Artist Name: Jana Zatvarnická
Residency Dates: February – March 2025
Born: 1988
Hometown: Michalovce, Slovakia
Lives & Works: Düsseldorf (DE) and Slovakia
URL: Instagram @jana.zatvarnicka
Education:
2019 – Diploma degree and Meisterschülerin in Painting, Kunstakademie Düsseldorf (DE)
2012 – BFA in Painting and Mixed Media, University of Fine Arts and Design (VŠVU/AFAD), Bratislava (SK)
2011 – Exchange semester, Estonian Academy of Arts, Tallinn (EE)
Bio/Statement:
Jana Zatvarnická (1988), born and raised in Eastern Europe, often travels the world to visit various native living ecosystems that inspire her to work. By always searching beyond herself, she discovers their origins and their directions of growth, which also gives her the space to ground herself. She inspects them with her touch and material transformations. In her works, she connects the haptics and the optics, in the wide range of their reverse qualities. It is best to see her works in person to experience the energy and the rare fragility of the remnants of the process. It depicts not only the entrance to its core but everything that is surrounded. Within the process, she also creates new types of symbols; something in between prints, empty spaces, gestures and luminous matter. With this artistic approach, the creation of new, undiscovered categories emerges, which she believes is the fundamental goal of understanding one’s integral belonging. (Text credit: Mgr.Art Matúš Novosad, PhD).
In her artistic practice, Jana Zatvarnická has cooperated with experts in anthropology, botany, and environmental studies in various countries. For her these collaborations reinforced the importance of interdisciplinary approaches in addressing urgent ecological and social issues. Through her art, Jana depicts the overlooked connections between gender, ecology, and power. This artistic exploration acts as a visual form of research, communicating complex ideas on ecology, history, magic, social justice, and ecofeminism. By using references from history, mythology, archives, museum collections, and science fiction, Jana seeks to reimagine plant medicine and the perception of female bodies. Experimenting with various materials like rust, wax, hair, and organic paints, she often depicts human-plant symbiosis that challenges anthropocentric views in the context of sexual ecologies.
Jana Zatvarnická’s research on critical plant studies includes work at Klassik Stiftung Weimar (Germany) and The Natural Herbarium Archive at the University of West Indies (Trinidad and Tobago). She has participated in numerous residencies internationally, such as A.I.R. Muhu Island (Estonia), Hydra_Pace, Dobra Vaga, Ljubljana (Slovenia), Alice Yard (Trinidad and Tobago), and Budapest Galéria (Hungary). Her awards include the VUB Painting Prize (Slovakia, 2019) and the Nadacia NOVUM Award (Slovakia, 2024), with a finalist position for the STRABAG Art Award (Austria, 2022).
Among Jana Zatvarnická’s group exhibitions are “Constructive Lyric” (Pilsen, 2017), “In Order of Appearance” (Museum K21, Düsseldorf, 2020), and “Heat Waves Pt.I.” (Y Art Gallery, Trinidad and Tobago, 2022). Her solo projects include “A Place Called Space” (Gallery Peter Tedden, Düsseldorf, 2019), “Burnt Landscapes, Conflicting Cultures” (Dobra Vaga, Ljubljana, 2021), and “Defragmentation of Future Tales” (East Slovak Gallery, Košice, 2022). Jana’s recent works are “Sprouting Bodies” (Alice Yard, Trinidad, 2024), “Herbarium and Ghosts” (Künstlerverein Malkasten, Düsseldorf, 2024), and “Our Bodies Grow at Night” (Wandtarchive, Düsseldorf, 2024).
Support: Jana Zatvarnická’s residency is made possible with support from the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, Düsseldorf, Germany.
