GUMA/LESK/ČERNÝ BLESK
curated by Tereza Havlovicová
The exhibition presents the works of the young Brno artist Monika Kojetská (1990), a graduate of the Faculty of Fine Arts in Brno, Studio of Body Design led by Doc. Mgr. A. Lenka Klodová Ph.D and Studio of Painting 1 led by MgA. Vasil Artamonov and akad. mal. Tomas Lahoda. It is a loose continuation of the exhibition series S tebou i se mnou, focused on the reflection of gender identity in the work of young contemporary artists.
The basic themes that the artist has been dealing with for a long time are sexuality, physicality and attraction. Although the artist’s background is in painting and she creates abstract paintings, classical in their format and method of hanging, she uses non-traditional non-painting techniques in her process of creation and moves on its border with the object. She very carefully chooses the materials she composes and experiments with in her works – she covers the canvases with fabric, deforms them, shapes them differently, destroys them, lets them crack or overlap the frame.
She is fascinated by the surface, interested in the essence of the material, and values its expressive and semantic qualities. The choice of the resulting material is determined by the degree of subjective attraction or repulsion the artist finds in it. Thus, the artist engages with the contradictions inherent in the character of individual mediums. It can be both very attractive in terms of surface, texture, color, or, for example, deliberately evoke a feeling of greasiness, disgust, or even repulsion.
She often incorporates pieces of real clothing and fabrics that can represent a fetish in his work, such as various pieces of leather, leatherette, shiny materials, used tights, underwear…
Sexuality does not only enter the artist’s work through the aforementioned fetish, but most clearly through the recurring motif of the rhombus. It is the artist’s central motif, a symbol of the female gender with all its contexts. Sexual energy also appears in the artist’s work in the form of magnetism and physical attraction, which she uses not only in the works themselves, but often in the installation of the works. The theme of attraction thus runs through all her work in various forms, the artist links interpersonal attraction, arising inexplicably between two people, and material, physical attraction.
Above the aforementioned themes that the artist deals with, there is another, existential level. The artist works with the themes of creation and extinction, impermanence. With the idea that by ending one thing, a new thing is created. At a certain stage of her work, her works are torn apart, destroyed, and thus a contrast of fragmentation and at the same time purity is brought into them, where the artist carefully chooses the shape of the works and their method of installation. She works with an awareness of beauty and its transience. She then perceives it in a broader context, as an essential feature of existence. In her fascination with the new form created by destruction, she repeatedly transforms and destroys her paintings. Accordingly, the colour most often chosen is black.
