Gallery sharing event Constellations Warsaw brings international flavour to a quickly developing art scene

Earlier this month 11 Warsaw galleries opened their doors to 11 of their international counterparts for the second edition of Constellations (until 10 May). Organised by the participating dealerships Piktogram, Dawid Radziszewski, Stereo and Wschód, the gallery share initiative aims to foster a dialogue between artists from around the world.

For Constellations 2025, galleries from Basel, Berlin, Bucharest, Frankfurt, London, Naples, Paris, Shanghai, Stockholm, and Vienna have paired up with a mix of significant players in the Polish art scene like Foksal and Raster, plus experimental new spaces like Turnus—a cafe, community center, and gallery that has become an incubator for new talent.

The collaborative model is not new to the European art scene: Constellations effectively succeeds the gallery sharing initiative Friend of a Friend, a project by Wschód’s founder Piotr Drewko and Stereo directors Zuzanna Hadryś and Michał Lasota, which ran in Warsaw and Berlin from 2018 to 2021. This was itself inspired by London’s Condo Complex and Cologne’s Okey Dokey.

This year’s lineup offered a strong cross-section of Warsaw’s art scene, though some gallerists seemed to struggle with how to present their artists, resulting in awkward mismatches between the works and distractingly sterile spaces. A handful of standout shows at Piktogram, Monopol, and Dawid Radziszewski fully capitalised on the interplay between local and international perspectives, offering works with broad collector appeal.

“It’s an intimate event, but one of very high quality,” said Raster co-founder Michał Kaczyński of Constellations. “We made several placements during the opening weekend and saw strong interest in both our works and those presented by our guests. Warsaw is going through a major leap right now — everyone here can feel it.” It was Iris Touliatou’s untitled (still not over you), featuring reclaimed light fixtures from defunct Athens office buildings, that particularly struck a chord. Presented by London-based gallery Ilenia at Import Export, the work won this year’s Friends’ Art Prize, which funds the acquisition of one work for the permanent collection of the recently relocated Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw (MSN).

For Import Export founder Piotr Bazylko, a collector, author, and gallerist who has been a leading figure in the Polish art market for nearly 25 years, the win lured a dense crowd to the gallery—including many visitors who embody the country’s shifting collector base. “Warsaw has a growing scene of younger buyers: lawyers and entrepreneurs in their mid-30s to mid-40s. In a sense, it is bringing the Polish scene closer to a Belgian or German model where the collecting class is composed of businessmen and people with independent professions,” rather than centering on the elite, oligarchic model of the past.

Among this rising new class is a strong growth in female collectors, according to Kaczyński. “In my experience, their choices often feel more independent— less driven by market trends or fashion—and result in highly personal collections.” One key aspect of this evolution is an international curiosity after years of Polish collectors predominantly buying works from local artists. “Today, we see a mature, dynamic scene. Many of our collectors now travel internationally, expanding their collections with works by artists from around the world, not just Poland.”

Though the international galleries were glad to introduce themselves to new audiences, and Warsaw’s galleries were happy to expand their international presence, Drewko was candid about the challenges facing Constellations. There is the issue of funding: international galleries cover the costs of attending themselves.

But it is the issue of unity that he finds most pressing. “To be perfectly honest, the main [obstacle] is the lack of communication between the galleries. It’s normal to have different visions [and] be driven by ambition, but we don’t have the same goal in the end,” Drewko explained, noting that the crowded event programming leads to too many events for a city that hasn’t yet become a major destination for the market. “There are obstacles, but we are driven by the belief that Warsaw could be, or is starting to be, a strong international city.”

And of course, no picture of Warsaw’s contemporary art scene would be complete without mentioning the impact of the monolithic new MSN building. The white concrete structure, designed by Thomas Phifer, made international headlines when it opened in October, drawing a crowd of around 50,000 visitors during its first weekend. Everyone, from gallerists to collectors to artists, is keenly aware of its impact. “I had a talk with Andrzej [Przywara] from Foksal Gallery Foundation at the opening, and he said to me, ‘Now things will change for the better,’” Drewko recalled. “Warsaw has always been magical, wild and special, but we could never compete with Vienna, Berlin, Paris, [and] Brussels. And I think now we can.”

With another major event, the second edition of Nada Villa Warsaw, set to bring 49 international galleries and art spaces to the city’s neo-baroque Villa Gawrońskich next month, it seems that Warsaw is on the cusp of becoming a new draw for the European art market. But for now, its constellation of galleries must adjust to the new attention that MSN has brought to the city in order to best seize the spotlight.