CoCA “Znaki Czasu” collection – new acquisitions 2021, part 2

When: 3.12.2021–9.01.2022

Exhibition opening: 3.12.2021 (Friday), 18:00

Curators: Krzysztof Stanisławski, Krzysztof Białowicz

The first part of exhibition: click!
After the vernissage we invite you to a screening of Piotr Dumała’s films: click!

In the CoCA’s statute the task of “creating, managing and sharing the collection” is mentioned at the very beginning. It’s one of our primary duties. We strive to fulfill it with utmost diligence.

This year we had an opportunity to display more than a dozen paintings from the collection during the 17th International Vilnius Painting Triennial, many works have been exhibited at the 10th Sacrum Art Triennial “The Sanctity of Nature?” in Częstochowa, and later in Toruń. However, the broadest review of only this year’s acquisitions are the two following exhibitions. The first – “Andrzej Jerzy Lech – Fotogenia” – gathers 115 photos by the prominent photographer, living and creating in New Jersey near New York. The second is a collective exhibition of paintings, photos, drawings and works on plasterboards by Polish and Lithuanian artists. Among them are classics who passed away, such as Bronisław Wojciech Linke, Roman Cieślewicz, Andrzej Lachowicz and Michał Kokot from the Group Zero 61; still active but already classic artists – Prof. Zdzisław Nitka, Prof. Jonas Gasiunas, Prof. Piotr Dumała, Jerzy Wardak from the Group Zero 61, Krzysztof Gierałtowski, Marek Sobczyk and Ryszard Grzyb (both from Gruppa, the most important group of the 1980s New Expression).

While developing our collection we are introducing new thematic threads pertaining to experimental photography, Polish animation art, New Expression’s painting and the art of Baltic countries. At the beginning of the year we planned to spend 100,000 PLN on acquisitions, yet thanks to a grant from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, additional government funds and Goethe-Institut donating an elaborate multimedia installation titled “GABINET / DAS KABINET”, the combined value of acquired works amounted to 925,000 PLN – over nine times more than initially planned. Therefore, we consider this difficult, pandemic year of 2021 as fruitful when it comes to enriching CoCA’s collection of art.