Where the light ends, the darkness begins. And where there is darkness, an infinite space opens up, brimming with imagination, mystery, distorted reality, but also heaviness or uncertainty. Visibility is reduced, but the reflections stimulate the dark recesses of our minds. Human figures mutate, turning into geometric shapes or natural hybrids, sometimes remaining vulnerable in their naked essence. The worlds depicted seem unimaginable. They, however, reveal more truth than one might think. While the inflow of light reveals new horizons, it immediately plunges us into another layer where the boundaries between reality and fiction dissolve.
The exhibition Turn On the Lights presents a generational intersection of the artists Silvia Krivošíková (1976), Laura Limbourg (1996), and Pavla Malinová (1985). Through figurative painting, it offers their intimate stories, experiences, and subjective insights, while emphasizing authentic personal mythologies and symbolism. In selected works, the boundaries between reality and fiction are blurred, resulting in surrealistic environments influenced by reality, dreams, emotions, or inner experience. The diverse painting techniques and forms are linked by the involvement of personal identities in multi-layered narratives through which we observe an introspective search and relationship to the world around us.
Although each artist works in a different city, social context, and has different daily experiences, it is their communication through painting that unites them, bringing intimate and almost diary-like records. Laura Limbourg and Silvia Krivošíková communicate through stylized self-portraits, while Pavla Malinová cleverly deconstructs and conceals her identity until it is unrecognizable. Whether it involves romantic relationships or a plunge into the depths of their own inner selves, they reveal fragments of their private lives, which they obscure with mysterious hints and symbols.
In Silvia Krivošíková's mystical and dreamy paintings and drawings, we follow fragments of her life. From the position of a mother, partner, or friend, she depicts specific places and situations she has visited and experienced in the past. She copes with negative experiences, but also recalls pleasant moments. In her work, she purposely departs from realistic representation, combining slight modeling and a hint of real perspective with geometric decomposition and pure color fields. The figures exist independently or interact with other figures. The works have a slow pace, and instead of expressive dynamism, the artist gradually builds tension. She uses the symbolism of common objects, which makes them universal and comprehensible even outside their personal context.
Laura Limbourg's latest series of acrylic paintings capture emotive self-portraits that speak to us through gestures, body language, attributes, or the symbolism of the objects and animals depicted. The nude figures, inserted into neutral backgrounds and simple situations, clearly experience a long-suppressed tangle of insecurities, doubts, and anxieties. They are their own critic and greatest enemy. Surrounded by palm trees, snakes, horses, or the poisonous plant Atropa belladonna, they exist in a dreamy, sometimes romantic atmosphere, detached from reality. Limbourg paints quickly and focuses on stylized forms and expressive visual shorthand. She inserts the plot into the foreground, hiding nothing, forcing us to confront all our emotions.
In her work, Pavla Malinová combines various formal and ideological approaches, dominated by figurative compositions, which she links with various structures or abstract motifs. Ambiguous situations are based on concrete, often photographic pre-images, which she modifies and deforms into new compositions. We observe massive and cumbersome figures that, despite the expressive painting, resemble robust sculptures. Malinová communicates directly and authentically, but she also works with the symbolism of individual motifs. Significant oil paintings with a surreal atmosphere teeter on the edge between reality and fantasy or the heavy melancholy and banality of ordinary days. In her most recent works, she pays more attention to organic shapes and natural elements, while continuing to explore relationships, emotions, identity, and physicality.
The exhibition Turn On the Lights presents a generational intersection of the artists Silvia Krivošíková (1976), Laura Limbourg (1996), and Pavla Malinová (1985). Through figurative painting, it offers their intimate stories, experiences, and subjective insights, while emphasizing authentic personal mythologies and symbolism. In selected works, the boundaries between reality and fiction are blurred, resulting in surrealistic environments influenced by reality, dreams, emotions, or inner experience. The diverse painting techniques and forms are linked by the involvement of personal identities in multi-layered narratives through which we observe an introspective search and relationship to the world around us.
Although each artist works in a different city, social context, and has different daily experiences, it is their communication through painting that unites them, bringing intimate and almost diary-like records. Laura Limbourg and Silvia Krivošíková communicate through stylized self-portraits, while Pavla Malinová cleverly deconstructs and conceals her identity until it is unrecognizable. Whether it involves romantic relationships or a plunge into the depths of their own inner selves, they reveal fragments of their private lives, which they obscure with mysterious hints and symbols.
In Silvia Krivošíková's mystical and dreamy paintings and drawings, we follow fragments of her life. From the position of a mother, partner, or friend, she depicts specific places and situations she has visited and experienced in the past. She copes with negative experiences, but also recalls pleasant moments. In her work, she purposely departs from realistic representation, combining slight modeling and a hint of real perspective with geometric decomposition and pure color fields. The figures exist independently or interact with other figures. The works have a slow pace, and instead of expressive dynamism, the artist gradually builds tension. She uses the symbolism of common objects, which makes them universal and comprehensible even outside their personal context.
Laura Limbourg's latest series of acrylic paintings capture emotive self-portraits that speak to us through gestures, body language, attributes, or the symbolism of the objects and animals depicted. The nude figures, inserted into neutral backgrounds and simple situations, clearly experience a long-suppressed tangle of insecurities, doubts, and anxieties. They are their own critic and greatest enemy. Surrounded by palm trees, snakes, horses, or the poisonous plant Atropa belladonna, they exist in a dreamy, sometimes romantic atmosphere, detached from reality. Limbourg paints quickly and focuses on stylized forms and expressive visual shorthand. She inserts the plot into the foreground, hiding nothing, forcing us to confront all our emotions.
In her work, Pavla Malinová combines various formal and ideological approaches, dominated by figurative compositions, which she links with various structures or abstract motifs. Ambiguous situations are based on concrete, often photographic pre-images, which she modifies and deforms into new compositions. We observe massive and cumbersome figures that, despite the expressive painting, resemble robust sculptures. Malinová communicates directly and authentically, but she also works with the symbolism of individual motifs. Significant oil paintings with a surreal atmosphere teeter on the edge between reality and fantasy or the heavy melancholy and banality of ordinary days. In her most recent works, she pays more attention to organic shapes and natural elements, while continuing to explore relationships, emotions, identity, and physicality.
Kde sa končí svetlo, začína sa tma. A tam, kde je tma, otvára sa nekonečný priestor plný imaginácie, záhad, pokrivenej reality, ale aj ťažoby či neistoty. Viditeľnosť je znížená, no odlesky stimulujú temné zákutia našej mysle. Ľudské postavy mutujú, menia sa na geometrické tvary či prírodné hybridy, miestami zostávajú zraniteľné vo svojej nahej podstate. Zobrazené svety pôsobia neuveriteľne. Odkrývajú však viac pravdy, ako by sa mohlo zdať. Prísun svetla síce odhaľuje nové obzory, no ihneď nás vrhá do ďalšej vrstvy, kde sa rozpúšťajú hranice medzi realitou a fikciou.
Výstava Turn On the Lights predstavuje generačný prienik autoriek Silvie Krivošíkovej (1976), Laury Limbourg (1996) a Pavly Malinovej (1985). Prostredníctvom figurálnej maľby ponúka ich intímne príbehy, zážitky a subjektívne skúsenosti, pričom zdôrazňuje originálne osobné mytológie a symbolizmus. Vo vybraných dielach sa stierajú hranice medzi realitou a fikciou a výsledkom sú surrealistické prostredia ovplyvnené skutočnosťou, snami, emóciami či vnútorným prežívaním. Rôznorodé maliarske techniky a formy prepája zapojenie osobných identít do viacvrstvových naratívov, prostredníctvom ktorých sledujeme introspektívne hľadanie a vzťah k okolitému svetu.
Hoci každá z autoriek pôsobí v odlišnom meste, sociálnom kontexte a zažíva rozdielne dennodenné skúsenosti, spája ich práve komunikácia maľbou, ktorá prináša intímne a takmer denníkové záznamy. Laura Limbourg a Silvia Krivošíková komunikujú štylizovanými autoportrétmi, Pavla Malinová svoju identitu šikovne dekonštruuje a zakrýva, až je nerozpoznateľnou. Či už ide o partnerské vzťahy, alebo ponor do hlbín vlastného vnútra, odhaľujú fragmenty svojho súkromia, ktoré zahmlievajú tajomnými náznakmi a symbolmi.
V mystických a snových maľbách a kresbách Silvie Krivošíkovej sledujeme útržky jej života. Z pozície matky, partnerky či kamarátky zobrazuje konkrétne miesta a situácie, ktoré v minulosti navštívila a zažila. Vyrovnáva sa s negatívnymi skúsenosťami, ale pripomína si aj príjemné chvíle. V svojej tvorbe sa cielene odkláňa od realistického zobrazovania, pričom kombinuje miernu modeláciu a náznak skutočnej perspektívy s geometrickým rozkladom a čistými farebnými plochami. Figúry existujú samy osebe, prípadne interagujú s ostatnými postavami. Diela majú pomalé tempo a namiesto expresívnej dynamiky autorka postupne buduje napätie. Využíva symboliku bežných predmetov, vďaka ktorej sa stávajú univerzálnymi a zrozumiteľnými aj mimo osobného kontextu.
Najnovšia séria akrylových malieb Laury Limbourg zachytáva emotívne autoportréty, ktoré k nám prehovárajú gestami, rečou tela, atribútmi či symbolikou zobrazených predmetov a živočíchov. Nahé postavy vložené do neutrálnych pozadí a jednoduchých situácií zreteľne prežívajú dlho potlačovanú spleť neistôt, pochybností a úzkosti. Samy sú si kritikom a najväčším nepriateľom. Obklopené palmami, hadmi, koňmi či jedovatou rastlinou Atropa belladonna (v slovenčine ľuľkovec zlomocný), existujú v snovej, miestami romantizujúcej atmosfére vytrhnutej z reality. Limbourg maľuje rýchlo a zameriava na štylizované formy a expresívne vizuálne skratky. Dej vkladá do prvých obrazových plánov, nič neskrýva, a tak nás núti konfrontovať sa so všetkými emóciami.
Pavla Malinová vo svojej tvorbe kombinuje rôzne formálne a ideové postupy, pričom dominujú figurálne kompozície, ktoré prepája s rôznymi štruktúrami či abstraktnými motívmi. Nejednoznačné situácie vychádzajú z konkrétnych, často fotografických predobrazov, ktoré modifikuje a deformuje do nových kompozícií. Sledujeme mohutné a ťažkopádne postavy, ktoré aj napriek exprsívnej maľbe pripomínajú robustné sochy. Malinová komunikuje priamo a autenticky, ale takisto pracuje so symbolikou jednotlivých motívov. Signifikantné olejomaľby so surreálnou atmosférou balansujú na hrane medzi realitou a fantáziou či ťaživou melanchóliou a banalitou bežných dní. V najnovších prácach venuje väčšiu pozornosť organickým tvarom a prírodným prvkom, pričom naďalej skúma vzťahy, emócie, identitu a telesnosť.
