Oľga Paštéková — Will-o’-the-Wisps

The presentation of Oľga Paštéková’s (b. 1984) solo exhibition in Nitra, entitled Will-o’-the-wisps, represents a journey through her visual landscape. The artist’s long-term endeavour is the depiction of civilisation and its encounter with nature – a brutal, post-industrial environment characterised by a dark form of nature and solitude. Within this somewhat somber atmosphere, creatures and trees emerge, representing the intuitive, wild, and untamed force of nature, as well as human nature itself; thus, we witness the reappearance of birds, ravens, wolves, werewolves, and the l unar power of the dark night. The depictions on her canvases and illuminated lamps thus convey a message of the disrupted balance in nature, of human aggression and voracity, but also of the power of natural elements and creatures. This all unfolds within the chiaroscuro of black-and-white landscapes, or alternatively, in a blue melancholic tone under the moonlight (Trauma – Träumen, Wolfsmond, Furred Night, From Dusk Till Dawn, all 2025 – 2026).

For the current exhibition at the Nitra Gallery, Paštéková has prepared new series of works and luminous lamps, which have predetermined both the title and the overall atmosphere of the exhibition. These are the Will-o’-the-wisps and Fireflies (Lampyris Noctiluca, 2026), emitting light rays, warmth, and illuminated lines and silhouettes of birds, animals, the moon, or weeping willows. The artist previously introduced this position as “light-dwellings” in her preceding exhibition at the Old Town Gallery of Zichy Pallace in Bratislava (Sweet Loneliness, 2022). The depicted small-scale architectures represent a certain sanctuary, a vessel, a domestic base, as well as a childhood hideout, or a search for an alternative parallel key in today’s “shattered” world.

The currently presented Will-o’-the-wisps and Fireflies represent an intimate, introverted world of searching for lost balance and a dialogue between man and nature. It is a creation of an inner landscape, a magical world of images and “light-narratives.” Here again, the well-established figures of wolves or ravens shine through the moonlight as if through a membrane. The distinctive effect of these intimate works is particularly resonant within the confined underground space of the Bunker, where the artist enters into an in situ dialogue with the raw environment – through drawings applied directly onto the walls or peculiar black barrels. Oľga Paštéková and her Will-o’-the-wisps in chiaroscuro bring forth urgent metaphors, visual challenges, and parables regarding the disturbed relationship between humanity and nature, exposing our stigma stemming from the current state of the world…