Contemporary Slovak Art from the Collection of Orava Gallery in Dolný Kubín
What does contemporary Slovak painting have to offer? We are looking for an answer at an exhibition of paintings by prominent Slovak artists.
The exhibition “Contemporary Slovak Art from the Collection of Orava Gallery in Dolný Kubín”, which is organised in cooperation with Orava Gallery in Dolný Kubín, Slovakia, showcases contemporary Slovak painting from the turn of the 21st century. The works have been selected by curator Michal Čajka, art historian and director of Orava Gallery.
Paintings by notable Slovak artists including Robert Bielik, Juraj Kollár, Patrícia Koyšová, Kristína Mésároš, Juliana Mrvová, Marek Ormandík, Dorota Sadovská, Erik Sille and Lucia Tallová represent a variety of styles and creative conventions.
Although the exhibition presents only a part of a larger collection, it offers a comprehensive view of current Slovak painting, its condition and the variety of means of expression.
Michal Čajka:
Orava Gallery in Dolný Kubín celebrates the 60th anniversary of its foundation in 2025. Over the years, it has accumulated more than 9,000 works of art representing various genres and disciplines in its collection. One of the disciplines it systematically deals with is painting. Since its foundation in 1965 until the present day, the gallery has amassed a sizable collection of paintings (2,424 works at the end of 2023). The gallery has successively acquired paintings from past eras, the inter-war period, post-war modernism, as well as contemporary paintings. Notwithstanding periods in the history of world art when painting ceased to be the preferred medium of expression, the medium has always been able to defend itself and bring artists back into focus..
In the professional literature, we can encounter several views on the temporal boundaries of the term ‘contemporary art’ or, in the narrower sense, ‘contemporary painting’. We have assumed that ‘contemporary painting’ is that which has been created since the early 1990s, when many trends and strategies that are still relevant today have infiltrated visual art. Painting has become a medium that is able to absorb experiences and stimuli from other visual arts disciplines, which violates the purity of the genre that was known until the late modernist period. It is for this reason that only works created after 1991 are presented in the exhibition.
The works of contemporary Slovak painting are diverse. They are rather a conglomerate of a number of separate painting concepts conditioned by individual artistic programmes with only their own dynamics of development, dealing with separate motifs and characterised by a wide selection of painting techniques, which make up the specific style of the artist. In contemporary Slovak painting, we can find abstract geometrical and action painting, figurative and representational, neo-constructivist, neo-classical, as well as what theorists cautiously refer to as so-called conceptual painting. The exhibition features works by artists from different generations, from the oldest debuting in the 1960s and 1970s to the youngest who only became recognizable in the early 2020s. In no way should the collection of contemporary painting assembled by the Orava Gallery in Dolný Kubín be considered a closed entity; on the contrary, it is a living organism that should be consciously supplemented with works by further artists, as well as works by those painters who are already represented in the collection, as part of the collection building strategy. The exhibition entitled ‘Contemporary Slovak Art from the Collection of the Orava Gallery in Dolný Kubín’ offers a comprehensive presentation of current Slovak painting, its condition and diverse forms.
Artists participating in the exhibition:
The exhibition was organised as part of a cross-border exchange between Poland and Slovakia, and the next stage of the partnership will be a presentation of Polish contemporary painting from the collection of Galeria Bielska BWA in Bielsko-Biała. This will be held in Orava Gallery in Dolný Kubín between 11 April and 15 June 2025.
Michal Čajka – Born in 1973.
Degree from the Philosophy Faculty at Comenius University in Bratislava (Slovakia).
with majors in art science, archaeology and history.
Active in the cultural field for many years,
taught art history at the university;
He is currently director of Orava Gallery
Gallery in Dolný Kubín. Curator of exhibitions, author or co-author of
of many publications, studies and articles
devoted to the history of visual arts.
He is also involved in the implementation of various studies of historical buildings.
ART AS A TOOL FOR SOCIAL MEDIATION
The project presented by Galeria Bielska BWA is part of the BWA Europa Festival organised and co-financed by the National Centre for Culture and the University of the National Education Commission in Kraków, as part of the celebrations of the Polish presidency of the EU Council.
The BWA Europa Festival brings together 22 galleries from the former BWA network in Poland, including Galeria Bielska BWA.
Agata Smalcerz:
The exhibition and accompanying events will present the art of over a dozen or so Slovak artists whose work addresses, among other issues, the ecological crisis, migration, disinformation related to politics. The proposed artistic events: performances, lectures, curatorial tours, workshops and meetings with artists will serve to strengthen civil society and address democratic deficits at various levels of social organisation.
Accompanying events
Friday, 21 March 2025, 6.00 pm
exhibition opening, presentation of artists
7.00 pm – Pola Nuda live in concert
Saturday, 22 March, 12.00 pm
Dr Michal Čajka - curated tour of the exhibition
Friday 11 April, 5.00 pm
“Slovak Atlantis. Among artists from across the mountains and rivers (from the Spring of Nations to the Velvet Revolution)” – lecture by Dr. Michał Burdzinski
11-14 April 2025
Artist residency by Lívia Balážová:
Saturday, 12 April, 5–6pm
“Camille” (Laboratory in the shadows) - performance by Lívia Balážová, inspired by the artistic work and life of the famous French sculptor Camille Claudel
Sunday, 13 April, 12.00 – 4.00 pm
Masterclass - workshop led by Lívia Balážová for visitors of all ages interested in different fields of art.
