After 28 years...

Mala Gallery's last exhibition

The Mała Gallery ZPAF-CSW was one of the Polish galleries with longest, uninterrupted, independent and non-commercial activity. Its programme was shaped in the late 1970's. The first exhibition was opened on October 10th, 1977. The foundation of the Mała Gallery was initiated by Zbigniew Dłubak, a prominent artist and a circle of artists around him. The first director of the Mała Gallery from 1977 to 1981 was Andrzej Jórczak. From 1983 up to now the person responsible for artistic programme of the gallery was Marek Grygiel, who was at the same time the curator of photography in the Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw. Presently in the galllery are working also Krzysztof Wojciechowski (from 1990), photographer artist, member of the Union of Polish Art Photographers and Zbigniew Chmielewski, graphic artist who studied in the School of Fine Arts in Warsaw.

The Mała Gallery from 1977 to 1982 had PSP-CSW linked to its name since from the begining it was run jointly with "Fine Arts Workshops" (PSP).

From 1982 to 1990 the gallery was run exclusively by the Union of Polish Art Photographers (ZPAF).

From 1990 up to now it was run jointly by the Union of Polish Art Photographers and the Centre for Contemporary Art.

The Mała Gallery realised 355 exhibitions, with several exceptions they were the first presentations of the works being shown. The Gallery also organised many meetings, discussions, cine and video projections, meetings with artists, some happenings and performances.

Over 350 artists took part in these exhibition, about 50 of them were from abroad. Three of every four artists were members of the ZPAF.

Achievments of the Mała Gallery were presented during many symposiums in Poland and abroad, inter alia during Photographic Confrontations in Gorzów (several times since 1979), in Budapest (also several times), during the Month of Photography in Bratislava, at festivals FOTOFEIS in Scotland and FOTOFEST in Houston, Texas, in Toulouse, France, in Berlin (several times).

The Mała Gallery realised also over dozen significant exhibitions of Polish photography, e.g. in Hungary, in USA (New York), France (Toulon, Toulouse), Lithuania, Slovakia (Bratislava, Poprad), Great Britain (Brighton), Finnland and Estonia.

Most of the exhibitions were accompanied by catalogues published by the gallery. These catalogues are now invaluable source of informations concerning development of the Polish photography.

The Mała Gallery has been publishing since 1992 a photographic magazine FOTOTAPETA (print version is now suspended) and from 1997 this web magazine FOTOTAPETA that is the oldest, functioning without interruption magazine of this kind in Poland.

The present exhibition opened on January 3rd, 2006 ends the activities of the Mała Gallery.

Mała Galeria ZPAF-CSW
Pl. Zamkowy 8, 00-277 Warszawa
tel. +48 228312339
e-mail: mgrygiel@hotmail.com
fototapeta.art.pl