22 july 2022, Flor Linckens
The moving and disarming works of Katarina Janeckova
In Gallery Sofie Van de Velde, you can view a solo exhibition by Katarina Janeckova until 4 September. The imaginative, provocative and occasionally surrealistic works of this Slovak artist are layered, symbolic and allegorical, dealing with themes such as gender, identity, sexuality, motherhood, the male gaze and power. Through her work, the artist invites the viewer to reflect on their own sexuality, body, history and identity.
Janeckova's paintings are moving, mysterious, funny, disarming and playful, executed in warm colours and spontaneous brushstrokes. You'll see someone gently sucking a toe, spilling breast milk or a woman caressing her own pregnant belly. But you'll also come across prosaic tableaux like dirty dishes or a phone, attached to a charger.
Katarina Janeckova, Sara smile, 2020, Gallery Sofie Van de Velde.
The works often contain recurring symbols: in her world view, men are regularly portrayed by bears, snakes or dogs, so that the women in the frame retain control and become central to the work: strong, sexually empowered women. In this exhibition, the bear is literally in the gallery space: on the ground, in the dirt, wearing cowboy boots while flowers seem to be growing from its belly.
The artist's personal life has always been an important source of inspiration for her work. Janeckova received her master's degree from the Art Academy of Bratislava, but now divides her time between New York and Corpus Christi, where her husband is from. References to the Texas town on the Gulf of Mexico are frequent in her paintings, sometimes very explicitly — in the form of cowboy hats and cowboy boots — and sometimes much more implicitly. When she first moved there, she felt lonely and wanted to belong and connect with the local people. She ended up at the local gym, where she became fascinated with the local bodybuilding culture, to such an extent that she decided, as an experiment, to train for a competition herself for a while. Janeckova's works are also about her role as a European in a hyper-American environment.
Katarina Janeckova, Maternity Vacation, Gallery Sofie Van de Velde.
In addition, Janeckova often depicts spaces that are traditionally regarded as the feminine sphere, symbolically charged domains such as the kitchen or the bedroom. And although fantasy plays a big part in her work, the characters often resemble Janeckova herself, simply because she knows her own face so well. Sexuality also has a central place in her practice, not least because visualisations of sexuality are so ubiquitous. It almost seems as if Janeckova wanted to rediscover her own body and sexuality on her own terms, in response to the stereotypical and one-sided imaginations that are particularly focused on the male gaze.
Katarina Janeckova, Maternity Vacation, Gallery Sofie Van de Velde.
The birth of her first child irrevocably changed her life and children often feature thematically in her paintings. The name of the exhibition at Gallery Sofie Van de Velde is “Maternity Vacation”, referring to the way in which the term maternity leave is translated in Slovakia. A somewhat clumsy term that is completely bereft of the respect it deserves, according to the artist.
Janeckova: “These series are influenced by the family environment where my child is present in my studio while I paint, while another child is growing inside of my body, and I’m working on maintaining a healthy marriage. None of these factors are widely described or explored in the lives of the well-known artists nor match our romantic imagery of an unrestrained artistic soul. Yet it is a strong source of inspiration, and my energy is constantly shifting from sexual to maternal instincts and vice versa. It’s very common to balance the extreme polarities of feelings in parenthood and I decided to use these forces to create a body of work that boldly marks my daughters presence in my studio - so when I look back, I will know they have been there, together with my husband/the bear, living in Texas. I hope this can also be a seed for the important conversation about motherhood-art-career being validated and possible, and to encourage other artists-parents to embrace this magical period while we learn from the true masters of life, ‘our kids’.”
