Ten Haaf Projects is pleased to announce “Bad Venus” by Stanislava Kovalcikova.
For her first solo exhibition at Ten Haaf Projects, Kovalcikova displays seven figurative paintings and a series of altered garments. Her paintings investigate issues of race and power. Considering virtual space and figurative form, her work explores the historical motif of the female nude, as well as our contemporary view of the female nude body.
Kovalcikova analyses reflexive engagement with paint as a material and the influence of 16-19th century oil painting. For instance, “Black Venus” versions 1 and 2 depict Afro women reclining in nondescript spaces, yet consciously reference Giorgione, Titian, Velasquez, Vallotton and Manet.
Through her work, Kovalcikova examines the difference between light and dark colours: literally by working with light and dark oil pigments but furthermore by creating a world without any racial identities. By over- and underexposing, colour loses its importance, as does who or what is black or white.
The exhibition also features Kovalcikova’s work made of second-hand clothing. These garments are used as a canvas, on which graphic and linguistic signs are deliberately added or removed, consequently creating tension between the original message on the garments and that of the artist.
Stanislava Kovalcikova, born in 1988 in Slovakia, expects to graduate in 2017 from the Kunstacademie Düsseldorf, where she currently studies under Peter Doig.

Opening with the artist: Saturday September 17th, 5-8 pm

mpefm HOLLAND art press release