiles, soft sculpture, and paper cut-outs. Among them are Marta Niedbał, winner of the main prize at WGW 2022 (together with Paweł Olszczyński); Nina Paszkowski, based in Cologne; and Eliška Konečná from the Czech Republic. The softness around which their works revolve is not only an aesthetic choice but also a feminist ethic of care—something we are sorely lacking in today’s chaotic world.

And if, after the gallery weekend, you’re still craving more, less than a week later (September 24–28) Warsaw will be taken over by another event – Fringe! With an open, experimental, and non-commercial program, it offers a glimpse into the city’s artistic niches and the chance to spot creators who may soon find their way into private gallery programs and institutional line-ups.

1. Eliška Konečná, No Petal Left to Pluck, 2025, embroidery, cotton, wooden frame, courtesy of eastcontemporary gallery

2. Colette Lumiere, The Wake of Madame Récamier, 1974/75, photographic print, courtesy of Galeria Monopol

3. Mirosław Bałka, Jan 15,6, 1988/89, wood, steel, jute, emulsion paint, courtesy of the artist and Common Arts Foundation

4. Mirosław Bałka, 133 x 34 x 190, 2011, steel, concrete, leather, plastic, courtesy of the artist and Nordenhake Gallery Berlin/Stockholm/Mexico

5. Aleksandra Liput, You have to be in hell to see heaven, exhibition view, Galeria Łęctwo, photo by Szymon Sokołowski, courtesy of the artist and Galerie Le Guern

6. Marta Niedbał, Gardenesque and her voice chambers, 2025, courtesy of eastcontemporary gallery