Dominika Kováčiková: Don’t Be Scared, It’s Just Me

Dominika Kováčiková’s paintings depict disturbing situations that straddle the boundary between the personal and the public, between vulnerability and self-confidence.

She transforms the ubiquitous polarity into captivating dramas that attract attention with their visuality and open the door to difficult topics. The author has long been interested in the process of adolescence and physical and mental transformation, which she communicates through female bodies in simple and relatively calm situations. She focuses on body language and emotionally charged psychological portraits, using associated symbols to explore physicality, inner tension, and the experience of both mundane and serious moments. She captures her characters at the moment of awareness of their presence—the moment when they take responsibility for their actions.

Kováčiková’s latest series smoothly departs from the lasciviousness and innocence of the characters and the ubiquitous lightness of the pink color scheme. In her previous work, she depicted young women who had overcome trauma or insecurity and followed their journey to self-confidence, emancipation, and devictimization. The current protagonists gradually leave fear behind and recklessly throw themselves into new, sometimes dangerous situations. True to her self-portrait variations, she offers a darker color palette and a depressing atmosphere with a touch of horror. She squeezes the bodies and faces of the characters into the frames of the paintings, thereby enhancing the feeling of tension, confinement, and inner tension. She continues to emphasize the psychologization and emotionality of grotesque characters. Faces form the core of her paintings, which she develops through small symbolic elements and details hinting at the beginnings of distinctive narratives.

During Dominika Kováčiková’s exhibition, visitors can listen to a music set created from compositions by musician Erika Rein.