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Ema Vaneková (1999) develops an artistic practice that is deeply rooted in her inner experience. Her paintings unfold within a dreamlike, gentle world in which fiction and reality naturally merge. For Vaneková, the intensity with which she experiences intimate, small-scale observations is as real as that of expansive, immersive moments. This sensitivity lies at the heart of her work: painting is not a rational process for her, but an emotional state of being.
Vaneková works in a distinctly intuitive way. Through an endless cycle of trying, erasing and beginning again, the image gradually emerges. These repetitive actions often leave the artist physically exhausted, drawing her into a near-transcendent state in which time and surroundings recede. The result is a blurred, ghostly painterly language, in which images seem to hover between presence and absence on the canvas. While the paintings are figurative and partially rooted in the visible world, the figures often present themselves unexpectedly, repeatedly surprising the artist in the process. Vaneková continues to work the painting until the emerging image feels intuitively right. During this opaque process, she relinquishes meaning: the work can begin to behave like a third presence over which she does not have full control. Only once the image becomes more concrete is she able to step back and view it from a distance. In this way, Vaneková explores the magnitude of small moments and the fragile boundary between feeling, dreaming and being.
Written by Kelly-ann van Steveninck