ret rie vers

3 October - 16 November

Emalin is pleased to present ret rie vers, a solo exhibition by Stanislava Kovalcikova (b. 1988, Slovakia; lives and works in Düsseldorf, DE) at The Clerk’s House. This is the artist’s first solo exhibition with the gallery.

Poised and libidinal, Kovalcikova’s paintings exist as much through their mythological imagery as in their settings: theatrical environments she stages for their mysteria to play out, featuring her play with light, mirrors, textiles and restrictions of our access to the painting itself. Modernism moulders with contemporary decay on the surface of her paintings and sculptures, piled with the fragmented life of today. Turning to our neurotic attachment to time, in 𝘳𝘦𝘵 𝘳𝘪𝘦 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴, Kovalcikova unfolds repression and glorious dreaming on a series of found antique Prussian watch dials – dismantled, through the course of history, from watchtowers.

Stanislava Kovalcikova (b. 1988, Slovakia) lives and works in Düsseldorf. She completed her BFA and MFA degrees in painting at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in the studios of Tomma Abts and Peter Doig. Recent solo exhibitions include the Aspen Art Museum, Colorado, US (2024); Antenna Space, Shanghai, CN (2023); Museum of Contemporary Art – Belvedere 21, Vienna, AT (2022); Peres Projects, Berlin, DE (2022); 15orient, New York, US (2021); Open Forum, Berlin, DE (2020); Mamoth, London, UK (2020); and Ten Haaf Projects, Amsterdam, NL (2019). Kovalcikova’s work has been included in group exhibitions at the 9th Biennale of Painting, Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle, BE (2024); BRAUNSFELDER, Cologne, DE (2023); Antenna Space, Shanghai, CN (2023); Sadie Coles HQ, London, UK (2023); Michael Werner Gallery, London, UK (2022); Aïshti Foundaton, Beirut, LB (2022); Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, AT (2021); and the Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, PL (2019).