TO BE IN THE SAME BOAT /MAMA GALLERY/ OSTRAVA/ since 14. 1. 2016_
Just like us when we were on a cruise and sea waves affecting our reality, as well as Hana Mikulenková´s panintings slowly pull us in and also take us to special world of which you have the same feeling as the sea waves. The author in her work continuously deals with ships and the sea symbols, which are in her work appearing in many layers.Sometimes the viewer sees them at the first sight, other times they are hidden in a wild abstraction. You can see their importance in color´s shades referring to the distant beaches and azure ocean tones. Hana Mikulenková has strong personal bond to sea, shipsand tropical islands. This is quiet unusual topic but for her its become an important source of inspiration and you can see elements of them present in almost every her work. She created own idealized world,throughthat she lets viewers enter to her paintings. The symbols as wings, hearts, black roses or paper boats give to paintings abstract parts and also irregular rhythm. Painting can clearly spoke and be silent in the same time and meaning dissolves in layers of colors.
The exhibition's title, "....to be in the same boat", is reminiscent of the well-known adage. Mikulenková selected as a motto for the exhibition Paolo Coelho´s quote "The ship is always safe in the port, but that is not her purpose." He suggest that the purpose of the ship is among others to deal with the traps of the wild seas. Likewise, Mikulenková´s paintings have inside this restlessness of wild vawe´s color contrasting with tranquil parts. Theme melancholy in combat with brush´s wild gestures alternate on large canvases and they often even beyond. Hana Mikulenková´s domain is painting but she also doesdrawing and graphics. Her black and white drawings have touch of tropical faraway lands, although they have lack of virtuosity of color painting.
Hana Mikulenková was born in 1985 in Valasske Mezirici. In 2011 she graduated in the IV. studio led by prof. Ivana Csudaia, subject Painting and other media at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava. During her studies she attended internships at universities in Thessaloniki, Salvador and Lisbon.