Friend of a Friend (FOAF) is a gallery-share initiative launched in 2018 with editions in Warsaw and Berlin. This year’s Warsaw edition will involve nine most-active galleries based in Poland’s capital (BWA Warszawa, Foksal Gallery Foundation, LETO, Piktogram, Pola Magnetyczne, Dawid Radziszewski, Raster, Stereo and Wschód), who will share their exhibition spaces with sixteen international gallery guests (from Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Georgia, Germany, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the United States). One of the aims of the project is to create a different model for the presentation of contemporary art, to establish new networks within the Polish art scene and to enable local audiences to interact with the works of international artists, whose works were often not exhibited in Poland so far.
Thanks to the joint initiative of the founders and organisers of FOAF, the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw and its Society of Friends of the Museum, the Friends Art Fund was founded—an award allowing for the acquisition of a selected work presented within the Warsaw edition of FOAF for the collection of the Museum of Modern Art. In 2018, the works of David Flaugher and Sean Mullins, artists collaborating with New York’s Lomex Gallery, were selected for acquisition. In 2019, thanks to the generous support of the sponsor, the award will be presented for the second time. Its winner, selected by a committee nominated by the Warsaw MoMA, will be announced during the opening of FOAF on April 6, 2019.
FOAF is organised by Stereo and Wschód galleries. This year’s edition is co-organised by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute—a national cultural institution whose mission is to promote Polish contemporary art through active participation in an international cultural exchange. The Institute’s Culture.pl portal offers a daily information service covering key events related to Polish culture around the world: in addition to information on events organised in Poland and abroad, the portal features numerous artist profiles, reviews, essays, descriptive articles and information about cultural institutions. In 2019, FOAF is supported by the British Council Poland and the Cultural Office of the City of Warsaw.
Invited galleries: Bureau (New York) / Emalin (London) / Gianni Manhattan (Vienna) / Gregor Staiger (Zurich) / Kristina Kite (Los Angeles) / LC Queisser (Tbilisi) / Mujin-to Production (Tokyo) / Nuno Centeno (Porto) / Parisa Kind (Frankfurt am Main) / Paul Soto / Park View (Los Angeles / Brussels) / Pinksummer (Genoa) / Scheife Zähne (Berlin) / Temnikova & Kasela (Tallinn) / The Box (Los Angeles) / The Sunday Painter (London) / Union Pacific (London).
Opening weekend: April 6-7, Saturday-Sunday, 12-7pm
Exhibitions run until April 27, 2019
