26. 6. 2009, Hermitage Gallery, Chicago

The opening exhibition of the Hermitage Gallery consists of a selection of works by an emerging Czech Artist, Eva Koťátková (*1983), related to her personal actions and immediate sculptures in space. Eva Koťátková is among the most interesting and versatile artists on the contemporary Czech art scene. Her means of expression range from installations and sculptures using everyday objects, to videos documenting bodily explorations of her immediate surroundings, and drawings as well as paintings mapping the uncanny aspects of human physiology, domestic environment, and childhood memories.

The artist describes the starting point of her work as "basic "naturally" structured societies like the household, family and school with their functional mechanisms, schemes of behavior and mutual dependence." She explores everyday situations that she re-arranges in new co-ordinates. Koťátková tests out simple activities by making them more difficult to carry out, changing their context and introducing irrational and disturbing elements. In this way, she explores "the mutability and limits of the subjective experience of concrete situations, spatial, semantic and personal relations." The resulting artworks vary in style and form; drawings, objects, and events complement each other, united by the physical intensity and associative power of the imagery and gestures used.

Curator: Zuzana Štefková

/Quotations taken from the statement of the artist/
The Hermitage Gallery is a non-profit apartment gallery specialized in presentation of works by Czech and Central European artists. It was established in the cooperation with c2c Circle of Curators and Critics, Prague.