Badischer Kunstverein
—
Denisa Lehocká
Try to describe the colour of pure (still) water, my dear
Under the title “Try to describe the colour of pure (still) water, my dear.” Badischer Kunstverein shows the first comprehensive presentation of works by Denisa Lehocká and Boris Ondreička in Germany. With the exhibition of these two Slovakian artists, the Kunstverein introduces two highly divergent artistic methods and confronts the sculptural and materially oriented approach of Lechocká with the language and sound-based strategies of Ondreička.
Grounded in an everyday practice of drawing, Denisa Lehocká develops and extends the traditional vocabulary of sculpture in complex spatial situations. Within a fragile equilibrium, Lehocká’s installations combine natural structures such as branches or stones with items of everyday use, as well as with graphic elements and sculptural objects. The artist translates the world of things into a system of spatial relations that seem to hold the individual elements of each constellation in suspension along the threshold between the becoming and disintegration of formal definitions. At the same time, Lehocká’s situative arrangements act as the physical traces of a continuous process of personal notation, of individual networks of material memory and speculation that are structured as narratives without telling any stories.
In contrast to Lehocká’s material- and process-based approach, the musician, author, and artist Boris Ondreička pursues a strategy of postproduction which positions his works along the borderlines between language, sound, and visuality. Specific materials are regarded by Ondreička as only one among numerous options for realizing his concepts and ideas. His works take the form of site-specific interventions which respond – aurally, textually, and performatively, as well as visually and physically – to pre-existing constellations, while at the same time displacing them semantically. His is a conceptual politics and poetry of intervention which – in its directness and immediacy – stands indisputably in the tradition of Punk, but whose concentrated dispersal of resources and systems of references just as clearly invokes the musical and literary legacies of Pop.
Despite the strikingly divergent characters of their respective artistic enterprises, Denisa Lehocká and Boris Ondreička have realized joint exhibition projects on a regular basis since the mid-1990s. In the process, they have developed a highly specific form of artistic dialogue through which the boundaries separating their oeuvres are neither blurred nor suspended, but instead continually reconstituted through a sustained praxis of mutual commentary.
Curated by Anja Casser and Daniel Pies.
Biography
Born 1971 in Trenčin, lives and works in Bratislava, SK
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2025
Untitled 2025, Lombardi—Kargl, Vienna
2023
Lehocká for National Gallery, Tatra banka Donation for SNG Collections, Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava
POINT, Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna
2021
untitled, Kunsthalle Bratislava, Bratislava
2021, Collective, Bratislava, Bratislava
2018
Futura, Prague
2016
Luno 550, Fait galerie, Brno
Gandy Gallery, Bratislava
2015
Dite, Dům Umění, České Budějovice
2014
Denisa Lehocká and Eva Kotakova, Hunt Kastner, Prague
2013
Denisa Lehocká, Sammlung Friedrichshof, Vienna
2012
Denisa Lehocká 2012, Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava
2011
Try to describe the colour of pure (still) water, my dear., Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe
2010
Denisa Lehocká 1991-2010, GJK, Trnava
2009
no places no frontiers, Dominik art project, Krakow
tranzit, Bratislava
2008
Austrian Cultural Institute, Prague
2005
Moravská galerie, Brno
Landscape, with Boris Ondreička, BAK, Basis voor Actuele Kunst, Utrecht
2001
Galerie MXM, Prague
2000
Múzeum V. Löfflera, Košice
Selected Group Exhibitions
2025
The Neurobiology of Love, Krupa Art Foundation, Wrocław
2024
Reversed Objects, Ludwig Múzeum, Budapest
Body at Play, Georg Kargl BOX, Vienna
2023
Hard/Soft Textil und Keramik in der zeitgenössischen Kunst, MAK, Vienna
2022
I Had a Dog and a Cat, curated by Hana Ostan Ozbolt, Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna
Twilight Zone / Material Narratives, Kunstverein Eisenstadt, Eisenstadt
2021
The Trafo-Clique. Material Narratives, Kunstverein Eisenstadt, Eisenstadt
2020
_SNÍVAJ!?_ / DREAM!?, Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava
2019
Sleeping with a Vengeance, Dreaming of a Life, Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart
Transmediale, Import Projects and HKW, Berlin
2018
Women on paper, Espace de l’art Concret, Mouans-Sartoux
2017
Empire of The Senseless, Meetfactory, Prague
TŘETÍ MYSL. Jiří Kovanda a (Ne)možnost spolupráce, National Gallery Prague, Prague
2015
The school of Kyiv, Kyiv Biennial, Kyiv
Thirtyone, KUG, Priština
Skrytá řeč rostlin, National Gallery Prague, Prague
The Soft Codes, Wroclaw Contemporary Museum, Wroclaw
2014
Report on the Construction of a Spaceship Module, New Museum, NYC
On Generation and Corruption, BWA Contemporary Art Gallery/Galeria Sztuki Wspolczesnej, Katowice
2013
Lapidárium, Galerie Jaroslava Frganera, Prague
2010
...and don't forget the flowers, Moravská galerie, Brno
2009
Gender Check, MUMOK, Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna
2008
Cutting Realities - Gender Strategies in Art, Austrian Cultural Forum, NYC
Mediation Biennale 8, ZAMEK Culture Centre, Poznaň
Family Affairs, Kunstverein Ulm
Re-Reading the Future, International Triennale of Contemporary Art, National Gallery Prague, Prague
Micronarratives, Museum of Modern Art, St. Etienne
2007
Form Follows Risk, Futura, Prague / Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava
48th October Salon - Temptation of small realities – micro-communities, Belgrade Cultural Center, Belgrade
2006
Auditorium, Stage, Backstage, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt am Main
Narratives - 35/65+: Two Generations, Kunsthaus Graz Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz
Kontakt, MUMOK, Stiftung Ludwig Vienna AT & tranzit workshops, Bratislava
2005
The Giving Person, Palazzo delle arti Napoli, Naples
2004
Stadt In Sicht, Kunstlerhaus, Vienna
Anxiety of Influence, Stadtgalerie Bern, Bern
Cordially Invited, BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht
2003
Now What? On Hope and Other Misunderstanding, BAK, Basis voor Actuele Kunst, Utrecht
2002
Fragile, Daejeon Museum of Art, Daejeon
Nomad, Brugs Cultuurcentrum, Brugge
Women Of The World, White Columns, NYC
Pass me the Butterfly, DUMBO Art Cener, NYC
2001
Event. Image. Clone, Tallinn Art Hall, Tallinn
2000
Body-Space / Nets and other creations, Kunsthalle Basel, Basel
borderline sydrome / energies of denfence, Manifesta 3, Lublijana
1999
Slovak Art for Free, 48. Biennale di Venezia: Pavilion of Slovak Republic, Venice
1996
60/90, 4th Annual exhibition of SCCA Slovakia, Soros Centers for Contemporary Art, Bratislava
Biblio (Selection)
Denisa Lehocká, Collective, SK, 2022
Denisa Lehocká, Schlebrügge, AT, 2014
Denisa Lehocká, Slovenská národná galéria, SK, 2012
Denisa Lehocká, tranzit.sk, SK, 2009
Collections (Selection)
Kontakt, Erste Bank Group Collection, Vienna
EVN Collection, Vienna
Sammlung Friedrichshof, Vienna, ATEuropean Investment Bank, Luxembourg
Fiorucci Art Trust, Monaco & London
Societé Generale, Paris
The Daniel and Florence Guerlain Collection, Les Mesnuls
Fait, Brno
Artfond, Bratislava
Collective Collection, Bratislava
Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava
NG, Nitra
PGU, Žilina
GJK, Trnava
And private: Slovakia, Czechia, Poland, Austria, Hungary, Germany, France, Monaco, Belgium, Japan, UK, USA
Residencies, Awards, Grants
2021
Startstipendium für Fotografie, Bmkoes
Wojda Residency, Steinbrunn
2019
Moriumius Resideny, Ishinomaki
Landxcapes Visual Art, Bjcem
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