Fragile

The starting point of the Fragile exhibition is the notion of fragility in the meanings and contexts that revolve primarily around the human subject. It presents the work of authors who sensitively perceive, digest and transform their experiences and observations regarding vulnerability, instability, variability or transience. Fragility appears in their works not only as a property that means limitation, a potential threat, but also as a quality that is related to caution, careful observation of things and phenomena from different angles. It is not primarily connected with the human figure, but rather focuses more on what shapes the subject within a certain moment and from a certain position. 

Michaela Moravčíková, Aliza Orlan, Denisa Slavkovská, Dana Tomečková and Hana Polívková 

Curator Miroslava Urbanová


The focus of Denisa Slavkovská's series is the effort to rewrite a person's drawings in the form of a universal symbol, an easy-to-read sign. Instead of sketching contours in a clear closed outline, however, in the end, on the contrary, it breaks, drinks, dissolves their autonomy in innumerable variations, and at the same time restores them to an aura of uniqueness. 

The work of queer artist Aliza Orlan, who also often draws and disrupts stylized figures, touches on the topic of the fluidity of gender identity. It contradicts the idea of boxes of binary defined tasks and their visual representation. These intertwine in the works in delicate details and grow into each other in organically acting shapes and compositions. 

Dana Tomečková works in the field of imagination, which, through procedurality and simple interventions, makes visible the qualities of materials, spaces, feelings and experiences from them. It does so by working with materials such as clay or powdered sugar, in their ephemeral, immediately formable poetics.  

Jeweler Hana Polívková is inspired by nature and the cycle of life, she works with fragility, softness, sentiment and the transience of the moment. In the Wordlab project, they created porcelain objects together, which quietly interpret emotionally charged words such as love, beat, soul, melt, heart. 

Michaela Moravčíková's solar nets connect two visual codes in the author's painting dialogue - an abstraction and references to figurative frescoes of the extinct Minoan culture. The radiant, energy-pulsating compositions carry a paradoxical melancholy behind something past and incomprehensible in its original integrity. The cycle was created as an echo of the mood from the first pandemic summer, which brought many time and opportunity to confront their own, unexpectedly fragile position in various areas of life. Turning to oneself is one of the steps in finding one's place within larger wholes, communities and cultures that should accept the diversity of individuals with respect. 


Michaela Moravčíková (* 1991) studied architecture and urbanism at the STU in Bratislava between 2010 and 2016. She is currently studying at Atelier maľ+by at the AFADin Bratislava. She completed internships in Newcastle, England, and Barcelona, Spain. In 2020, she completed a residency at the Žilina - Záriečie Station. Until the end of April 2021, her first solo exhibition called Zveriť se is running in Bratislava's Flatgallery. 

Aliza Orlan (* 1990) is a graduate of the Department of Printmaking and Other Media, AFAD in Bratislava. She participated in a one-year internship at the Strzeminski Academy of Art Lódz in Poland. She also presents her work as Jakub Jenčo or Orlando. Selection from solo and group exhibitions: 2020 Little Room of Queer Loneliness Diera do sveta, Liptovský Mikuláš, Nature and Nature A4 - Space for Contemporary Culture, Bratislava, 2018 From Behind the Teacher's Desk Miloš Alexander Bazovský Gallery Trenčín, 2016 Reflections Baestro Bratislava. 

Denisa Slavkovská (* 1994) is a graduate of the Painting Studio III. at the AFAD in Bratislava. She also studied at the Faculty of Arts TU in Košice. She completed a one-year internship at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, Poland, or an art residency in Ukraine through the KAIR residency platform. In 2019, she became a finalist in the Czech EXIT Award. Selection of solo and group exhibitions: 2021 How it was to be a human? Bohéma Bratislava, 2020 Inertia zone Flatgallery Bratislava, 2020 I have a plan !, T3 Bratislava, 2019 Plus minus zero Beastro Bratislava, 2019 Exhibition of Exit 2019 award finalists Emil Filla Gallery Ústí nad Labem, 2016 Afterlife Nitra Gallery. 

Dana Tomečková (* 1986) is a graduate of the S + M + L_XL – METAL AND JEWELERY studio at the AFAD in Bratislava. During her studies, she completed a one-year internship at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts in Norway. In addition to jewelry (currently mainly within the project Studio Oval), she is also involved in fine art. She regularly establishes authorial collaborations and actively participates in workshops, symposia and residences, this year e.g. artistic residence in Schaubmar's mill in Pezinok. Selection from solo and group exhibitions: 2020 Footnote on the Temporary Matter Beastro Bratislava, 2019 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 1 Gallery Medium Bratislava, 2018 Seating Islands A4 Bratislava, 2018 OK / XII. small object triennial and drawings Banská Štiavnica, 2016 37 m² of space Gallery + -0.0, Žilina. 

Hana Polívková (* 1989) is a graduate of the Department of Metal and Jewelry Design at the Institute of Art and Design in Pilsen and the studio S + M + L_XL - METAL AND JEWELERY at the AFAD in Bratislava. She has participated in numerous exhibitions dedicated to jewelry in Slovakia and the Czech Republic.