HANA GAROVÁ, SHOW ME THE BODY

HANA GAROVÁ, SHOW ME THE BODY

EN DIRECT / Exposition Hana Garová, Show Me the Body, jusqu’au 28 mai 2023, Gallery arto.to, Uhelný mlýn, Libčice nad Vltavou

Commissariat Silvia L. Čúzyová

The exhibition of Hana Garová’s drawings, paintings and monotypes entitled Show Me the Body can be seen at the arto.to gallery in Uhelný mlýn until the end of May. The collection thematizes the uncovering of layers of the unknown self that emerge through creative restlessness and artistic struggle for the IMAGE. Hana’s « hand in trance », faster than thought or ego control, impressively visualizes unknown human territories into the form of expressive and urgent works of art. 

Hana Garova’s work is characterized by the « furor of painting » (furor pictoris) – a feverish deed, the need to create and destroy at the same time where the image is a source of both joy and pain. Hana is interested in the process of uncovering that is (paradoxically) realized through multiple layering. The in-between phases remain hidden in the matrix of the work, but their presence and energy multiplies the effect of the whole. The result is a rather disturbing imprint of the artist’s intimate human experience in her own art. A significant role is played by the very making of the paintings, which somehow choose their own path. In the exuberant creation, intense artistic thinking is combined with impulsive gestural moments. A specific figuration takes place between deformation and abstraction. Peculiar life forms are dematerialized and it is often impossible to separate one component from the other. The paintings carry themes and emotions from the darker spectrum of the introspective world. 

The exhibition Show Me the Body reflects on the body that appeared in Hana Garová’s early drawings as an object of psychological investigation – and then especially on the body that has become a working tool in contemporary drawings and paintings as it in a performative way enters the pictorial surface and becomes a literal transformer of accumulated energies. Hana gradually removes the sediments that are stored and layered in a person from birth through the senses and sensations and places them on a mat, canvas or paper. This process/transfer whereby matter is transmuted into a completely different material was typical of alchemy and can be seen as analogous to the creation of the world. 

Hana Garová (1986) is a Slovak painter who lives and works in Prague. She graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in the class of Vladimír Skrepl whose contribution to Czech painting is linked to her expressive expression, gestural expression and emphasis on the figurative core of her paintings. After graduation, the painter did not enter the gallery business but decided to devote herself fully to her work, yet she has already exhibited in established galleries (Veletržní palác NG, Prague; Adam Gallery, Brno; Zahorian van Espen, Prague; Galerie etc., Prague; Photoport, Bratislava), as well as in alternative spaces. In 2017, she became a finalist in the prestigious Slovak competition for young painters VUB Malba roka; she is represented in galleries and private collections. The current selection for Arto.to gallery is dominated by drawing, thus developing the gallery’s framework theme for 2023: « Black & White ».

The exhibition was supported by: The State Fund for Culture, Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, Central Bohemia Region

Exposition Hana Garová, Show Me the Body, jusqu'au 28 mai 2023, Gallery arto.to, Uhelný mlýn, Libčice nad Vltavou
Exposition Hana Garová, Show Me the Body, jusqu’au 28 mai 2023, Gallery arto.to, Uhelný mlýn, Libčice nad Vltavou
Exposition Hana Garová, Show Me the Body, jusqu'au 28 mai 2023, Gallery arto.to, Uhelný mlýn, Libčice nad Vltavou
Exposition Hana Garová, Show Me the Body, jusqu’au 28 mai 2023, Gallery arto.to, Uhelný mlýn, Libčice nad Vltavou
Exposition Hana Garová, Show Me the Body, jusqu'au 28 mai 2023, Gallery arto.to, Uhelný mlýn, Libčice nad Vltavou
Exposition Hana Garová, Show Me the Body, jusqu’au 28 mai 2023, Gallery arto.to, Uhelný mlýn, Libčice nad Vltavou
Exposition Hana Garová, Show Me the Body, jusqu'au 28 mai 2023, Gallery arto.to, Uhelný mlýn, Libčice nad Vltavou
Exposition Hana Garová, Show Me the Body, jusqu’au 28 mai 2023, Gallery arto.to, Uhelný mlýn, Libčice nad Vltavou
Exposition Hana Garová, Show Me the Body, jusqu'au 28 mai 2023, Gallery arto.to, Uhelný mlýn, Libčice nad Vltavou
Exposition Hana Garová, Show Me the Body, jusqu’au 28 mai 2023, Gallery arto.to, Uhelný mlýn, Libčice nad Vltavou
Exposition Hana Garová, Show Me the Body, jusqu'au 28 mai 2023, Gallery arto.to, Uhelný mlýn, Libčice nad Vltavou
Exposition Hana Garová, Show Me the Body, jusqu’au 28 mai 2023, Gallery arto.to, Uhelný mlýn, Libčice nad Vltavou
Exposition Hana Garová, Show Me the Body, jusqu'au 28 mai 2023, Gallery arto.to, Uhelný mlýn, Libčice nad Vltavou
Exposition Hana Garová, Show Me the Body, jusqu’au 28 mai 2023, Gallery arto.to, Uhelný mlýn, Libčice nad Vltavou

GALLERY OPERATION AND OPENING HOURS
The gallery is accessible only by prior reservation by e-mail arto@arto.to or upon purchasing a time-slot ticket from the GoOut.cz network, from Wednesday to Sunday from 2 pm to 6 pm. Currently, we cannot guarantee access to unannounced visitors during the whole span of our opening hours.
Admission 150 CZK
On Saturday 1 April at 3 pm, a guided tour of the exhibition will be given by its authors, Hana Garová and Silvia L. Čúzyová.