7. Mai - 14. Juni 2024

2024_Lucia Dovicakova_Not yet_View 

 

 

 

 

2024_Lucia Dovicakova_Not yet_View 

 

 

2024_Lucia Dovicakova_Not yet_View 

 

2024_Lucia Dovicakova_Not yet_View 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lucia Dovicakova_2020_Ups_Acryl on canvas_110 x 90 cm

 

... "To me, creation means a universe with its own rules, where you do not have to adapt, but where are free. You can play and research. Painting itself is a means of quick expression, where you can create anything, and you only need a minimum of resources. Traditionally, painting depicts a woman as an object of desire and beauty, but I enjoy approaching it subjectively. I like to move in within the frame considered as a good painting, I like to “spoil” it – to look for something in the traditional depiction that touches, evokes emotion, anger … I also like non-academic things, medieval painting and so on, the tension that bad painting presents.
Painting is a relaxation and a challenge for me, it is a moment of silence in which I have space for my own experience. When I devote myself to drawing and watercolour, they represent peace, a certain meditation for me, while in painting I show myself rougher, more passionate, uglier. I work in a diary way and with partial topics, but in the end, it represents a whole. I create because it would be difficult for me to communicate about some things by using other means. The only thing I can understand and get to know is myself, so I do things about myself. And since I am talking about myself, I often use myself as a model. I am interested in the way how to interpret a feeling by minimal means, to express a complicated experience economically. I like to combine symbols; I am also inspired by Freud. I work with several symbols that I use repeatedly – horses embody the masculine element for me, desire, id, hair in braids embody bond and cutting off, things that you keep, even though they limit you. I am exploring the ideal of a perfect woman in the depiction of a housewife.

During my studies, I needed to solve “big things” in my work, after school I started to deal with banal scenes from life. For example, I made a series of Madonnas that disrupt the idealized depiction of motherhood. They hold a real child in their arms – a raspy, restless, pulling mother’s hair. After the birth of my son, I felt the urge to paint and maintain my world. and also, the fact that I must fight for it. For the time being, I continued to work, which was ultimately reflected in my relationship with the child’s father. A woman is still expected to be very happy to sacrifice and not count on the space for her and her desires and needs.

For me, art is liberation. I am interested in working with an idealized depiction, beauty without a soul. I am fascinated by the opposites that exist in us – submissiveness and dominance in relationships, the struggle with what we rationally want and what we irrationally desire. I think that the discrepancy between the tensions we feel, and the expectations placed on us is more pronounced for women. These contradictions make me feel that I have not been told the truth. I can unmask it in the painting. It is important for me to realize that women are not ideal and that it is okey. When you encounter such a work, it relieves you that you are not alone, there is a feeling of catharsis from the acknowledgment and acceptance of (also) negative aspects. It is a relief for both the creator and the viewer. My work represents my position and conflict with the world, I capture the idea of ​​who I would like to be versus who I am and who can I be. It is intimate and I like to let it to resonate. I came to this approach intuitively, inspired by reality, I express my thoughts. I do not want to generalize, to teach, rather to point out.

I encounter with disparage that I am a frustrated mother. I feel that Košice, where I live, is still a very conservative and religious city. At the same time, for example, the cult of male genius still prevails at art auctions, which is reflected in the prices and the small number of collectors who collect female authors. I consider myself a feminist. However, I am not an activist and I avoid direct naming, but I gave my work, for example, for a campaign to support the option of an abortion. At the same time, since I use irony and humour, I am often included also in non-feminist exhibitions. I think a lot about why we consider a man’s work to be universal and when a woman´s work is about herself; she is immediately considered a feminist. Why is my truth not universal? ... "

 

Quote of a text written in collaboration with Michaela Kučová (2021).


Lucia Dovičáková was born 1981, she lives and works in Košice, Slovakia.
She is a graduate of Rudolf Sikora’s contemporary painting studio at the Faculty of Arts in Košice. In 2006 she became a finalist in the Oskár Čepan Award, in 2011 she became a laureate of the Tatra Bank Young Creator Award. In 2012 and 2013, she was a finalist in the Painting – VÚB Foundation Award competition. She regularly exhibits in solo and collective exhibitions and her works are present, for example, in the collections of the Slovak National Gallery, the Nedbalka Gallery in Bratislava and other private collections. / The text was written in collaboration with Michaela Kučová (2021).

 

 

 

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