ZOYA Gallery & ZOYA Museum

Zoya Gallery and Zoya Museum are two independent private institutions that focus on private art collection and art exhibition activities, in particular, on Slovak artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. Although we can say that these two art institutions live in symbiosis, each of them has its own artistic content and mission as well as its unique atmosphere of the place, architecture and environment.

Zoya Gallery was established in 2005 with the aim of presenting to the public our private family collection of Slovak contemporary painters and sculptors. The Gallery is located in the historic center of the capital city of Slovakia, Bratislava, and it is housed in the baroque palace of the House of Erdody – a noble family in the Kingdom of Hungary – from 1770. We are genuinely proud of the fact that the collection of the Gallery belongs to the largest private collections in Slovakia and its artistic funds has lately recorded more than a thousand works
of art. In addition to the permanent exhibition, the Gallery also focuses on temporary exhibitions of Slovak and European painters of the 19th and 20th centuries as well as on auctions of artwork and art education for children and adults as well.

Zoya Museum is the younger sister of Zoya Gallery – it was opened in October 2009 and is located in the picturesque wine region at the foot of the Carpathian Mountains near Bratislava. The Museum is part of a newly built modern wine area – Elesko Wine Park­ whose modern and contemporary architecture was awarded with Building of the Year Award in Slovakia in 2010. The private art collection and the Museum’s art exhibition activities have been concentrating mostly on Slovak art after the second half of the 20th century but also on
the fine art from abroad.The most noteworthy part of the collection of the Museum consists of the collection of works by Andy Warhol, which is part of the permanent exhibition. Originally, the idea to expand the works of art by this pop-art genius had several reasons – besides the fact that we were naturally attracted by the popularity and uniqueness of Andy Warhol, we had also been primarily inspired by the fact that this world-renowned artist has roots and origin in Slovakia. Although the whole world knows his mysterious answer to the question of his origin
– “i am from nowhere ” – we do know for sure that his parents came from a charming village in

Eastern Slovakia named Mikova with traditional Ruthenian (Russniak) culture and religion.

The very first piece of art by this pop-art talent “came into” our family portfolio in 2004 (Hammer and Sickle 17/50, 11.162) and since then this collection has been gradually extended and nowadays reaches over 130 works – serigraphs, drawings and paintings on canvas – which is very much appreciated and in demand among curators in Slovakia as well as abroad especially by galleries and museums in Central Europe. The most successful events include the exhibitions at Beaux-Arts Mons, Brussels, Belgium (October 2013- January 2014); at Heydar Aliyev Center, Baku,Azerbaijan (June, 2013); at the International Institute of Culture, Krakow, Poland (2012); and also at Stadtgalerie, Klagenfurt, Austria (2012). Needless to say, that in addition to great popularity of our Andy Warhol’s collection abroad, we have always been aware and perceptive of our domestic audience in Slovakia where Andy Warhol’s pictures enjoy great success as well. What more, we must admit that this seems to be the main reason why we make considerably efforts to keep this authentic and genuine art in “his home” – in Zoya Museum in Modra most of the year. Besides the permanent exhibition of
Andy Warhol, the Museum regularly rotates temporary expositions of contemporary artists of

European magnitude. The most successful recent ones have featured a unique multi-genre Slovak artist/sculptor, Milos Karasek and his sculptures as well as his private collection of African ritual art and the exhibition of the world-famous British sculptor Tony Cragg, the winner of the Turner Prize in 1988, just to name a few.

Admittedly and without a doubt, each art collection arises from a private passion of a collector for some kind of art. Ours – at Zoya Gallery & Zoya Museum – has been coined with great respect and admiration for the Slovak fine art of modern and contemporary artists.
Being a collector myself, I certainly believe that the personal joy from acquired works of art is even multiplied by each exhibition and publication which our private institution represents and promotes in order to share a unique artistic experience with enthusiastic gallery-goers.

lveta Ledecka

Director of ZOYA Gallery & ZOYA Museum

Bratislava – Slovakia 2014