Photo © archive Kunsthalle Bratislava / Jiří Thýn
Kunsthalle Bratislava
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Denisa Lehocká
Untitled, Kunsthalle Bratislava
Kunsthalle LAB is a “display window” that makes it possible for an exhibition to be visually accessible even outside of Kunsthalle Bratislava’s opening hours. Lehocká will work with this aspect, concentrating on the transparency of the space, the ambivalent division by the glass wall, interior/exterior, openness/closure, hollowness/bulging, private/public, within/without, having regard to seasonal specificities of heat and cold, the psychosomatic aspect… and last but not least, the abstract/real opposition. The whole is something like an inspection. It is a look into the inner workings, and at the same time a critical detachment. Lehocká will work also with the changing conditions of daily sunlight and nightly artificial lighting (integrated into the objects).
The series of objects will produce reflections and thereby, as if in some non-material extension (“effulgence”), it will touch the walls and map the room.
This “display window” will be a work of window-dressing / a setting, an arrangement / an order, an installation of something emotional, incessantly appealing to the passers-by (in the end of year rush). Everyday life is the basic motif of Lehocka’s works.
Apart from ontological questions, this ordering also makes reference to thinking about ecological and cosmological displacement. Lehocka’s work is thus concerned with thinking on both the micro and macro levels. That will be clearly perceptible in the inner formal composition of her substantial works.
Her organic objects will be clusters of diversity created from glass, mirrors, metal, textiles, and other materials. They will be hung, which will allow them to have a gentle rotation, dynamics, life.
Lehocka’s theme is reflection and a representation of the profound subjectivity of being and corporality. Her seemingly levitating sculptures will be materialisations, above all, of the immaterial. This intimacy, even if it is protected from externality, nonetheless discusses in and with an open public space.
The artist is also pondering the given historical or contemporary context of the locality: SNP Square, the central square of the capital city, in its lower section among the original markets (once called Kramársky rad, i.e. Traders’ Row, or Marktplatz). Close by is the first skyscraper (Manderla Apartment and Commercial Block) in cosmopolitan Central Europe, an avantgarde manifestation of modernity.
Curator: Boris Ondreička
Biografie
Geboren 1971 in Trenčin, lebt und arbeitet in Bratislava, SK
Ausgewählte Ausstellungen
2025
Untitled 2025, Lombardi—Kargl, Wien
2023
Lehocká for National Gallery, Tatra banka Donation for SNG Collections, Slowakische Nationalgalerie, Bratislava
POINT, Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Wien
2021
untitled, Kunsthalle Bratislava, Bratislava
2021, Collective, Bratislava, Bratislava
2018
Futura, Prag
2016
Luno 550, Fait galerie, Brno
Gandy Gallery, Bratislava
2015
Dite, Dům Umění, České Budějovice
2014
Denisa Lehocká and Eva Kotakova, Hunt Kastner, Prag
2013
Denisa Lehocká, Sammlung Friedrichshof, Wien
2012
Denisa Lehocká 2012, Slowakische Nationalgalerie, Bratislava
2011
Try to describe the colour of pure (still) water, my dear., Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe
2010
Denisa Lehocká 1991-2010, GJK, Trnava
2009
no places no frontiers, Dominik art project, Krakau
tranzit, Bratislava
2008
Austrian Cultural Institute, Prag
2005
Moravská galerie, Brno
Landscape, with Boris Ondreička, BAK, Basis voor Actuele Kunst, Utrecht
2001
Galerie MXM, Prag
2000
Múzeum V. Löfflera, Košice
Ausgewählte Gruppenausstellungen
2025
The Neurobiology of Love, Krupa Art Foundation, Wrocław
2024
Reversed Objects, Ludwig Múzeum, Budapest
Body at Play, Georg Kargl BOX, Wien
2023
Hard/Soft Textil und Keramik in der zeitgenössischen Kunst, MAK, Wien
2022
I Had a Dog and a Cat, curated by Hana Ostan Ozbolt, Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Wien
Twilight Zone / Material Narratives, Kunstverein Eisenstadt, Eisenstadt
2021
The Trafo-Clique. Material Narratives, Kunstverein Eisenstadt, Eisenstadt
2019
Sleeping with a Vengeance, Dreaming of a Life, Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart
Transmediale, Import Projects and HKW, Berlin
2018
Women on paper, Espace de l’art Concret, Mouans-Sartoux
2017
Empire of The Senseless, Meetfactory, Prag
TŘETÍ MYSL. Jiří Kovanda a (Ne)možnost spolupráce, Nationalgalerie Prag, Prag
2015
The school of Kyiv, Kyiv Biennial, Kiew
Thirtyone, KUG, Priština
Skrytá řeč rostlin, Nationalgalerie Prag, Prag
The Soft Codes, Wroclaw Contemporary Museum, Wroclaw
2014
Report on the Construction of a Spaceship Module, New Museum, NYC
On Generation and Corruption, BWA Contemporary Art Gallery/Galeria Sztuki Wspolczesnej, Katowice
2013
Lapidárium, Galerie Jaroslava Frganera, Prag
2010
...and don't forget the flowers, Moravská galerie, Brno
2009
Gender Check, MUMOK, Stiftung Ludwig, Wien
2008
Cutting Realities - Gender Strategies in Art, Austrian Cultural Forum, NYC
Mediation Biennale 8, ZAMEK Culture Centre, Poznaň
Family Affairs, Kunstverein Ulm
Re-Reading the Future, International Triennale of Contemporary Art, Nationalgalerie Prag, Prag
Micronarratives, Museum of Modern Art, St Etienne
2007
Form Follows Risk, Futura, Prague / Slowakische Nationalgalerie, Bratislava
48th October Salon - Temptation of small realities – micro-communities, Belgrade Cultural Center, Belgrad
2006
Auditorium, Stage, Backstage, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt am Main
Narratives -35/65+: Two Generations, Kunsthaus Graz Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz
Kontakt, MUMOK, Stiftung Ludwig Vienna AT & tranzit workshops, Bratislava
2005
The Giving Person, Palazzo delle arti Napoli, Neapel
2004
Stadt In Sicht, Künstlerhaus, Wien
Anxiety of Influence, Stadtgalerie Bern, Bern
Cordially Invited, BAK, Basis voor Actuele Kunst, Utrecht
2003
Now What? On Hope and Other Misunderstanding, BAK, Basis voor Actuele Kunst, Utrecht
2002
Fragile, Daejeon Museum of Art, Daejeon
Nomad, CCB, Brugge
Women Of The World, White Columns, NYC
Pass me the Butterfly, DUMBO Art Cener, NYC
2001
Event. Image. Clone, Tallinn Art Hall, Tallin
2000
Body-Space / Nets and other creations, Kunsthalle Basel, Basel
borderline sydrome / energies of denfence, Manifesta 3, Ljublijana
1999
Slovak Art for Free, 48. Biennale di Venezia: Pavilion of Slovak Republic, Venedig
1996
60/90, 4th Annual exhibition of SCCA Slovakia, Soros Centers for Contemporary Art, Bratislava
Bibliografie (Auswahl)
Denisa Lehocká, Collective, SK, 2022
Denisa Lehocká, Schlebrügge, AT, 2014
Denisa Lehocká, Slovenská národná galéria, SK, 2012
Denisa Lehocká, tranzit.sk, SK, 2009
Sammlungen (Auswahl)
Kontakt, Erste Bank Group Collection, Wien
EVN Collection, Wien
Sammlung Friedrichshof, Wien, ATEuropean Investment Bank, Luxemburg
Fiorucci Art Trust, Monaco & London
Societé Generale, Paris
The Daniel and Florence Guerlain Collection, Les Mesnuls
Fait, Brno
Artfond, Bratislava
Collective Collection, Bratislava
Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava
NG, Nitra
PGU, Žilina
GJK, Trnava
Und privat: Slovakei, Tschechien, Polen, Österreich, Ungarn, Deutschland, Frankreich, Monacco, Belgien, Japan, UK, USA
Residencies, Preise, Stipendien
2021
Startstipendium für Fotografie, Bmkoes
Wojda Residency, Steinbrunn
2019
Moriumius Resideny, Ishinomaki
Landxcapes Visual Art, Bjcem