We opened the Raster Gal­lery in 2001 — this April marks 25 years of our activity in the art market. To celebrate the occasion, we present an anniver­sary col­lec­tion of 25 works by 25 artists close to us. Together they form a kind of clock of art — each piece was created in a dif­ferent year of the past quarter-​century. Some of these works have been exhibited by us before, others have not. Taken together, they tell a story about people and time. However, this is not about writing history; rather, it is about recal­ling dif­ferent moments — dif­ferent presents in which, thanks to art, we live our everyday lives. One of the threads explored here is relation­ships, par­ticularly the act of wor­king as a pair — something that for a quar­ter of a cen­tury has been an inspiring chal­lenge for us.

For the exhibition we also invited frien­dly gal­leries from around the world with whom we have had the pleasure of col­laborating: i8 Gal­lery, Esther Schip­per, Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, and Plan B Gal­lery and Berlin.

— Łukasz Gor­czyca & Michał Kaczyński

Panowiechłopcy is us—Gorczyca and Kaczyński—portrayed after several years of youth­ful jour­nalism in the pages of Raster magazine and various other media. It was the same year that—together with Joanna Kaimer—we opened Raster Gal­lery. In this way, we joined the infor­mal por­trait gal­lery of “art politicians” that Dwur­nik had been eagerly developing since the mid-1970s. Edward sup­por­ted us many times in crazy ideas that didn’t fit the gravity of the profes­sion, cul­minating in cut­ting one of his pain­tings into two-hundred-zloty pieces.

Edward Dwur­nik, Panowiechłopcy  (Gentlemen-​boys), 2001, acrylic and oil on canvas, 146 × 114 cm

For two years, while wor­king as a com­puter graphic designer in a Krakow adver­tising agency, Dawicki placed his microscopic self-​portrait on posters, leaflets, and brochures com­mis­sioned by manufac­turers of heating equip­ment or medical-​sanitary sup­plies. All these materials were prin­ted and distributed accor­ding to their func­tion, while the miniature face of the artist hidden on them remained unnoticed. This sub­ver­sive per­for­mance became an iconic work of the new art at the turn of the cen­tury, describing the existen­tial and economic con­ditions of artistic creation in the era of young Polish capitalism. This work was first shown at Oskar’s solo exhibition at Raster in 2002, titled “Help!”.

Oskar Dawicki, Adver­tising Project, 2002, set of 12 offset prints

There is something incredibly engaging in Elsner’s vir­tuoso drawings—the sim­plicity of mediums and the vast amount of labour, the movement of coloured crayons on a sheet of paper that com­pose a seemin­gly ordinary, pleasing image. But intriguin­gly, something is not quite right, just like in this series of land­scapes depic­ting forest fires and human set­tlements in the light of the set­ting sun.

Sławomir Elsner, Land­scape, 2003, crayons on paper, 34 × 49 cm

This per­fec­tly restrained still life depicts two ves­sels, just as life is often a relation­ship between two people. Wilhelm’s first exhibition at Raster, along with the accom­panying book and cas­sette, was titled “Everyday Life in Poland in 1999–2001.” Everyday life as a col­lec­tion of facts, objects, and relation­ships remains con­sisten­tly inspiring for the artist. Within the pain­terly frame, it becomes full of non-​obvious meanings, depen­den­cies, and hidden stories.

Wil­helm Sasnal, Still Life, 2004, oil on canvas, 35 × 40 cm

“This pain­ting can be pain­ted indefinitely,” Rogal­ski com­ments. A cinematic death scene cap­tured from the per­spec­tive of a woun­ded sol­dier becomes cruelly relevant in the face of sub­sequent wars. The treetops fading into white are a poignant, final ear­thly sight before the ultimate loss of con­sciousness. As Profes­sor Maria Poprzęcka wrote about Rogalski’s pain­tings: “starting from the physiology of vision, they reach metaphysics.”

Zbigniew Rogal­ski, Death of a Par­tisan (7), 2005–2026, oil on canvas, 130 × 180 cm

Island comes from the first period of Michał’s work, when the basic materials of his pieces were paper and card­board, and most of his extraor­dinary objects were kept in a domestic scale. During that time, he created a series of works inspired by car­tography and the map grid. Budny restored physicality to the map, gave it a philosophical purity, but also added a sub­jec­tive, per­sonal element—a lonely house on an island.

Michał Budny, Island, 2005, card­board, 20 × 80 × 80 cm

The Berlin-​based duo Prinz Gholam is known for subtle, choreographic photographs and per­for­man­ces exploring figures of proximity and ten­der­ness in the “living pictures” (tableaux vivants) conven­tion known from art history. On the occasion of the Villa Warsaw organised by Raster in the summer of 2006, Wol­fgang and Michael per­for­med one of their first public per­for­man­ces (their third ever, and the first in Poland). Their appearan­ces became a tradition in sub­sequent editions of our travel­ling inter­national project Villa—successively in Reykjavik (2010) and Tokyo (2011).

Prinz Gholam, La Mon­tagne, la Rue, l’Été, 2006, video on DVD, per­for­mance as part of Villa Warsaw, 18’35”

Susid has “since forever” been one of our favorite artists, one who influen­ced our way of thin­king about pain­ting, art, and the world. Since the very begin­ning of Raster, he has also been a guest at our openings, gran­ting disin­terested sup­port to suc­ces­sive generations of young artists. In 2007, we organized a joint exhibition of Paweł and Prze­mek Matecki. It was a model meeting of pain­ters from two dif­ferent generations and poetics, based on mutual respect and enthusiasm.

Paweł Susid, Things Made in Art until 2007 in %, 2006/2026, acrylic on canvas, 50 × 100 cm

Matecki’s pain­ting sets traps for the viewer and mixes genres effec­tively: it stimulates through expres­sion, tempts with con­cep­tual maneuvers, and seduces with a sur­real aura. His pain­tings balance between abs­trac­tion and figuration, com­bining the pain­terly layer with found photographs of unk­nown people, derealising reality in their own way. “It is the same with this painting,” Prze­mek com­ments. “A foggy story about a trip to Paris. Random people from an album found in a skip in Berlin. Stories sup­por­ted by photos, stories that do not exist.”

Przemysław Matecki, Untitled, 2008, paper and oil on canvas, 193 × 130 cm

During a winter walk along the Vistula River, Krzysz­tof Bed­nar­ski spot­ted a snow-​covered hull of an aban­doned boat. Its shape remin­ded him of the literary figure of the legen­dary white whale. In 1987, the artist first presen­ted an instal­lation created from the cut hull of a found boat. Since then, this motif has retur­ned obses­sively in his work in sub­sequent sculp­tural incar­nations. We are also linked to Bednarski—whose works we showed at Raster in the exhibition “Song of Aluminum” (2014–15)—by a shared school experience. When “Moby Dick” was being created, we were begin­ning our studies at the Got­twald high school in Warsaw, of which Krzysz­tof is also an alumnus.

Krzysz­tof M. Bed­nar­ski, Moby Dick (XXI), 2010, patinated bronze, 220 × 30 × 30 cm

This iconic work by the Slavs and Tatars col­lec­tive is also one of the first objects they created. “Mollah” in Per­sian means a master or religious leader, but also a friend. A turban woven from ears of wheat and a raw brick are a per­verse reference to revolutionary emblems—a spiritually trans­for­med hammer and sickle. The work is part of a longer cycle titled “Friendship of Nations,” in which Slavs and Tatars trace often sur­prising analogies between the Iranian Revolution and the Polish “Solidarity” movement, political Islam, and the fall of Soviet communism.

Slavs and Tatars, Wheat Mollah, 2011, wheat, cotton, brick, 20 × 27 × 29 cm, ed. 2/3 +1 A.P.

Milena Korol­czuk is a film­maker, photographer, and screenw­riter. In 2013, we presen­ted a series of her photographs at Raster depic­ting likenes­ses of iconic figures from the history of philosophy, art, and pop cul­ture molded from break­fast bread. “Still Life with a Skull” is a photograph that preceded the entire series; due to its vanitas charac­ter, it is closer to the pain­terly tradition of the “still life” variety.

Milena Korol­czuk, Milena Korol­czuk, Still Life with a Skull, 2011/2026, photograph, pig­ment ink on cotton paper, 35 × 45 cm, ed. 5 + 1 A.P.

12 photomon­tages made for the book What the Courier Does, realised in col­laboration with Darek Foks in 2005. For Foks’s text, Libera created a series of 63 illustrations, incor­porating the figures and faces of 20th-century cinema stars into the scenery of Warsaw during the Uprising. They play the roles of couriers, whom Libera discreetly trans­forms into erotic icons of pop cul­ture. This is one of the most magnificent works on the living body and sub­con­scious of Polish history.

Zbigniew Libera, Łączniczka, 2005/2013, teka graficzna, druk duotonowy na papierze bawełnianym, 12 plansz o wymiarach 39,5 × 29,5 cm każda w ręcznie wykonanej, tek­turowej teczce. Edycja 30 sztuk + 5 A.P.

Photographs from Grzeszykowska’s Private Archive provide a fascinating insight into the back­stage of the artist’s sub­sequent photographic, film, and sculp­tural projects, while also revealing scenes from her everyday domestic and family life. The inter­sec­tion of art and private life is of par­ticular impor­tance to Aneta; in this undefined space, in interac­tion with mem­bers of her household, ideas for new works are born. The photographic dip­tych depicts two objects made of fresh pig­skin for the Selfie series. The fin­gers of the artist’s part­ner and her daugh­ter, exten­ded in a sear­ching touch, are like a per­verse echo of  The Creation of Adam from the Sistine Chapel fresco.

Aneta Grzeszykow­ska, From the Private Archive series, 2014/2026, photograph, pig­ment ink on cotton paper,  [2×] 30 × 40 cm, A.P.

The pain­tings of Michelle Raw­lings, an artist living and wor­king in Texas, com­bine pain­terly precision and a fascination with moder­nist art with con­tem­porary social media visual culture—particularly the poetics of represen­tation and self-​representation of teenagers. The rain­bow self-​portrait has an extraor­dinary, dense texture, and the drawing of the face integrated into it has an almost relief-​like charac­ter. This pain­ting is a memory of Michelle’s solo exhibition “Girl Talk,” which took place at Raster in 2017.

Michelle Raw­lings, Rain­bow Selfy, 2015, oil on linen canvas, wood, 33 × 25,5 × 2,5 cm

One of several unfor­get­table musical chap­ters for Raster was the publication of the debut album by writer Dorota Masłowska—Mister D. Społeczeństwo jest niemiłe [Society is Unkind] (2014). Maria Strzelecka—illustrator, pain­ter, and writer—worked for two years on the music video for one of the tracks from this album: a meticulous, analog animation. For its pur­pose, a 1:6 scale model of an apart­ment was created—a work in itself, a realistic fan­tasy about a typical Soviet-​era block apart­ment. It is an obses­sively detailed recreation of the world inscribed in the Polish sub­con­scious, a remix of Zofia Rydet’s Sociological Record and the YouTube chan­nel Łączy nas piłka.

Maria Strzelecka, Scenography for Mister D.’s music video Żona piłkarza [Footballer’s Wife], 2016/2026, mixed media, 18 × 150 × 90 cm

The archaeology of moder­nism is one of the threads run­ning through the work of Ryan Gander, one of the most impor­tant post-​conceptual artists of our generation. Bril­lian­tly and with humor, he illustrates the col­lision of great ideas with the mun­dane, as in this series of works showing icons of moder­nist design covered in a non-​melting layer of powdery snow.

Ryan Gander, Upside down Breuer chair after a couple of inches of snow­fall, 2017, Was­sily chair model B3, marble resin, 71,5 × 79 × 74 cm

A humble pain­ting har­bours revolutionary poten­tial. Mies van der Rohe and Le Cor­busier stand on the future con­struc­tion site of the model Weis­sen­hof Estate in Stut­t­gart. This unas­suming meeting scene, cap­tured in an archival photograph, sym­bolises the birth of a new architec­tural order. The vision of modern housing would materialise just a few months later and change our world forever.

Marcin Maciejow­ski, Stut­t­gart 1927 (Le Cor­busier and Mies van der Rohe), 2018, oil on canvas, 40 × 50 cm

A shadow and a look of fear appear on the face; the gaze escapes to the side from where the threat is approaching. In Karolina Jabłońska’s pain­tings, exag­geration plays an impor­tant role; problems and emotions seem larger than they actually are, so that they can finally find their outlet in a dramatic form. An incoming pink ball is like an asteroid on a col­lision course, casting an unnatural, menacing glow on the planet.

Karolina Jabłońska, Pink Self-​portrait, 2019, oil on canvas, 55 × 46 cm

Geo­metric, multi-​coloured acrylic mosaics from the “Synthetic Folklore” series are one of the first projects in Polish art realised using artificial intel­ligence. Simon created a database con­taining pat­terns of traditional textiles from various cul­tures and eras, based on which an algorithm lear­ned to generate new pat­terns. Behind this action lies a question about the possibility of creating a hybrid, univer­salist lan­guage and the role of the machine in this process.

Janek Simon, Syn­thetic Folk­lore v0.3.28.29, 2020,  acrylic glass, 125,5 × 90,5 cm

„what’s there to be seen?
what’s there to be scraped away?
In a mirror it’s not clear nor clean
I scrape the silver, opening up dimen­sions
Which then can evoke public suspension 
Thank you glass cart for making this happen
It only misses you with or without covid
Let’s play this thing called dialogue 
The work is waiting“
(Navid Nuur)

Navid Nuur, The Mor­ning as Night, 2011-2021 mirror and scraped mirror, glass cart, 176 × 125 × 80 cm

The main protagonist is plun­ged into lethargy, her body sur­roun­ded by filigree female figures. They play and mock; they are like untamed little fears, good and bad emotions that can paralyze our movements. Something or someone takes con­trol over us, and we freeze in stil­l­ness. This magnificent pain­ting by Paulina Stasik was presen­ted in 2022 at the famous exhibition of young art “Anxiety Comes at Dusk” at the Zachęta National Gal­lery of Art in Warsaw.

Paulina Stasik, Stil­l­ness, 2022, oil on canvas, 180 × 150 cm

In the autumn of 2021, this par­ticular set of laun­dry hung for the first time in Raster’s garden as part of Dominika Olszowy’s per­for­mance Clas­sic. Three years later, it took on a sunny shape at an exhibition in Wroclaw’s Nowy Złoty. Now it returns to the walls of our gal­lery as a radiant image of all the inces­sant and not quite washed-​away dirt

Dominika Olszowy, Sun in the Wash, 2024, gauze diapers, con­crete, epoxy resin, 200 × 200 × 10 cm

In the autumn of 2010, we organised an exhibition of the charismatic Icelan­dic artist Ragnar Kjar­tans­son at Raster. One of the works presen­ted was the then three-​part video series Me and My Mother. Every five years, Ragnar stands before the camera with his mother—a famous Icelan­dic actress—to repeat a specific per­for­mance: the mother spits in her son’s face for several minutes. We are now showing six parts of the cycle, which has been realised for a quarter-​century, inc­luding the latest film from last year.

Ragnar Kjar­tans­son, Me and My Mother, 2000/2005/2010/2015/2020/2025, video, ed. 6 + 2 A.P.

What is hidden behind the cur­tain? What will this spec­tacle be about, and what will the future bring? Movement and the pas­sage of time are inscribed in this seemin­gly static com­position. From under the torn grey cur­tain, more emerge. The pain­ting deceives in many ways, and its edges wave like a real cur­tain.

Emilia Kina, Untitled, 2026, oil on shaped canvas, 161,5 × 213 × 5,5 cm