Katarina Janeckova

Katarina Janeckova comes from Slovakia and lives in Texas. A woman and a bear usually play the main part in her narrative paintings. The latter becomes a substitute for the archetypal man. The bear worships the woman, serves her pleasure, fulfils her erotic desires, sometimes spies on her and sometimes fights for her favour. A woman is always painted in a similar way: her naked, perfectly proportioned body becomes the source of joyful self-acceptance and strength, a tool for exploring the world and herself. The artist expresses this subjective affirmation of reality by means of expressive use of colour and strong brush strokes. The paintings presented at the exhibition were created after the artist’s move to the south of the United States. The props and scenes have been taken from her everyday life in Texas. However, their realism is complemented by exaggeration and humour. In Janeckova's painting, the large cowboy boot symbolizing the myth of the Wild West and the male, white, patriarchal culture of the South, becomes a mere element in the feminine spectacle.