Originally established in Sopot in 1952 the gallery was part of the cultural rebirth of the city following WWII and was born out of the Festival of Fine Arts which were inaugurated in Sopot in 1948. It was renamed the State Art Gallery in 1992 and when its old home was demolished to make way for the new Spa House complex it moved into a purpose-built area in the new development.
Today the gallery has a calendar of regularly changing temporary exhibitions spread over 1,200m2 which continue to highlight the work of artists of a wide range of modern and traditional art forms from Poland and abroad. The gallery also hosts workshops and popular evenings which are designed to bring art to the attention of young and old, inparticular those of the Gdańsk milieu. These include Kazimierz Ostrowski, Józefa Wnukowa, Stanisław Horno Popławski (this exhibition was successfully shown in numerous museums in Poland, Russia, Lithuania and Ukraine)
Among the most important artistic events held in the halls of the PGS were: exhibitions of works by Franciszek Starowieyski, Frank O. Gehry, Joseph Beuys, Roman Cieślewicz, Alfred Kubin, Jerzy Nowosielski, Bruno Schulz, Teresa Pągowska, Piotr Potworowski, Marcin Maciejowski, Dominik Lejman; the post-competition exhibition of graphics and drawings ‘Competition for the Daniel Chodowiecki Prize’, photographic exhibitions: Laszlo Moholy Nagy, ‘Videospaces, ’World Press Photo‘, ’Following the rain‘, ’Medium as medium‘, ’Far and near".
