Mgr. Ľudmila Kasaj Poláčková
head of the arts science department/deputy director
research scientist, curator of exhibitions, curator of collections
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She studied History and Theory of Art at Trnava University in Trnava (2002 – 2007). She currently leads the gallery’s arts science department where she cooperates with her other colleagues. She is in charge of creating collections, research, expert analysis and scientific evaluation of the gallery’s collection. She develops the concept of the gallery’s acquisition policy. Her original thematic exhibition projects tend to incorporate elements of artetherapy and the psychoanalytical apparatus. She received the Martin Benka Award in 2018. She perceives her curatorial work as an endless space open to interpretation of various cultural stories.
Mgr. Barbora Kurek Geržová
research scientist, curator of exhibitions, curator of collections
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She studied History of Art and Culture at Trnava University. Since 2006, she has been working at Nitra Gallery where she focuses on contemporary art and art of the second half of the 20th century. She curates the collection of Paintings and participates at shaping the gallery’s acquisition policy. While working at Nitra Gallery, she has organised several dozens of solo and group exhibitions of both national and international artists. Besides monographic exhibitions (Marko Blažo, Karol Pichler, Dorota Sadovská, Ľubo Stacho, Emőke Vargová), she also focuses on thematic original projects which are a result of her art history research. This curatorial strategy has led her to processing various themes – the matter of illusion in contemporary art (mirror, the illusion of space, trompe l´oeil); she has also been interested in shifts in artistic techniques; compared formal and contextual similarities and differences between the works of contemporary Slovak and Czech artists; explored works of male and female artist from a gender perspective; mapped creative works reflecting a specific phenomenon – the film; researched a critical view of Slovak folklore expressed in works of contemporary artists.
As a part of her international cooperation, she coordinated a project titled Collezionami – Biennale d´Arti, Contemporanee (Bari, Cittadella di Stato e Biblioteca Nazionale, 2006), in 2009, she prepared an exhibition of contemporary fine art titled Perfect Asymmetry, which was a part of the project Donumenta 2009 – Slovakia, Regensburg in Germany. She also contributed to the 2014 publication Fifty Contemporary Artists in Slovakia and an exhibition project titled Paradox 90. Curatorial Concepts in the Period of Mečiarism 1993 – 1998 (2014). Since 2011, she has been a member of the Slovak section at AICA (The International Association of Art Critics registered in UNESCO and based in Paris). In 2018, she received the Nitrianska Lunica Award.
Mgr. Andrea Pleidel
research scientist, curator of exhibitions, curator of collections
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She studied History of Art and Culture at Trnava University in Trnava, just like her colleagues-curators. She lived in Prague for a few years and worked at the Benedikt Rejt Gallery in Louny. Only a few months before COVID, she moved with her family to her hometown of Banská Bystrica where she worked for a non-profit, Centre of Architect Ladislav Eduard Hudec. At the moment, she lives in Šaľa. At Nitra Gallery, she is in charge of the collection of Prints and the collection of Photography and Other Media.
Outside of the gallery, she holds workshops for children titled Once Upon a Time There Was Architecture…
Elena Tarábková
art educator
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She worked as an art educator at Jozef Rosinský Elementary School of Art in Nitra for thirteen years. In 1995, she graduated from Jozef Vydra School of Applied Arts in Bratislava in Manual Artistic Use of Textiles. She received her masters degree in psychology and art education at the Faculty of Arts at Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra. She studied painting at a studio led by the world-famous surrealist painter prof. Karol Baron, textile under the academic painter Daniel Szalai and sculpture under the academic sculptor Viliam Loviška. After her studies, she attended several training seminars and accredited courses as Closer to the Gallery (Foundation – Centre of Contemporary Art, Bratislava, 2010 – 2011) or Museum Education (Slovak National Museum, Bratislava, 2017 – 2018). Besides educating and teaching children with various levels of disability, she also works on her own creative program which includes drawing, painting, ceramics, textile techniques). She has exhibited at 22 group exhibitions (Bratislava, Nitra, Žilina), illustrated the books Penetrations in Literature and Culture (2009), Christian Culture Stimuli (2010). She spends her free time in nature with her adopted female dog Heňa and studying medieval architecture.
At Nitra Gallery in Nitra, she has hosted several original educational programs like Space for Space (2009), Space for Visual Illusions (2010), Anyone Can Create (2009 – 2020), Art Memories / A Memory of Karol Baron (2009), Time of Art (2009, 2010, 2011), Mirrors of Lines (2010), Tracking Cyril and Methodius (2012), Sececia I. – III. (2012, 2013, 2014), Contemporary Art References (2020) and a series of workshops inspired by the exhibitions Death (in) Tales (2018), Fetishes of Today (2019), The Stories of (After) Life (2020). She regularly prepares didactic exhibitions inspired by the Nitra Gallery collection fund for the Anyone Can Create! project. She has co-created the educational programs Art Through Play II (2008), Nitra Gallery Week (2009 – 2019), Summer Painting 2009 – 2019). The pandemic has inspired several creative programs like Gallery at Home (2020), Gallery at Home 2 (2021) and Gallery at School/Any Can Create! (2020). In 2010, due to her efforts, Nitra Gallery received an award (1st place in its category) in the “Nitra Without Barriers” competition for the “Anyone Can Create” educational project realised in 2009 and 2010.
Dominika Kuchynková
PR manager, documentarist
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She studied History and Theory of Art at Trnava University in Trnava. He position at Nitra Gallery includes communication, coordination and production of every kind, social network management, online presence, but also professional tasks including cataloguing and documentation of collection pieces. She also occasionally works as a lecturer or curator. In art, she is mostly interested in the emotion that a piece of art is able to transfer onto the viewer. She enjoys working with various kinds of art and prefers a spontaneous and unrestricted approach to the creative process.
She is a long-time theatre artist (the Spišák a děvčata theatre ensemble) and currently devotes her free time to reconstructing history and fencing at the Renaissance guild SATYROS.
Dominika Chrzanová
culture and education referee
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She studied History and Theory of Art at Trnava University in Trnava. At Nitra Gallery, she manages the preparation and organisation of cultural events for the general public, including their dramaturgy and production. Some of the regular events she manages include a series of chamber concerts called the Gallery of Music, lectures on contemporary art and literary talks titled 4-3-2-1. The gallery’s yearly schedule also includes several other standalone cultural and educational events. She also has experience with curating art exhibitions and art projects. As a curator, she focuses on overlaps of art, science and technologies which explore the space we live in and the way we live.