Selected works from the exhibition Forms of Presence: Art of the Lemkos/Carpatho-Rusyns, the first presentation in history to offer such a broad overview of this Carpathian community’s artistic output.
It includes acclaimed artists such as Andy Warhol, Epifaniusz Drowniak (Nikifor) and Jerzy Nowosielski, as well as artists who have until now worked outside the mainstream.
The exhibition spans a broad geographical context – from Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Serbia, through the Czech Republic, Romania, Ukraine and Croatia, to the diaspora in the United States. In this light, Andy Warhol’s famous words, 'I’m from nowhere,' take on a new meaning: they speak of an identity that can endure beyond borders and changing places.
The temporary exhibition Forms of Presence: Art of the Lemkos/Carpatho-Rusyns breaks years of silence and reveals the exclusions embedded in the institutional history of looking at art. By restoring a voice to those who were denied one for decades, it shows that the heritage of the Lemkos/Carpathian Ruthenians is not so much returning as it is persisting – despite attempts to invalidate it and assimilate it – as a living element of contemporary culture.
The exhibition runs from 17 January to 30 June 2026 at the State Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw.
