POV: You are in the moment @ DOT. Gallery in Bratislava

 

Text by the curator of the exhibition Jana Babušiaková:

The joint exhibition of the three authors foregrounds the subjectivity and intimacy, while presenting this point of view through fragmentation, similar to a diary entry. In the works, they work in the media of drawing, collages, layering not only motifs but also types of inspirations, from personal to social, biological, cultural, art,  historical and symbols that "sift" into the current life situations and feelings with their own perspective. Their art practice is sharing and co-experiencing certain formulas in a unique composition, similar to how internet users work with templates, formats and songs when creating their own content. It's the POV ("Point of View" - point of view ) that makes this mix unique. The authors invite us into their approaches, which range from realism to abstract forms and from the feelings that come with motherhood to the exploration of natural elements and automatism based on the signs of writing and pictograms. It's not about activism, but about the autobiographical nature of perception, the new grasp and subsequent transformation in painting or drawing.

The preoccupation with trace and materiality in this case distinguishes this approach from the online interface. The fragment that forms the whole is tangible and re-experienced in its physical essence as it's created. Being and being present in the moment thus become an important narrative that is doubled and amplified by the tangibility of the work.

The creation of Svetlana Fialová's works has been supported by public funding in the form of a scholarship from the Slovak Arts Council.

Check out the website of Dot. Gallery here

I'll rain whenever I feel like it @ Ján Koniarek Gallery in Trnava

 

text by the curator of the exhibition Michal Stolárik:

Svetlana Fialová's solo exhibition - I'll rain whenever I feel like it - presents new works created since last year. Similar to the past, the inspiration now comes mainly from the closest circle of people and interests. And although references to social networks or the influencer bubble sometimes appear in the new paintings, the large-scale installation primarily opens up topics related primarily to motherhood, parenting and family life. It conveys social norms and expectations in confrontation with her own view of the world.

Motherhood is a physical, psychological, but also social change. Emotional roller coaster, social pressure, endless comparisons with Instagram mothers, loss of privacy or own identity. But motherhood can also be an instant self-development, it'll make you re-evaluate your priorities in work and leisure and use your time resources more efficiently. And although it would be easiest to cast the project in the context of an "exhibition about motherhood", this generalisation wouldn't be correct, and ultimately it's not obvious from the pictures at first glance either. Themes related to motherhood are one of the driving forces of the current series, but the way Fialová presents the most intimate ideas and experiences is much more complicated. The scattered narrative, presented in the form of visual collages and supported by an exhibition installation, thus communicates the aforementioned themes in a universal way that each of us can identify with.

Similar to the emotional ambivalence of the individual works, the title of the show -- I'll rain whenever I feel like it - is quite suggestive. The first person singular in the title of the exhibition indicates a turn inward, which contributes to the fact that we're encountering probably the most personal project the author has prepared so far. The title can be understood as sulking or an understandable emotional fragmentation, but it also refers to strength, determination, tenacity and an unrelenting effort to have life under control.

Most of the selected works are figurative scenes dominated mainly by portraits - which is typical of Fialová's work in recent years. Through psychological self-portraits or portraits of her own daughter, she rediscovers the technique of printmaking engraving without subsequent printing, which she combines with highly expressive drawings reminiscent of painting processes. Compared to her older works, in which she mainly cut in linoleum and drew on ordinary paper, this time she works with plywood, which gives her a stronger resistance. The result is a more relaxed handwriting that transitions naturally into fast abstracting, gestural entries. Fialová abandons aestheticising forms and increasingly opens up to the visuality of a spontaneous automatism that is close to updated surrealist tendencies, but also to immediate children's drawings.

In the current project, she has collaborated for the first time with the architect Martina Hončárová, who has designed a free-standing architectural module that changes the gallery's floor plan. Its raw walls, which also serve as the basis for the expanded versions of the author's drawings, support the atmosphere of an uncertain boundary between the intimate and the public and offer new ways of looking at Fialová's work.

This project has been supported using public funding by the Slovak Arts Council. 

Read more about the show in Slovak here