“Our passion and expertise is in exhibiting, discussing and promoting Central and Eastern European contemporary art from our art space in the heart of Budapest.”

Q Contemporary seeks to promote the best of Central and Eastern European (CEE) contemporary art to the world.

We identify and nurture artistic talents, both established and emerging, using varied channels to present their works to a wider audience.

As a cultural venture, Q Contemporary is committed to education and ongoing dialogue with the creative community for the continued development of artistic networks across the globe.

Q Contemporary was inspired by a rising generation of artistic talents responding to tremendous socioeconomic change in the post-communist landscape of CEE. The project was founded in 2018 as a personal art collection, shaped with a curatorial eye and consisting of boundary-crossing works of art that defy conventional categorisation.

Today, the collection focuses on works from CEE artists who have been active from the second half of the 20th century onwards. They are artists whose works we not only love but are dedicated to promote, through our ambitions as a global art space and consultancy for CEE contemporary art. This growing collection forms the cornerstone of our identity and activities, ranging from joint exhibitions with partnering museums to collaboration with artists and our commitment to education and research.

International in reach and outlook, Q Contemporary’s main presence is in a beautiful four-storey 19th-century villa in the heart of Budapest. With future sites planned for London and Hong Kong, we offer a dynamic global space for selected CEE artists to display and sell their work, grow their audiences and springboard their careers.

Our collection consists of a burgeoning body of work that focuses on CEE artists active from the second half of the 20th century to present day, charting artistic shifts across multiple generations and geographies.

The diversity and richness of CEE art is both fascinating and bewildering. Spanning a region from the Balkans to territories that were formerly under Soviet Union control, CEE contemporary art is marked by strong historical and social differences. This has resulted in many of its leading artists being kept in the shadows of the global art market. We see huge opportunities for more people to discover this vibrant and often overlooked art scene.

Our permanent collection – comprising key works by established, mid-career and emerging artists such as Dóra Maurer (b.1937, Hungary), Stanislav Kolíbal (b.1925, Czech Replubic) and Djordje Ivackovic (b.1930, Serbia), – will be displayed at Q Contemporary galleries and in museums and fairs around the world through our participation in collaborative projects.

The collection will continue to grow in parallel with the expansion of our collaborations in major cities. This will be the focus around which Q Contemporary evolves in years to come.

Q Residency

Our artist residency programme is a collaboration between Q Contemporary and the Ludwig Museum in Budapest. We are working together to give artists the freedom and resources to experiment with different forms of expression, while offering them the opportunity to live and work for a short, intensive period in Budapest under the stimulation of a new environment.

Education

Our line-up of seminars, talks and workshops will help bring context and insight to the artistic energies of a region that, despite its richness, often goes under-appreciated.

Exhibitions

Showcasing a diverse range of CEE contemporary art to local, European and international audiences, Q Contemporary’s year-round programme of exhibitions will be hosted initially at our Budapest space, free and open to the public. Ongoing plans are in development for future pop-ups in the region and further afield, including in London and Hong Kong.

There will be opportunities for site-specific commissions for our dedicated space in Budapest, which includes
an outdoor gallery in the garden as well as collaboration with like-minded institutions, local artists and curators.

Library

We are building a library to serve anyone who has an interest in learning more about the CEE artists that Q Contemporary collects. Some of these resources will be available online in due course.

Collaboration with artists

We want our artists to thrive and succeed. From cultivating new audiences around the world to displaying works to visitors, we use our cultural sensibilities and various activities to achieve one goal: to forge a stronger presence and appreciation of CEE contemporary art across the world.

China & CEE

Through holding cultural exchanges, exhibitions, artist residencies, educational programs at our headquarters in Budapest, collaborations with different institutions and organizations in China we aim to link two continents rich with artistic talent.

Countries in focus

Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, China, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Slovenia

Asia

Hong Kong and China has seen a boom in new institutions, private museums, galleries and collections. In recent years it has also become a nurturing place for artists. Q Contemporary believes that artists need to be in conversation with people around world through exhibitions, conferences, special projects and art residency programs. Connecting the countries in focus is one of Q Contemporary’s major goals in the coming years.