Gallery Nova is a non-profit, city-owned gallery in the center of Zagreb. In the 1970s the gallery was one of the most important locations for so called ‘new art practices’ in Croatia – experimental, neo-avant-garde artistic practices that were operating on the margins of the system of official art institutions. At the same time, some of the most important exhibitions that were critically approaching and re-assessing radical avant-garde modernist practices also took place in the gallery (for example, the pivotal exhibition of Exat 51, an artist group active in Zagreb between 1950 and 1956, took place in the gallery in 1979).

Since May 2003, the curatorial collective What, How & for Whom/WHW has been collectively programming and running the Gallery. WHW have re-established it as one of the most active sites for production and presentation of contemporary art, and a platform for progressive modes of cultural production based on partnerships with cultural workers from different fields.

Through the program of Gallery Nova, WHW develops collaborations with different organizations from the field of non-institutional culture and activism, and works on the strong international contextualization of Croatian art production. Gallery programs aim to reopen and question topics suppressed within public discourse and establish trans-generational and international links and contexts.

In addition to exhibitions of contemporary art, the Gallery Nova program includes lectures, presentations, screenings, and public discussions by local and international artists, curators, cultural theoreticians, and art historians.

Gallery Nova presents approximately 6 – 8 exhibitions each year.

Most outstanding projects in recent years:

Political Practices of (post-) Yugoslav Art, a long-term platform in which four independent cultural organizations from ex-Yugoslav countries (Prelom Kolektiv, Belgrade, pro.ba/SCCA-Sarajevo, kuda.org, Novi Sad and WHW, Zagreb) collaborated on multidisciplinary research of the historical, socio-political and economic conditions of intellectual and cultural production in post-socialist space of “Southeast Europe” or “Western Balkans”, i.e. former Yugoslavia.

Istanbul in Zagreb, a series of group exhibitions, video projections, public lectures and interviews, through which curatorial collective WHW introduced its research and preparation process for the Istanbul Biennial to Zagreb audience.

Art Always Has Its Consequences, a series of exhibitions, lectures and publications, through a two-year project organized by WHW in partnership with kuda.org from Novi Sad, tranzit. hu from Budapest and Museum Sztuki from Lodz. The project explored practices through which art reaches its audience and their significance for broader relations between art and society, focusing on four thematic strands: history of exhibitions, artists’ texts, conceptual design and typography, and institutional archives.

Since its first program in 2000, WHW has organized public lecture series, panels and seminars, with an aim to shape informal and yet systematic and profiled education in the field of contemporary art theory and curatorial practices, with a focus on the critical potential of art. This program of public events has continued as regular part of Gallery NovaÕs program since 2003. This program was incentivized by a significant lack of institutional educational programs in contemporary art practice and art theory in Croatia.

The public and educational programs are thematically connected and often provide contextualization of the topics and issues that are approached through to the gallery’s exhibition program. In 2009 and 2010, public events in the gallery were connected to thematic strands, Istanbul in Zagreb, and Art Always Has Its Consequences.

Gallery Nova presents approximately 8-10 public lectures, 1 international seminar, 2 pannels and 4 screenings each year.

Gallery Nova newspapers are published 3-4 times a year. The publishing of Gallery Nova newspapers began in response to the limitations of exhibition catalogues, and the desire to create a more dynamic tool for communicating with the audience and contextualizing the artistic practices presented in the Gallery. The publication was influenced by the Newspapers of the Student Center Gallery in Zagreb published in late 1960s and early 1970s, during a time of the SC Gallery’s prolific activities. The newspaper is one of the few publications in Croatia to publish translations of relevant texts from the field of art theory and criticism. The newspapers are printed in rounds of 1000 copies, and distributed free of charge in Gallery Nova and internationally.

Gallery Nova’s surface area/capacity is 150 m2. The gallery consists of three spaces; Whitecube, Blaxbox and Showroom.