19 May 2026

Upcoming exhibition: MODERN FREEDOM / Pilecki Institute New York

Remember the "Golden Boys"? 🪙 Hard to forget them — we see the real ones in our media all too often, while the ones covered in 24-karat gold and created by Paweł Kowalewski have been on view in recent years at exhibitions at MOCAK in Kraków, the CSW Elektrownia in Radom, and at the Royal Castle in Warsaw. ✈️ Now the "Golden Boys" have crossed the ocean, and the work can be seen at the Pilecki Institute's new home in New York, in the exhibition "MODERN FREEDOM." The work was made in 2017 and is an uncompromising study of the lust for power and money. It is a portrait of two politicians known to everyone: the dictator of a brutal empire, and a power-hungry businessman who took the presidential seat in one of the world's most powerful nations. Alongside the "Golden Boys" diptych, the New York show will also feature Paweł Kowalewski's moving painting "24.02.2022. Immortality/Bucha," created after Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the brutal attack on the town of Bucha. 📍 The exhibition "MODERN FREEDOM" opens tomorrow, 19 May. It presents more than 80 artists from Central and Eastern Europe and offers a wide-ranging reflection on memory, trauma, courage and the meaning of freedom in today's world. It is the largest presentation of Polish contemporary art since the Fifteen Polish Painters exhibition at MoMA in 1961. More on the works and the exhibition itself in upcoming posts — stay tuned! 🇺🇸👀 Pictured: the work "Golden Boys" on display at the Mazowieckie Centrum Sztuki Współczesnej Elektrownia in Radom (2024), and the painting "24.02.2022. Immortality/Bucha."