With a traditional museum meeting, which took place on December 27 in Cifte Hamam, the National Gallery of North Macedonia sent off 2022 and recalled the most significant events that took place during the year.

The NU National Gallery of the Republic of North Macedonia had an exceptionally rich and fruitful year with various program activities, thus leaving a lasting mark in time.

The program was opened in March 2022, with two extracurricular contents. The first event was the exhibition entitled "Flourishing towards femininity" on the occasion of International Women's Day, and the second was organized and realized in cooperation with the French Institute from Skopje within the framework of the celebration of the International Day of Francophonie. It is an exhibition of the Macedonian founders who lived and worked in Paris between the two world wars with the title "Parisian Reflections". At both events, works from the rich treasury of the National Gallery were presented.

In the period March 28 - April 21, the "Beauties of Italy" exhibition was held in the Cifte Hamam facility, which presented photos from the "Alinari" Archive as a result of the cooperation of the Embassy of Italy in RSM, Ambassador H.E. Andrea Silvestri and the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Italy.

In April, the project was presented, which was placed in the Macedonian pavilion within the 59th Venice Biennale from April 23 to November 27. It is about the project "Landscape experience" by Robert Jankuloski and Monica Moteska. The commissioner of the Macedonian pavilion was Dr. Dita Starova Qerimi, and the curators were Ana Frangovska and Sanja Kojić Mladenov. The exhibition was well received at the Biennale, achieving a figure of over 50 thousand visitors.

After 30 years passed since his last meeting with the Macedonian cultural public, the National Gallery set up a retrospective exhibition of Dimitar Kondovski on May 5 in the Daut Pashin Hamam building. Dimitar Kondovski is one of the few Macedonian fine artists whose work left an indelible, deep and lasting mark on time.

His exceptional creative oeuvre is a cornerstone on which contemporary Macedonian fine art is built and expanded. Due to the incredible interest, large attendance and at the request of the audience, the exhibition was extended several times.

During the summer period, exhibitions of the fine artist Ivancho Talevski with the title "Cross section: Lady with nine stones" and of the multimedia artist Driant Zeneli with the title "Trilogy" were staged. At the beginning of September, Kiril Gegoski's solo exhibition took place.

In the second half of the year, "Focus Portrait", an exhibition that presented the rich portrait work of the famous Macedonian sculptor Ilija Ajievski, was opened.

In November, the retrospective exhibition of Teofil Shulajkovski - Tofe followed. At the exhibition, more than 150 works of the Macedonian bard of watercolor were presented, and the most representative works from all creative phases were presented.

Before the end of the year, the work of the Bulgarian art group "XXL" was presented, and the retrospective exhibition on the occasion of 30 years of work of the fine artist and university professor Nehat Beqiri was opened.

The National Gallery was also part of the jubilee exhibition "Sava Shumanović and European Realism between the Two World Wars" in the European Capital of Culture for 2022, Novi Sad, Serbia, where it presented the masterpiece from the Yugoslavian collection entitled "Turkish Bath" by Sava Shumanović, created way back in 1926.

In a friendly collaboration between KRIK - a festival for critical culture and the Festival for Feminist Culture and Action - "First and Women", Sejla Kamerić was presented in Cifte Hamam.

As the host of the activities on the occasion of the third birthday of "Europe House Skopje" under the motto "Think forward - because culture is important", a tribute was paid to the cultural heritage of Lazar Lichenoski and for the first time in many years the public could visit the memorial house of Lichenoski.

Since the theme of the European Union for 2023 is "European Year of Skills", the selection of Licenoski as the author and the mosaic "Apotheosis of Labor" represent the glorification of labor (professions), skills. The intention of the European delegation, with the particular advocacy of Ambassador David Geer, is to provide support in the efforts for the valorization and reconstruction of this special cultural heritage, the memorial house of Lazar Lichenoski.

(The text was published in "Cultural Press" number 161, in the printed edition of the newspaper "Sloboden Pechat" on December 31, 2022 - January 2, 2023)