Archive of exhibitions

At a time when SNG was still chasing novelties and even risked acquiring a diploma project of a promising graduate, a performance Man on the River (2011) by Tomáš Šoltýs (1985) was created. The image of the man, the artist himself, who, as Christ walked, "flowed" on the waves of the Danube, had a nature of an endurance exercise - it was a demanding, life-investing performance. It got noticed not only by the cultural audiences but also by the city's security forces.

Project Seven Liberal Thoughts on the Arts, a collective work by curators at the SNG, responds to the flourishing of online culture during the quarantine measures because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Even prior to that, the SNG's digital footprint was relatively pronounced, and therefore under the new conditions it came naturally to us to expand our online range.

Live art, in exceptionally diverse media, is in this period harder to lay hold of in museums than ever before. All the more therefore do we appreciate the generous financial gift from Tatra banka, now making it possible to take in live art for the second year running – to “catch the butterfly”. The exhibition presents the newest additions to SNG collections by artists of the middle generation of Slovakia's contemporary art. Erik Binder, Marko Blažo, Marek Kvetan, Denisa Lehocká and Milan Tittel together offer us a varied yet coherent assortment of contemporary art approaches, media, and themes.

Do you have a knack for art? is an international platform focusing on art education. Every year it organizes a contest for high school students who want to deepen their interest in art and express their opinions on contemporary art and society. The exhibition presents the best projects of this year's competition with the theme Freedom of Choice by teams from all around Slovakia.

Zone is an educational space for visitors of all age categories, who like to explore, experiment, and want to learn more about interesting topics from fine art. Here, we connect interaction, new knowledge, fun, and relax with original works of art which are commented and explained though installations.

Looking at the statue 26 October 1921, destruction of the Maria Theresa monument in Bratislava (2007 - 2019) by contemporary artist Martin Piaček (1972), displayed in the window of Esterházy Palace - it is crucial to realize that we are just a couple of meters away from a place where the monument to Maria Theresa was unveiled in May 1897 and stood until its vandalistic destruction during the First Republic. Its granite pedestal stood there for another four years, without a monumental marble sculpture, silent remorse and a symbol of human vandalism.

This solo exhibition of Erik Binder is a continuation of projects of middle-generation artists made for the SNG. Robustness of his oeuvre and at the same time the lightness of his creative approach enable us to present him as a creator within his own environment, within the labyrinth of his own life, where he is trying to orientate.

Several works by the designer and ceramicist Martin Bu (1976 - 2021) could be used as a concise spatial illustration for a dystopian novel. The world inside it went through a cataclysm. Some of the buildings have melted away, scattered with "corpses" of military machinery, others becoming habitat of sea predators. Nevertheless, Martin Bu does not concern himself with mere sarcastic commentary on various escapades of the genus Homo technicus from the position of critical or experimental design.

The new exhibition cycle of the Slovak National Gallery, In the Shop Display, enters the public space through the window of Café Berlinka on the ground floor of the Esterházy Palace, presenting works of visual art responding to the issues of contemporary life. This new exhibition format has revived a collaboration between Peter Bartoš and Július Koller called Shop Display (Anti-Gallery).

Do you have a knack for art? is an international platform focusing on art education. Every year it organizes a contest for high school students who want to deepen their interest in art and express their opinions on contemporary art and society. The exhibition presents the winning projects of this year's competition with the theme Idol by teams from Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary.