About

The Biała Gallery operated from 1985 to 2025 as part of the Centre for Culture in Lublin, a municipal cultural institution. It was a non-commercial, original gallery, founded and run by Anna Nawrot in partnership (until 2018) with Jan Gryka. There were also working in the gallery Katarzyna Bartnik-Daniel, Agata Zwierzyńska and Piotr Wysocki (graphic studio).

The mission of the gallery was to present new art phenomena and tendencies in their many forms and manifestations. The starting point for preparing the gallery’s programme was the desire to create our own artistic space for art that is up-to-date, unconventional and experimenting. Biała regularly published catalogues and mantained its own archive (exhibitions documentation, art b, art magazines, films).

Biała has organized over 500 exhibitions and meetings, including group exhibitions, presenting art outside Lublin. Some of them are:

Gallery also participated in the international contemporary art presentations such as Supermarket in Kulturhuset in Stockholm in 2011.

Some of the artists who had their debut at Biała are: Mirosław Maszlanko, Wojciech Gilewicz, Robert Kuśmirowski, Eliza Galey, Mariusz Tarkawian, Michał Stachyra, Bogna Burska.

The gallery exhibited works of artists from Germany, Israel, Belgium, the Netherlands, Czech Republic – Horst Sagunski, Frank Fietzek, Sigrun Jakubaschke, Henk Visch, Boaz Tal, Rudi van Dijk, Pavel Doskocil to name just a few.

Since 1996 till 2013 the gallery conducts an educational programme for students of the Faculty of Arts of the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin – Young Forum of Art. Several dozens of group and individual exhibitions have been organized as part of this programme, run by Jan Gryka.

In the years 1996-98 the gallery carried out a project entitled New Spaces of Art of the 90s (Mirosław Maszlanko, Piotr Kurka, Mikołaj Smoczyński, Grzegorz Klaman, Jan Gryka, Marek Kijewski, Mirosław Filonik, Leon Tarasewicz, Joanna Rajkowska, Joanna Hoffmann, Krzysztof Sołowiej, Agata Michowska, Sławomir Belina, Marek Targoński, Hanna Łuczak).

In 2003/4 the gallery organized a series of exhibitions under the title Painting! Beware! (Dorota Podlaska, Robert Maciejuk, Edward Dwurnik, Paweł Susid, Piotr C.Kowalski, Dominik Lejman, Leon Tarasewicz and Tomasz Ciecierski) and in 2006/7 a series of exhibitions of the youngest art from Lublin, White Class (Paulina Kara, Cezary Klimaszewski, Justyna Janusz, Anna Gryczka, Agnieszka Ciekot, Mariusz Tarkawian, Marcin Łukasiewicz, Kamil Stańczak, Michał Stachyra, Magdalena Bicz).

Between 2005 and 2009 the gallery organized four large group exhibitions in the abandoned part of the Centre for Culture (Nova Biała, Transgression of Imagination, Complete Refurbishment and Alternative Collection).

2010 is the year of the 25th anniversary of the Biała Gallery, the year when we present artists collaborating with Biała and revitalize the Art Yard project, a permanent outdoor exhibition (works of Jadwiga Sawicka, Twożywo, Jan Gryka, Michał Stachyra, Tomasz Bielak, Kamil Stańczak, Ilona Oszust among others).

Since 2011 till 2014 gallery runs cycle  titled ende neu – which was focusing on the critical analysis of contemporary art and the presentation of artists who propose new solutions. In this framework screenings, exhibitions and meetings have been organized. The program was run by Piotr Pękala.

Since September 2013 Biała Gallery has occupied a significantly larger exhibition space following renovations at its home location building, the Centre for Culture in Lublin, at 12th Peowiaków Street.

The last exhibition in the 40-year history of the Biała Gallery was Sale, by its director and also an artist, Anna Nawrot. The gallery closed on December 31, 2025.