What can you look forward to this year?
Among the places and projects that should definitely not be missed this year are Young Selection 03 at The House, presenting the youngest generation of contemporary artists, and the related Open Studios, offering visitors a glimpse directly into artists’ studios and creative processes. Private collections are another prominent theme of this year’s festival, including Cabinet of Life at Magnus Art Gallery and Tomáš Ruller’s collection at Prostora Gallery.
Festival Opening
This year’s festival opening will take place at the Trade Fair Palace of the National Gallery Prague. PAW26 will open there at 6:30 p.m. alongside the NGP LIVE 230 Years. The evening will also feature Nils Amadeus Lange’s performance Hildegard von Bingen. The project NGP 230: Stories of the Trade Fair Palace will introduce a series of temporary interventions throughout the building, recalling its history through works ranging from an object by Jan Kaplický to contributions by Vojtěch Kovářík, Jan Šerých, Martin Zet and Magdaléna Cubrová.
The First Days of the Festival
Thursday’s programme in Prague 7 will offer several noteworthy stops before the evening opening at the Trade Fair Palace. The afternoon can be devoted to gradually exploring local galleries and exhibitions before the festival moves on to its main evening programme. At 3 p.m., the AVU Gallery will host a guided tour of the exhibition I Need It. The project presents the technical workshops of the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague as a space where craftsmanship, experimentation, new technologies and contemporary art intersect. An hour later, at 4 p.m., the programme continues at the private Clauda Gallery on Veverkova Street. Visitors can look forward to a guided tour of Tereza Kalousová’s exhibition Sorority, which explores how digital technologies and contemporary economic and social systems transform our perception of the body, time and space. Another possible stop is the opening of Beside Bodies at Berlínskej model. The project examines emancipatory and feminist approaches to the body, addressing bodily autonomy, queer histories and critiques of normative masculinity. If you are outside Prague 7, we recommend visiting Artium by KKCG and the exhibition Love at 4 p.m., or Karpuchina Gallery at 6 p.m. for a curator-led tour of You Can’t Return, You Are Here.
Friday’s programme focuses primarily on smaller galleries in central Prague before gradually moving through Žižkov to Holešovice. Rather than revolving around a single main event, it offers several more intimate stops and guided tours. At 4:30 p.m., European Arts will host a guided tour of Maturation, an exhibition connecting the work of Sára Konečná and Tereza Štětinová through the theme of transformation. Another highlight in the city centre is the Prague City Gallery – Stone Bell House, where an English-language curator-led tour of The Headless Horseman will take place at 5 p.m. The exhibition revisits the eponymous group of four artists associated with the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague and the Czech art scene of the 1990s. In Žižkov, HIDDEN Gallery will present the exhibition Spellbound, followed by the opening of A Whole Different Animal at Hunt Kastner. At the Trade Fair Palace, the guided tour Through the Eyes of the Curators with Rado Ištok will begin at 4:30 p.m., offering an insight into the NGP 230 programme from a curator’s perspective. In Holešovice, visitors can also attend a guided tour of Hollows at Holešovická šachta from 6:30 p.m., or choose a guided tour of the educational and research programme As We Grow at the independent gallery Světova 1. Friday’s programme will conclude at 7 p.m. with the opening of Julie Béna and Mark Ther’s exhibition Le Chat Noir at KodlContemporary on Smetana Embankment. The historic interior of the Parnas restaurant becomes part of the installation, creating a setting in which visual art, video, performance and the cultural memory of the site intersect.
Weekend Programme
Alongside exhibitions, Saturday will also feature open studios, workshops and guided tours. One of the programme’s main destinations is The House in Ořechovka, where the third edition of Young Selection 03 is taking place in a functionalist villa. The exhibition introduces eleven emerging artists who are not yet represented by galleries and have not previously exhibited at major institutions. It will remain open throughout the festival, from 24 to 27 September. On Saturday, from 2 to 5 p.m., The House will expand its programme with Open Studios. The studios of Néphéli Barbas, Mária Jančová, Max van Olffen, Kateřina Rafaelová, Anna-Marie Berdychová, Samuel Stan, Taja Spasskova, Bystrík Klčo and Marianna Stránská will open to the public. The programme will also include a relaxation zone in The House’s garden.
In Prague 5, the studio of Věra and Vladimír Janoušek will open to the public at 3 and 4 p.m. Two guided tours of the exhibition Couples will take place, presenting not only the work of the Janoušeks but also that of the contemporary artist couple Karolína Rossí and Janko Rouse. Saturday can be rounded off at HYB4 Gallery, where a guided tour with Vladimír Houdek and curator Filip Kazda will begin at 5 p.m. At 6 p.m., it will be followed by a Cocktail Network with residents from Hong Kong, providing space for informal encounters and networking with the festival’s international guests.
Festival Closing
The final day of PAW26 will offer family workshops, guided tours and performances. At 2:30 p.m., Magnus Art Gallery will host a guided tour of Cabinet of Life, an exhibition drawn from the private collection of Oldřich Uttendorfský. Conceived as a classical cabinet of curiosities, the exhibition presents historical artefacts, natural specimens and other objects alongside artworks, including an Egyptian cat mummy. At 4 p.m., Kunsthalle Praha will host a performance by Lukáš Hofmann (Saliva), responding to the themes of the exhibition Memory of Touch, particularly fragility and vulnerability. The performance is free with an exhibition ticket.
You can conclude the festival’s extensive programme on Sunday at The House in Ořechovka, where the closing event of Young Selection 03 will take place. After a day filled with exhibitions and accompanying events, the garden will serve as a post-festival relaxation zone—an ideal setting for informal encounters and a symbolic farewell to this year’s edition.
The programme on Sunday, 27 September, will also include two auctions. Artslimit Online 12 will culminate in live bidding at 2 p.m., while the benefit auction Art for Amnesty 2026 will take place in collaboration with Galerie Dolmen via the Livebid platform. The auction will be preceded by an exhibition of works by contemporary Czech artists at C12 Art Gallery & Design Store from 14 to 20 September. Proceeds from the sale will support the Czech branch of Amnesty International and its human-rights activities.
Newly Opened Exhibitions
Prague Art Week 26 will also provide an opportunity to visit a number of exhibitions opening shortly before or during the festival. These include Jan Jedlička’s Maremma at UNTITLED-ART and Romana Drdová de Angelis’s Occult Coutureat Galerie NoD, which explores identity, transformation and self-presentation through clothing, the body and performativity. Friday’s programme will introduce further newly opened exhibitions across Prague’s art scene. At C12 Art Gallery, Michal Štochl will present Head and Shoulders, an exhibition of his collage work. Hunt Kastner will celebrate its twentieth anniversary with A Whole Different Animal, 20th Anniversary, featuring more than twenty artists connected to the gallery’s history and programme. At Stanice 6, Tomáš Absolon will open Fender Bender, developing his distinctive approach to painting and his work with visual fragments, structures and references. The French Institute will present Clément Bedel’s Floor Is Lava, a project examining relationships between landscape, movement and architecture.
Projects Exclusive to Prague Art Week 26
Some projects, by contrast, have been created specifically for this year’s festival and will not be accessible outside its dates. One of them is Young Selection 03 at The House, which will present eleven young artists selected by an expert jury from 24 to 27 September. The exhibition will encompass a broad spectrum of approaches, ranging from painting and drawing to sculpture, installation and intermedia art. Another one-off festival project is Julie Béna and Mark Ther’s Le Chat Noir in the historic interior of the Parnas restaurant. The exhibition engages with the site, its atmosphere and cultural memory, connecting visual art with video and performative elements. During the festival, Berlínskej model will host Beside Bodies, expanding the programme through contemporary artistic approaches to the body and its representation. A further exceptional opportunity will be a visit to Dorotheum, where the exhibition In Pursuit of Fame and Livelihood will present nineteenth-century Czech art in relation to Vienna’s artistic environment, recalling artists who sought professional opportunities and recognition between Prague and Vienna.
Art Beyond Galleries
PAW26 also includes projects that extend beyond the traditional gallery format. Prague 5 is home to Galerie Zeď, located behind the former Smíchov glassworks and featuring Tomáš Mitura’s large-scale mural Chasing Shadows. The PENTA ART project connects art with architecture and public space—from the Waves of Thought mural and Tony Cragg’s sculpture at Masaryčka to the monument to General Kutlvašr at the former Nusle Brewery and the kinetic sculptures at Waltrovka. An unconventional exhibition setting is also offered by Petrohradská kolektiv at Tusculum, where the international project Binding Sites III uses the villa, garden and façade of the Chittussi Hospital as integral parts of the exhibition. Here, the site itself becomes a direct component of the presented works.
Art for Everyone
PAW26 also offers several programmes designed specifically for children and families. Sunday’s main family event is the workshop The Body as a Family Map at Galerie Smečky, beginning at 10:30 a.m. Through drawing, collage and working with the outline of the human body, children and parents can create a shared family self-portrait. The workshop is open to all age groups and requires no previous artistic experience. On Saturday from 2 p.m., Galerie Smečky will also host Between Skin and Image, a workshop for young people and adults inspired by the work of Luboš Plný. Combining drawing and collage, it will address themes of the body, identity, time and self-determination. At the same time, DOX will offer the workshop Forgiving Yourself, accompanying Radka Bodzewicz’s exhibition Faust. The workshop is free with advance booking through GoOut.
All of PAW’s accompanying programmes are free of charge. They also provide access to exhibitions at institutions that normally charge admission, including the National Gallery Prague, Kunsthalle Praha, DOX Centre for Contemporary Art and Prague City Gallery. On Friday, Prague City Gallery will offer admission to The Headless Horseman for a symbolic CZK 1; Kunsthalle Praha will remain open until 9 p.m. on Friday under a pay what you can scheme; and DOX will provide visitors with a 20% discount on admission throughout the festival. At the National Gallery Prague, visitors can attend NGP 230: Stories of the Trade Fair Palace free of charge during the PAW opening.
How to Navigate the Programme
The Prague Art Week programme comprises approximately 100 events across 43 venues throughout Prague, so there are several ways to plan your festival itinerary. The clearest resources are the printed festival catalogue, available in limited quantities at selected participating galleries, and the website, which allows visitors to plan their route by district, itinerary or individual day. Events on the PAW website can also be filtered by medium—including painting, sculpture, photography and video art—or by category, such as exhibitions, guided tours, openings, lectures, performances, site-specific projects, private collections, auctions and architecture. The complete PAW26 programme can also be found in ART ANTIQUESmagazine, available from selected newsagents and bookshops.
