The Budapest Gallery – which administratively is one of the main divisions of the Budapest History Museum – organizes exhibitions in two locations: in the building where the central offices of the institution are located, the Budapest Gallery in Óbuda in Lajos Street, and in the New Budapest Gallery located on the first floor of the Bálna Warehouse building on the bank of the Danube River in Pest. The institution also oversees the Imre Varga Collection, located in Laktanya Street in the 3rd district.

With its exhibitions, the Budapest Gallery seeks to present contemporary Hungarian and foreign art to the wider public and familiarize international audiences with contemporary Hungarian art. We understand visual art in the broadest possible sense, so our exhibitions also include works of an architectural nature, photography, media art, and works of the applied arts and design.

Exhibitions of the New Budapest Gallery in the Bálna (2013 – 2019)

The 860 square-metre exhibition space endeavours to present outstanding Hungarian and international artistic achievements, art groups, and works of 20th-century and contemporary art. Our exhibitions, which are organized according to innovative curatorial concepts, strive to give equal representation to contemporary endeavours and the art historical traditions of the recent past. The majority of our curated exhibitions are held in collaboration with the gallery’s colleagues and invited experts from the art world. The lighting and other technical furnishings of the gallery are comparable to those of the most up-to-date European museums, and this creates a high degree of security and flexibility for the artists. The peculiar quality of the new space may offer inspiration for the creation of new works, for instance installations that make good use of the available spaces.

Exhibitions of the Budapest Gallery in Lajos Street

The gallery’s programme in its Óbuda venue consists of solo exhibitions and concept-based exhibitions proposed by the Gallery’s art historian colleagues, exhibitions that address various questions relevant to the visual arts. In addition, we also consider it important to create opportunities from time to time for guest curators to present their ideas for group exhibitions and participants in the exchange programme to showcase their work. Furthermore, we support young artists by affording them opportunities to hold their first solo exhibitions or organize exhibitions of their works that, in their size, exceed any previous exhibitions of their compositions.