Pilecki Institute USA presents MODEERN FREEDOM exhibition - contemporary art from Central and Eastern Europe in Lower Manhattan, NYC - Instytut Pileckiego
exhibition
19.05.2026 (Tue) 18:00
Pilecki Institute USA presents MODEERN FREEDOM exhibition - contemporary art from Central and Eastern Europe in Lower Manhattan, NYC
The largest group presentation of Polish contemporary art in New York since MoMA’s legendary “Fifteen Polish Painters” exhibition in 1961.
Tomorrow, May 19 at 6:00 PM, “MODEERN FREEDOM” opens at Pilecki Institute USA in Lower Manhattan.
Presented in New York, “MODEERN FREEDOM” is a major exhibition of art from Poland and Central and Eastern Europe, bringing together established artists and younger voices whose works engage with memory, history, totalitarian experience, democracy, and the meaning of freedom today.
The exhibition gathers artists from Poland and across Central and Eastern Europe, including Ukraine, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Germany, Georgia, Belarus, the Baltic states, the Balkans, and beyond. Together, their works form a broad, multi-generational perspective on a region shaped by war, political violence, censorship, resistance, transformation, and the ongoing search for human dignity.
Among the participating artists are Paweł Althamer, Anna Baumgart, Izabella Gustowska, Katarzyna Kozyra, Zbigniew Libera, Robert Kuśmirowski, Joanna Rajkowska, Paweł Kowalewski, Chris Niedenthal, Wojtek Radtke, Zhanna Kadyrova, Wolfgang Stiller, Kryštof Kintera, and many others.
Through painting, sculpture, installation, drawing, film, performance, photography, and text, “MODEERN FREEDOM” reflects on how the legacy of the 20th century continues to shape artistic expression, identity, and contemporary culture.
Organized around the curatorial framework of Memory / Tremor / Freedom, the exhibition offers a contemporary perspective on freedom as a fragile, contested, and deeply human experience — one carried through memory, images, bodies, histories, and forms.
Curated by Piotr Franaszek, Tomáš Koudela, and Wojtek Radtke.
Public opening reception: May 19, 2026, 6:00 PM
On view: May 19 – August 31, 2026
Pilecki Institute USA
92 Greenwich Street, Lower Manhattan, New York
Co-financed by the Polish National Foundation.
See also
- CALL FOR PAPERS: International academic conference „Soviet Central Asia as a Totalitarian Testing Ground” | Deadline for submissions: July 15
conference
CALL FOR PAPERS: International academic conference „Soviet Central Asia as a Totalitarian Testing Ground” | Deadline for submissions: July 15
The Pilecki Institute in Warsaw invites scholars to take part in the international academic conference “Soviet Central Asia as a Totalitarian Testing Ground”, to be held on 2-4 September 2026 at the Institute’s headquarters in Warsaw.
- CALL FOR PAPERS | Conference “Shared Experiences – Different Paths? The Turning Point of 1956 and Its Significance for the Countries and Societies of East Central Europe”
conference
CALL FOR PAPERS | Conference “Shared Experiences – Different Paths? The Turning Point of 1956 and Its Significance for the Countries and Societies of East Central Europe”
The Pilecki Institute and the Tadeusz Manteuffel Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences invite you to participate in an international academic conference, Shared Experiences – Different Paths? The Turning Point of 1956 and Its Significance for the Countries and Societies of East Central Europe, which will be held on 19–21 October 2026 in Warsaw. The event is part of a series of conferences devoted to the history of transformations in East Central Europe after 1945.
- Call for Papers | Embracing the New, Preserving the Old: Studying Fascism, Communism, and Totalitarianism in the 2020s (October 14-15)
conference
Call for Papers | Embracing the New, Preserving the Old: Studying Fascism, Communism, and Totalitarianism in the 2020s (October 14-15)
We invite historians, political scientists, sociologists, scholars of culture and media, and others interested to reflect on methods, cases, and knowledge production related to the study of fascism, communism, and totalitarianism in the 2020s.