Miloš Kopták — Does This Thing Have a Purpose?!

The exhibition presents objects, sculptures and assemblages by Slovak fine artist and illustrator Miloš Kopták which he has been working on since the 1990s. His first solo exhibition in Nitra Gallery presents this part of his work as a whole and in a range as never before.

The title Does This Thing Have a Purpose?! is based on a drawing by Kopták’s schoolmate from AFAD, Dalibor Polívka, which is also a part of the exhibition. The question was asked when the artist started thinking about the meaning of the exhibited works and the best way to present them. Is contemporary art capable of producing something original or does it just endlessly recycle the forms, contents, notions, materials and aesthetics of past works of art and today’s everyday objects?

Miloš Kopták creates whole, but not closed series. He returns back to them. Some times within days, other times within years. He thematises different topics, but their common denominators include found objects (tools, dolls, photographs, magazine cut-outs, globes) or unconventional materials (chewing gums, citrus skins, mussels, soaps), dark and absurd humour, (self)irony, deconstructions of original purposes and functions of things, social phenomena and their playful reconstruction from his own perspective and aesthetic standpoint.

We have turned the Representative Halls of Nitra Gallery into an old and mysterious apartment no one has entered for years. Each of its rooms has its own atmosphere, each contains a series of different works. Kopták collaborated on the presentation and installation structure with designer Martin Kubina. The works are supplemented with Diaries consisting of the artist’s thoughts and original texts which will lead the exhibition visitors deeper into a world that fits into a mason jar…