LACUS

Lucia Žitnayová’s first solo exhibition held at the Youth Gallery presents her as a regional artist. The exhibition title LACUS (a fish pond in Latin) implies a theme the artist has been working on for a long time. Her life has always been connected to fish ponds, ever since her childhood in Malé Zálužie where she grew up. Her fascination with fish, water, mud, sand, fishing nets, all of that left a mark on her perception of art. She uses her haptic experience with natural materials and incorporates it into her creative program when she creates various objects and images ideologically based on natural and organic shapes, leaning toward minimalistic approach. LACUS is about the element of water, but also about her experience with shapable matter (mud) on (the artist’s) hands. Her empirical childhood experience with the material and eventual understanding of it stood at the inception of the artist’s current visual and illusive language. “Childish messing around” in mud and sand is perceptibly used here as a process of catharsis and relaxation. Žitnayová uses games and mixing of materials to create an attractive visual concept. The gallery space thus also becomes a place for relaxation as well as a place where the visitor can create their own imaginary spaces in their head. She uses simple methods to encourage our own introspection.