Established in 1988, the Jakopič Gallery is situated in the underground of the Slovenska cesta 9 in the centre of Ljubljana. The contemporary exhibiting space of more than 900 square metres is part of an architectural complex, designed by Edvard Ravnikar on the location of the Roman Forum in Emona, and includes in situ the reconstruction of the ruins of ancient government buildings.
The Jakopič Gallery was at first managed by the Museum of Modern Art, and later taken over by the former Architecture Museum of Ljubljana, which presented contemporary architectural and design exhibitions there until 2004. In 2007 the Municipality of Ljubljana renovated and re-opened the exhibition space, which has been managed by the City museum of Ljubljana since August 2008 and became one of the main venues of Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana in January 2009.
In 2010 the first exhibition was dedicated to Two Spanish Masters in Ljubljana, introducing Pablo Picasso's prints in the City Museum of Ljubljana and Antoni Clavé's works from 1934 to 2002 in the Jakopič Gallery. It was followed by the travelling exhibition Bauhaus Twenty-21: An Ongoing Legacy – Photographs by Gordon Watkinson, which marked the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Bauhaus and was co-produced by Foto+Synthesis, National Gallery of Slovenia and Goethe-Institut Ljubljana. The exhibition Legendary Lee Miller was one of most succesful projects since the gallery is run by MGML.
Lectures, concerts, round tables and other presentations are also organised in the Jakopič Gallery.
Reading room and mediatheque
Jakopič Gallery serves also as an information point for the MoTA - Museum of Transitory Art activities. The first common project was the establishment of a reading room and mediatheque on contemporary arts, architecture and design in 2010. It is dedicated to the memory of the architect and publicist Tomaž Brate (1963–2008), whose books form the core of this collection.