Eliška Konečna
Eliška Konečna, No Petal Left to Pluck, 2025, embroidery, cotton, wooden frame, 220 x 150 x 8 cm
Eliška Konečná’s (b. 1992, Czech Republic) work stems from an effort to display the untouchable abstract reality, which she interprets into material dimension. This effort relates to her long-term interest in communication and its boundaries.
She is particularly interested in the human sense of touch and the dynamic relationship between the physical and the spiritual. The floaty shapes of her wooden and soft bas-reliefs underline the transgression of the body and its visual narratives related to the corporeality perceived through the prism of desires and drives. Her hand-crafted artifacts often balance on the fleeting border of wakefulness and sleep, tactile and immaterial.
What is fascinating about Konečná’s work is that it detaches itself from any chronological linearity to gradually approach a certain timelessness, a form of universalism mirroring the history of art. One can notice Konečná’s relation to symbolism and the almost classical construction of her narration around allegorical figures and objects. She often creates a sort of "cartography of dreams" that does not take any interpretation for granted. It indicates and invites to be discovered and revealed. The artist likes to develop her personal mythology filled with characters depicted for their individual qualities, struggling with morality issues. She often uses a very intuitive language, leaving a great place for pure aesthetic considerations. In this sense Konečná’s practice definitely illustrates a certain return to sensuality. In her artworks, emotion is treated as a background of sensuality, or as its direct consequence.
Konečná has recently exhibited at Nicodim Gallery (Bucharest), Kunsthaus Hamburg (Hamburg), Rondo Sztuki (Katowice), Public Gallery (London), Below Grand Gallery (New York), eastcontemporary (Milan), National Gallery of Prague, Karlín Studios, and Berlínskej Model (Prague).
