Today I would like to share about two of my art exhibitions, one that I had recently in Domof Creativity in my hometown, Nitra from April 23rd and took it down this week just to go to put up the same exhibition in the restaurant “Galéria”(“Gallery”) in the Smolenice castle.
The name of the exhibition is somehow similiar and somehow different from my last one, the “Human hideaways” exhibition in The National Bank of Slovakia last year. Me and my curator, Sofiya Zelenkevich, have put together a collection of paintings of which many are the same that were a part of my previous exhibition, but there are also quite a few new ones which changed the overall feeling and so I felt the need to adjust the name a bit too.
A few days before the start of the exhibition we arranged and then installed all the paintings, which took place in a more “DIY” space and although it was more demanding than usual because of the available hanging system, I really enjoyed the vibe. I also got an idea – I wanted to put butterflies on the walls and I knew it was a possibility in this place, so I went in with that. I felt that it was a nice detail tiyng in with the new theme. There were also some small things flying on the walls too (butterflies).
As I have said in the beginning, we took the exhibition down this week because I needed to bring it to the Smolenice castle. The exhibition itself lasted for about three weeks.
It is a really nice feeling for me to show the world (even if it´s only in my town) something new and observe myself evolve and change in terms of what I create, I was happy to be putting together an exhibition after more than a year from my last one and I also loved working with the people at the Domof Creativity.
When we arrived at the Smolenice castle, I was feeling excited, because the castle looked like something out of a fairytale and it was also my first time seeing it in real life. It is located about an hour drive from my town. We drove up a winding road among a beautiful park and a forest which looks very green and lush this time of the year and near the top we parked our car in front of the small restaurant. It wasn´t open to public on that day but there were tourists chilling at the tables outside.
On the road there, I also took this picture of this field which was covered in lilac colored flowers, they looked very mesmerizing. It was somewhere near the town Trnava.
We went inside and saw the space. It was a long, narrow space with tables and chairs on the side. There were gallery lights all above the walls, like in a gallery, and at the end there were green velvety armchairs and some type of a bookshelf wall. I loved all of this, and I think that the name of the restaurant really lives up to it´s name. It was a very different space from Domof Creativity, and a bit similiar to the Gallery of the National bank of Slovakia, only that it was much smaller and intimate. I brought all of the same paintings that I have exhibited in Domof and I arranged them. I paid special attention to the green armchairs and I thought it was the perfect place for my large paintings with trees and lots of dark green in them. They were like a kind of a statement to the whole arrangement.
I created another focus point with my other two large paintings in the front, where the entry door was, and I hung there “Greetings to a grey lake” and “Road 37” together. I color and composition coordinated the other smaller paintings between them and added some at the very “tail” too.
The overall layout was very similiar to my previous layout but it was also different because the uniqueness of the space. I also brought some posters and business cards which I left there. After about 4 hours, we were done with everything and my eyes and heart were so satisfied.
Next month I plan to do another exhibition, probably also in a café, but for now, I will go back to my den, do work for my uni and hopefully get some time to create as well.
If you are reading this, you probably cannot come and visit because of your location, but I hope you got at least a glimpse into some of what I am doing. Thank you for reading and if you are interested to know about my future artwork or short blogs I write, make sure to be subscribed to my newsletter.
Congratulations to your exhibition dear Monika. I love your art, and wish I could visit you.
Thank you Vivian, maybe one day that will happen!!!