The gallery continues its tradition with a rich program focused on contemporary Slovenian artistic production, offering invaluable insights into the finest Slovenian art that is also internationally comparable. The program covers all essential areas for the successful operation of a public institution, catering to a wide audience and providing artists with platforms to present their work over different periods. The content is directed towards important themes of our time, raising awareness of values crucial for the future development of our society.

City Art Gallery Ljubljana fosters communication between art and the public through various segments: solo and group project exhibitions, public programs accompanying exhibitions (guided tours, lectures, artist talks, and other events), educational activities, publishing activities with regular publications and monographs, and a gallery shop. This approach promotes Slovenian creativity and educates new audiences.

History of the City Art Gallery Ljubljana

History of the Building

The building at Mestni trg 5 was constructed in the early sixteenth century by Count Lanthieri and served as the Lanthieri family residence for two hundred years. In the nineteenth century, it passed into the hands of a wealthy merchant family of the Zeschkos and thus became the residence of a great art lover Josipina Zeschko, also known as the “glass princess” due to her father’s glass trade. Josipina married a factory and big estate owner Fidelis Terpinc, who was also in the possession of the Fužine Castle. In 1866, the building was bought by the tradesman Hamann and it functioned as a trading house – lastly occupied by a fur store – until 1963, when it was converted into an art gallery by the municipal people’s council of Ljubljana Centre. The conversion, designed by the architect Boris Kobe, was coordinated by the Institute for the Regulation of Ljubljana’s Old City Centre.

From Jakopič Pavilion to the City Art Gallery Ljubljana

The demolition of the Jakopič Pavilion, which commenced in December 1961, left the administration of this institution without exhibition and business premises. The renaming of Jakopič Pavilion into City Art Gallery in November 1962 offered some clarification to professional public regarding the Jakopič Pavilion’s successor and its construction. The new exhibition venue at Mestni trg 5 was solemnly opened in October 1963. Apart from modernised exhibition halls (refurbished in 1990 and 1991) and the renovated attic, the gallery also acquired a coffee shop on its ground floor and a reading room (2009) where the gallery’s visitors and art lovers are offered daily newspapers, catalogues, as well as Slovenian and international magazines on contemporary art.

First permanent collection exhibition

The City Art Gallery Ljubljana, which has for more than fifty years been devoted to showcasing exhibition projects and hosting numerous exhibitions by domestic and international artists, began to create its permanent collection no earlier than the 1990s. Its first art presentation took place in 1996 at the new exhibition venue at Mestni trg 4. Now an integral part of the collection of the Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana, the permanent collection of the City Art Gallery contains 190 works on paper produced by seventy Slovenian and six international artists. In the collection process, which started in 1995, the works by the central representatives of Slovenian fine art of the twentieth century have been collected to demonstrate the trajectories of their creative careers. Aimed at obtaining art works from different periods and styles of expression, the permanent collection features a wide array of highlights, spanning traditional, realistic renditions of the material world to the fantastic and abstract. Due to their ideational heterogeneity and diversity of technical approaches, the collection is a valuable source for research. In 2002, part of the exhibition activity was moved to the Permanent Collection Gallery at Cankarjevo nabrežje 11/I, where artists working primarily on paper and using different styles of expression were presented until December 2010.

City Art Gallery Ljubljana becomes part of Institute of Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana

The Bežigrad Gallery has operated as one of minor art exhibition venues under the City Art Gallery Ljubljana since 1996 and the Bežigrad Gallery 2 since 2002. In 2009, the City Art Gallery Ljubljana and the Bežigrad Gallery merged with the City Museum at the initiative of the City of Ljubljana to form the institute of Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana. In 2010, it acquired new premises at the Tobačna 001 Cultural Center and began a new exhibition program at Gallery 001 in March 2011, continuing until the establishment of the new exhibition space Cukrarna, which took over its activities in 2021. Since then, the Ljubljana City Art Gallery has operated as an independent unit with its distinct identity within the parent institution MGML.