The ability of forming an outstandingly pregnant reaction to a given context, and a sense of overstatement, anecdote and scale as components of meaning make her one of the most interesting figures in contemporary Czech art. The artist’s attention is driven to basic situations people have to face or in which they find themselves. She selects elements and details that are turned into metaphors through reduction or by being taken to the extremes; sometimes she unexpectedly inverts common understanding of what is happening and how. Since she addresses her subjects straightforwardly and vehemently, even an estimation error or unforeseen resistance of the means she uses may become parts of the work.

Šárka Mikesková takes twice-told things and signs at their word, letting them say even more than what they themselves might intend. Thus, figures and figurines, used clothing, anthropomorphised plastic chairs, broken glasses and china, a pulsing heart and a blinking star, an artificial tree trunk, or a glass court shoe can be encountered in her work, but also a modelled figure of a woman-wolf, sanitary porcelain products and gold plating in unexpected places and with unexpected meanings. Banality and uttered jokes are transformed in existential mementos, numb ideas and genres are reanimated by means of their rudimentary treatment. The sculptures, objects and installations of Šárka Mikesková are examples of creative freedom, where the equality of diverse approaches to three-dimensional expression is represented first of all by the opportunity to choose the appropriate method for each work: Whether it is combination of modelling with found materials or projection, composing of prefabricated elements, adding meaning-bearing details to a pre-existing object (or a given place), alienating functions and mechanical adjustment of objects (or their complementation, respectively). Manufacturing, creation, invention and working are all equalized – the point is to catch the essence, the meaning, to be consistent in the metaphorical naming of the surrounding world.

The exhibition Hallelujah is an enriched “remake” of Šárka Mikesková’s project for the National Gallery Perla (situated in Vrané nad Vltavou), jointly prepared last year by Divus Publishing House and PLATO.

Marek Pokorný

Šárka Mikesková (*1977) studied under Marius Kotrba in the Sculpture Studio at the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Ostrava. She is among the high-profile personalities of the Ostrava contemporary art scene; for instance, she participated in the group exhibition of Czech female artists Useless, in the festival Kukačka (Cuckoo) and in the international project Privátní nacionalismus (Private Nationalism, together with Lenka Klodová, Jiří Surůvka, Martin Zet and others). Since 2014 she has collaborated with the public embellishment club Za krásnou Ostravu (For a Beautiful Ostrava), creating several memorial plaques for the club. In 2014 she also exhibited at the 7th New Zlín Salon.