Igor Hrnko & Júlia Zelená

This artistic duo have been working alongside us for some time now. Igor is a graphic artist and designer, in addition to his typographic activities. As he himself says: “in my own creative work, I don’t limit myself to graphics; I often use calligraphy to express emotional states of the given moment”. Through stunning ink drawings “he depicts his own beloved grotesque view of humans, animals and their interactions”. Júlia is an artist who has spent much of her career working with textiles and visual art. Her main theme is the landscape; she is always striving to “paint landscapes which do not exist, a place to which I can return; it doesn’t need to be someplace specific, I see houses as one of the most important entities of being”. Her world is joyous, colourful and dreamlike, expressed in her own idiosyncratic style often using precise layers of paint on silk sheets. This aspect of her work has met with considerable acclaim on the international art scene, and her art is regularly exhibited both in Slovakia and further afield.

On the occasion of this exhibition, however, the two artists wish to present their work in a completely different light – as a duo. The history of their joint work developed on the basis of their mutual affection and trust. It is a symbiosis which draws on mutual respect, cooperation and the search for accord amidst discord, an approach which encapsulates the way in which they live. As they themselves describe it, “it is a story of discarded drawings, sketches and spontaneous paintings that we rediscovered in Igor’s archive; Júlia recognized their potential and relocated them into her cheerful colourful world. Igor’s older works are often harsh, disturbing, eclectic, but Júlia tried to tone this down through her sense of colour, but she is at pains to make sure that the essence of his work is not lost”. Initial spontaneous experimentation is gradually transformed into a focused creative project. A new cycle emerges with new aspects of both content and form.

In the history of art offers we can come across several artistic duos whose collaborations have expanded the envelope of individual authorship and fostered a new collective language; perhaps most notably, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Gilbert & George, and Marina Abramović and Ulay.

In a similar vein, Igor Hrnko and Júlia Zelená co-create works which emerge as a result of mutual dialogue, respect and a sensitive perception of each other. This is a symbiosis, a trust built on the capacity to listen, accept and transform. We can trace the development of this process in the vibrantly coloured multilayered compositions of VOICES, PLANT and THEM & THE DOG, the equally colourful yet more restrained RIDER, TO THE SEA and REALLY?; the emphasis of the static figure and its metaphorical semantics is visible in the surprisingly “idyllic” ADAM and EVE (paradoxically) FROM KOŠICE whose home is adorned with a crow held in the hand. The collaborations showcased in these works are apparent not only in terms of the technical intersection of two forms of media but above all though their emotional and mental interconnection which fosters the emergence of a new creative space; a space in which Igor’s expressively introspective drawings merge with Júlia’s intuitively colourful compositions to form a harmonic whole which not only preserves its original impetus but at the same time adds new layers of meaning.

Their work proves that artistic duos can function like a living organism – they breathe, grow, change over time. Each partner brings their own sensitivities, experiences and visual languages to the process, but the result is always a joint effort – a work of art that simply could not have been created without the spark of their individual cooperation. The process of symbiosis in their work is not a compromise but an enrichment – a meeting between two worlds which mutually complement and expand each other.

Edita Vološčuková, project curator