art

The garden as a symbol of life and death, a cycle that is taking on increasingly gloomy contours in the context of the environmental crisis. Slovak artist Kristína Bukovčáková paints the reality she experiences every day in her real and imaginary garden. It is hard not to sympathise with the protagonists of her toxic paintings, which will appear at the Livebid Originals contemporary art auction in November. How will it all turn out in Christina's garden in the end?

Adamant Country is the story of a mandorla, guarding an egg. This sacred space is fertile ground for the interplay of archetypes, meanings, and cosmic cycles. Enter the world of Czech artist Petra Janda, the laureate of the Jindřich Chalupecký Award, as she weaves you into her intimate landscape.

At first glance, Iva Davidová’s paintings invite into a soft, ethereal dreamscape. Deeper under the surface however lies an exploration of societal paradoxes which have long prevented solidarity and compassion. Explore the Czech artist’s poetic works accompanied by unique personal insight.

“Always a combination of a material and a problem.” Via a captivating interview, Natalia Kopytko invites us to explore her world of childhood archeology, social exclusion and forgotten stories, whether manifested through ceramic sculptures reminiscent of knotted seaweed or installations of stuffed textile organic shapes spilling over into space.

Nadiia Pliamko’s 3D art captivates the eye with its complexity, which at the same time sings a harmonious, life-affirming song of awe and color. The Ukrainian artist combines classic approaches with contemporary tools to explore fairy tales, fashion, but also everyday life in her signature surreal symbolism. Explore her works accompanied by a dazzling interview that emanates her intellect and artistic maturity.

In his current exhibition, the Jindřich Chalupecký Award winner Mark Ther re-represents the history of Prostějov. By working with taboo and poignant topics, the visitors are urged to reconsider their stereotypical mental processes. Mark’s works are part of the Prostějov Contemporary Art Festival, which its chief curator Míra Macík introduces in today’s feature.

Exhibition/performance Caliban and the Witches by Hélène Hulak, Lux Miranda and Johanna Rocard, which recently took place in Prague's Berlínskej model Gallery, disentangles the archetype of the witch from its negative patriarchal connotations of a cunning, evil and manipulative woman and turns it into a collective rebellious, utopian and hopeful vision. Curated by Céline Sabari Poizat.

Marcelo Pinel has long been exploring themes which fascinate the inner child. His works translate archetypes, mythologies and spirituality into vivid animations, actualizing how humans have expressed the inexpressible across millennia.

Nina Bachmann’s vivid paintings explore the veneers and facades of all we deem pleasant. The ecstatic expressions of her androgynous figures seem to carry an uncanny other side palpable only experientially, balancing momentary joy and looming withdrawal. Join us today for an interview with the artist and in asking whether intoxication is really as pleasurable and positive as it seems or just a disguise of human abysses.

Vincent Snijder’s approaches to design range from 3D scans & prints to animations created with audio software, and inspirations spanning movie and gaming culture all the way to anthropology and history. One guiding line in his works however is an investigation of human rituals and cultures, both physical and intangible. Today you get a chance to explore even some of his upcoming artworks, accompanied by curatorial texts and Vincent’s personal insights.

Linda Morell’s recent exhibition dives into the jellified oceans of a future Earth, a place so alienated from mankind that it itself is uncertain which life forms it will favor. Inspired by Paradise Lost, mythologies and collapse of civilization, her unique installations explore a non-linear temporality through materials and interplay.

Léa Porré’s fascination with transcending the same old ways of interpreting history finds expression in her 3D works and installations. Today, the London-based Belgian artist presents two of her recent projects, Arcana Arcorum and The Beginning of All Moist Things which, in her style, “experiment with 3D world-building as a tool to heal from our past, and future-forecast.”

Visions of escaping civilization and technology for a simple life of manual labor have crept into many an artists’ dreams since the industrial revolution, but Alexandr Martsynyuk’s recent work explores the inevitable inescapability of automation even in a rustical, barebones existence. Join him today on a routine trip to the tomato allotments in his speculative spin on the post-apocalypse.

The long-running creative collaboration between Ula Lucińska and Michał Knychaus has recently led the Polish duo to explore the non-linearity of time, speculative approaches and the notion of catastrophe through their multimedia works. In their own words, “even if the environments we render are dark and repulsive they always contain elements of restoration and new life”, hanging in a balance between the surgical and organic. Today, you get to join them in their realms accompanied by an insightful interview.

As part of her Friendship series, the creatures and beings in Denisa Müllerová’s works float in an ethereal space beyond desires and pain. Despite their alien optics, they all seek very familiar things: “They lightly touch each other. They contemplate. They convey the most necessary and important message – I'm here with you.” Join their presence in today’s feature accompanied by an explication of their universe and its creator.

Tea Strazicic’s visual narrative goes hand in hand with the eponymous experimental story of a group of friends shedding their individuality in achieving a more genuine interconnection. Join this otherworldly troupe on their psychedelic-futuristic journey and perhaps you too will purge a part of yourself you no longer need.

Having grown up at an intersection of past industry and mountainous nature, the Budapest-based Ádám Horváth creates works of art that explore fragile, liminal sensibilities. His mystical visual creations carry the romanticist silver thread of returning to an omnipresent nature when technologies relentlessly transform yesterday into tomorrow. Enjoy his “ode to disappointment” today, along with an interview with Ádám and a curatorial text that sheds further light on his brushstrokes.

“We are in the middle of our evolutionary process, just as the toads or the squids. Our shape is temporary.” Matteo Gatti is an Italian artist with focus on unsettling objects and drawings teeming with futuristic and (yet) non-existent lifeforms. Indulge in the visuals and interview with Matteo below.

Polish artist Sebastian Janisiewicz explores in his 3D prints and art the realms and abs of hypermasculine furries and hairy bodies. Inspired by video games and online subcultures, with the perfect digitally-crafted pecs exhibited in physical spaces, his work transcends established notions of gender identity on a search for genuine connections with the beholder.

“Real events and feelings pass along its corridors, but, reflected in the mirror surfaces, they are distorted beyond recognition” is how Ohii Katya, the Rome-based Ukrainian sculptor and performance artist describes the labyrinth of affects her creations invite into. Enter today’s feature – a fantasy suspended between eroticism and abjection, emanating the smell of latex and burnt sugar.