Galeria Koło (1995–2003) – przestrzeń otwarta

Abstract

Koło Gallery (1995–2003) – open space

The years 1995–2003 marked the period of Galeria Koło’s activity in Gdansk. It was a place created by a group of friends – Dominika Krechowicz, Maciej Sieńkowski, Jan Buczkowski, Krzysztof Wróblewski and Krzysztof Gliszczyński. They were mostly united by the experience of studying at the studio of Kazimierz ‘Kach’ Ostrowski, a key player on the Gdansk art scene. As artists-curators, they created an open space, integrating creative communities – displaying their works at Wyspa, they organized exhibitions for artists, their former masters, as well as young artists, just after their graduation. The works of artists exhibited in the Gallery depict symbolic urban spaces and their meanings, topography, experiences, traumas transferred from other spaces, while at the same time presenting emerging trends in social or feminist art. The gallery offered a space where numerous artists might develop their style – e.g. Katarzyna Józefowicz, Hanna Nowicka-Grochal, Zdzisław Pidek, Dominik Lejman, Jarosław Fliciński, Marek Targoński, Marta Branicka, and in the final period of the gallery’s operation Sławomir Lipnicki, Paulina Ołowska, Dominika Skutnik, Andrzej Karmasz, as well as many others. It was also a platform of exchange, an arena for such creators as Jarosław Modzelewski, Włodzimierz Pawlak, Andrzej Bielawski, Robert Maciejuk, Jerzy Olek, Wojciech Prażmowski, Tomasz Tatarczyk and others. Marek Sobczak added a symbolic dimension to his exhibition entitled Wisła wpada do morza (The Vistula empties into the sea). The artists creating the Gallery mobilized themselves once again in 2016 to prevent the destruction of a mosaic by Anna Fiszer, an artist whose work was presented at Galeria Koło’s first exhibition (a joint exhibition with Ostrowski and Jerzy Wielicki) initiating the operation of the Gallery in 1995.