Fairies, gods and goddesses in the NBS Gallery

National Bank of Slovakia
Imricha Karvaša 1, 813 25 Bratislava 

Exhibiting graduates: 

Andrea Bartošová
Margaréta Petržalová
Ester Sabik

Curator of the exhibition: Miroslava Urbanová.

Myths and fairy tales, their iconic main characters and captivating stories have been and are the starting point for countless retellings and updates through various art forms. Although they come from different cultural backgrounds and play a different role in the collective imagination of societies, they know how to emphasize the themes, emotions and images to which artists deliberately return. They can do so not only in a positive spirit, but also in a critical way. The second is characterized primarily by the reevaluation of selected narratives. Within the narrative abbreviation, certain stereotypes may be produced in them, depending on the historical context of their origin, values of the time. For the presented artists, myths and fairy tales become living material, which they process in various media characteristic of their author's program and for their aesthetic feeling.

About the authors' work:

In her latest series of paintings and ceramics, Andrea Bartošová concentrates on the figures of gods, goddesses and heroes, reproducing their traditional depictions in her own interpretation. This involves reviving the solidified compositional schemes of ancient sculptures with the lightness of a fluid painting and contrasting vibrant colors. The colors that were originally inherent in the Greek statues themselves. She adds some attributes to some characters, which create eclectic associations with overlaps into the past and present. The god of trade, Hermes, wears a bee helmet on it - is it supposed to protect him from his hardworking bee workers from a metaphorical hive, a typical symbol of 19th-century banks? Another ancient character from her paintings wears virtual reality goggles. These represent the latest extension of the interface of our perception, a new symbolic window elsewhere.

The starting point of Margaréta Petržalová's latest works is loosely anchored in the world of fairy tales. It is not to be overlooked that most of her main characters are female heroines. In their depiction, we often find reflections of her own features. Her paintings are coded self-portraits, which put her on the screen, on the carousel of her own imagination, into situations from children's dreams. Even though she finds herself in the familiar context of a clearly identifiable fairy tale, she writes / repaints her own story. It pulsates, among other things, with a captivating design of leather textures, surfaces and materials. Her painting is not forced, it does not stick to exact details and complete fidelity to a readable model. It mixes various visual stimuli from Disney movies to images from our own everyday life into a magical elixir that we don't have to be afraid to taste.

The works of Ester Sabik often directly link the medium of photography with the object reality of the displayed things. Sometimes they are even complemented by the artist's ephemeral performance in the exhibition space. Sabik communicates on several levels the effort to re-establish man's connection with the forces of nature, their simple but complex nature, which affects the course and shape of our planet. She communicates various phenomena in her works: from the fascinating manifestations of the mentioned natural forces, the variability of their appearance, through the depiction of a materialized formula of ideal beauty, e.g. in the folds of sea shells, aware of the transience of all living and beautiful captured in the fragile presence of the already motionless butterfly wing. The driving force of divine power in her works, the main character becomes Mother Nature, the mythical Gaia, the language of science is the biosphere, which according to one of the modern hypotheses itself ingeniously regulates the conditions of one's own existence and life.

Andrea Bartošová (*1977) is a graduate of the Department of Painting (prof. Ivan Csudai) at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava. In 2008 she became the winner of VŮB Painting Award, in 2007 she placed second in the competition. She is a regular participant in international painting symposia in Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Slovenia. Solo exhibitions (selection): 2021 Playing Artemis (Blu Gallery, Modra), 2020 Behind the window (Ján Koniarek Gallery, Trnava), 2020 Shapes and shadows (Flatgallery, Piešťany), 2017 FOCUS (Čin Čin Gallery, Bratislava), 2015 10 Rokov Maľby (Central Slovak Gallery, Banská Bystrica), 2013 Sunlight levels (Flatgallery, Bratislava), 2009 HAD JE DIAMANT / Snake eats diamond / (Tranzit, Bratislava) and others. Group exhibitions (selection): 2021 Expo Dubai 2021 (Slovak Pavilion, Dubai, Saudi Arabia), 2020 Woman power (Dot. Gallery, Bratislava), 2014 Vesmír & Co (Gagarinka Gallery, Bratislava), 2012 WOMEN, (Kressling gallery, Bratislava), 2010 Painting after painting (SNG, Bratislava), 2009 11 + 1, Selection (Špálovka, Prague), 2008 ,, 2 Dollar 4 all we are so small .. “(BASTART, Bratislava), 2006 Mladá maľba (Ján Koniarek Gallery, Trnava), 2005 PRIEVAN - contemporary painting in Slovakia (PGU, Žilina) and many others.

Margaréta Petržalová (*1993) is a graduate of the Department of Painting (prof. Ivan Csudai) at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava. In 2019, she was a finalist for VÚB Painting Award. Individual exhibitions: 2021 Make it nonchalant (Ján Koniarek Gallery, Trnava), Live with me (ATELIER XIII, Bratislava), 2018 Radovánky (Flat Gallery, Bratislava), 2018 Očista (Temporary Parapet, Bratislava). Group exhibitions (selection): 2020 Young and wild (Schemnitz Gallery, Banská Štiavnica), Femme florale (DOT. Gallery, Bratislava), 2019 Misses from the painting stand (ATELIER XIII, Bratislava) and others.

Ester Sabik (*1994) is a graduate of the Department of Photography and New Media at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava. In 2018 she completed a study stay at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie in Arles. In addition to photography, she is also engaged in performance. Solo exhibitions (selection): 2021 Back to Animism (Nitra Synagogue, Nitra), 2021 Fragility of Being. Atelier of Living Matter (Sýpka Gallery, Valašské Meziříčí), 2020 Tableau Vivant. Live photography (Čepan Gallery, Trnava) and others. Group exhibitions (selection): 2021 Textile art of Today (Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum, Bratislava), 2021 from Natura morta to Viva natura! (DOT. Contemporary Art Gallery, Bratislava), 2020 Into the nature of Gallery? (Nitra Gallery, Nitra), 2019 365 (Gallery PARTER BSC, Banská Štiavnica), 2019 MELANCH LIA (PGU, Žilina), 2019 OFF academy (OFF Festival, Bratislava), 2018 Bon Voyage (Little Big Gallery, Arles) and others.