collective

Thank you to everyone who joined us for Robert Gabris’s exhibition, an evening of quiet intensity. Your presence means a lot - not only as a celebration of Robert’s powerful work, but as continued support for what Collective stands for. Since 2017, our mission has been to champion Slovak visual artists and create lasting platforms for their voices. Every visitor, every conversation, every shared moment brings us closer to that vision. Stay tuned as we’ll soon be sharing more about one of our most ambitious projects yet. One that we hope will place Slovakia firmly on the map of the international art world and meaningfully connect Bratislava with other cities across the region and beyond. With gratitude, Collective #robertgabrig #collective

Thank you to everyone who joined us for Robert Gabris’s exhibition, an evening of quiet intensity. Your presence means a lot - not only as a celebration of Robert’s powerful work, but as continued support for what Collective stands for. Since 2017, our mission has been to champion Slovak visual artists and create lasting platforms for their voices. Every visitor, every conversation, every shared moment brings us closer to that vision. Stay tuned as we’ll soon be sharing more about one of our most ambitious projects yet. One that we hope will place Slovakia firmly on the map of the international art world and meaningfully connect Bratislava with other cities across the region and beyond. With gratitude, Collective

Thank you to everyone who joined us for Robert Gabris’s exhibition, an evening of quiet intensity. Your presence means a lot - not only as a celebration of Robert’s powerful work, but as continued support for what Collective stands for. Since 2017, our mission has been to champion Slovak visual artists and create lasting platforms for their voices. Every visitor, every conversation, every shared moment brings us closer to that vision. Stay tuned as we’ll soon be sharing more about one of our most ambitious projects yet. One that we hope will place Slovakia firmly on the map of the international art world and meaningfully connect Bratislava with other cities across the region and beyond. With gratitude, Collective

Thank you to everyone who joined us for Robert Gabris’s @robert_gabris_ exhibition, an evening of quiet intensity. Your presence means a lot - not only as a celebration of Robert’s powerful work, but as continued support for what Collective stands for. Since 2017, our mission has been to champion Slovak visual artists and create lasting platforms for their voices. Every visitor, every conversation, every shared moment brings us closer to that vision. Stay tuned as we’ll soon be sharing more about one of our most ambitious projects yet. One that we hope will place Slovakia firmly on the map of the international art world and meaningfully connect Bratislava with other cities across the region and beyond. With gratitude, Collective

Laureát Norbert Kuki @saint.lambo CENA OSKÁRA ČEPANA 2026 Vyjadrenie poroty / Jury Statement: Umelecká tvorba Norberta Kukiho sa nedá jednoducho zaradiť do jednej kategórie a práve táto nezaraditeľnosť je súčasťou jej integrity. Vo svojich prácach, ktoré sa pohybujú na pomedzí sociálneho sochárstva, aktivizmu, rapu a merchandisingu, sa nesústredí primárne na to, aby boli jeho projekty dokonalé alebo inštitucionálne uznané, ale skôr na blízkosť, výmenu a odmietanie toho, aby za ne niekto hovoril. Porota na jeho portfóliu oceňuje niečo, čo sa dosahuje náročnejšie než vycibrená estetika: skutočne nefetišizujúci vzťah s rómskou komunitou zvnútra, vybudovaný prostredníctvom dlhodobej výmeny, a nie prostredníctvom krátkych, povrchnejších stretnutí, ktoré tak často vedú k tokenistickej alebo zjednodušujúcej reprezentácii. Kukiho tvorba v sebe nesie univerzálny rozmer pocitu vykorenenia, ktorý rezonuje v rôznych diasporách ďaleko za hranicami jej bezprostredného kontextu. Porota oceňuje etickú vážnosť a spoločenskú naliehavosť, ktoré sú hnacou silou jeho autorskej praxe. / The artistic practice of Norbert Kuki resists easy categorization, and that resistance is itself part of its integrity. Moving across social sculpture, activism, rap and merchandise, his work is not primarily concerned with being polished or validated by art institutions - it is concerned with proximity, exchange and the refusal to be spoken for. What the jury recognised in his portfolio is something harder to manufacture than a refined aesthetic: a genuinely non-fetishizing engagement with the Roma community from within, built through sustained exchange rather than the kind of brief, extractive encounter that so often produces tokenistic or reductive representations. Kuki's work carries within it a universality of displacement that resonates across diasporas far beyond its immediate context. The jury values the ethical seriousness and the social urgency that animate his practice. Portrét/Portrait: Martin Lacko @thetalkingclub Spoluorganizátor / Co-organizer: @collect__ive Partneri / Partners: Residency Unlimited, YVAA, Trust for Mutual Understanding, Nadácia Tatra banky

Laureátka Natália Šimonová @nataliaasimonovaa CENA OSKÁRA ČEPANA 2026 Vyjadrenie poroty / Jury Statement: Tvorba Natálie Šimonovej vychádza zo zdanlivo jednoduchého výberu materiálu: hrdze, a práve prostredníctvom tejto voľby autorka ďalej rozvíja diela pozoruhodnej hĺbky a konceptuálnej súdržnosti. Hrdza v dielach Natálie Šimonovej odráža chátrajúcu infraštruktúru socialistického verejného priestoru, pomalé vymazávanie kolektívnej pamäti a tiché násilie voči veciam, ktoré sú ponechané napospas rozkladu. Jej výskumom poháňané pátranie sa s rovnakou pozornosťou venuje mikroskopickým stopám zanechaným na povrchu, ako aj širšej otázke, čo nám opustenie spoločného verejného priestoru hovorí o súčasnosti. Maľbu vníma ako expandované pole – procesuálne, priestorovo sa rozširujúce, neuzavreté. / The work of Natália Šimonová opens with a deceptively simple choice of material: rust, and from that choice, a practice of remarkable depth and conceptual coherence unfolds. Rust, in Šimonová's artworks, mirrors the decaying infrastructures of socialist public space, the slow erasure of collective memory, the quiet violence of things left to deteriorate. Her research-driven investigation moves with equal attentiveness between the microscopic trace left on a surface and the broader question of what the abandonment of shared civic space tells us about the present. She conceives of painting as an expanded field - processual, spatially reaching, never finished. Portrét/Portrait: Martin Lacko @thetalkingclub Spoluorganizátor / Co-organizer: @collect__ive Partneri / Partners: Residency Unlimited, YVAA, Trust for Mutual Understanding, Nadácia Tatra banky

Laureát Andrej Kiripolsky @andrejkiripolsky CENA OSKÁRA ČEPANA 2026 Vyjadrenie poroty / Jury Statement: Tvorba Andreja Kiripolského pôsobí tichou prítomnosťou človeka, ktorý sa dotýkal predmetov, o ktorých hovorí. Hoci je jeho tvorba hlboko zakorenená v prostredí slovenského priemyslu, jej témy rezonujú v širšom kontexte celosvetovej postindustriálnej transformácie, čím sa stáva zároveň špecifickou aj univerzálnou. Diela pôsobia rozpoznateľne v tom najsilnejšom zmysle slova – nie sú generické, ale smerujú k akejsi zdieľanej pravde prostredníctvom špecifickosti ich materiálnych a historických základov. Porota ocenila aj zrelosť jeho vizuálneho jazyka. Tento postkonceptuálny prístup v sebe nesie zároveň váhu miestnej špecifickosti, pričom sa taktiež zapája do celosvetovej diskusie o práci, úpadku priemyslu a komunitách, ktoré tento úpadok formoval a ktoré nakoniec ostali opustené. / The work of Andrej Kiripolsky arrives with the quiet presence of someone who has handled the objects he speaks about. Although his work is firmly rooted in the Slovak industrial environment, its concerns resonate across the broader complex of post-industrial transformation worldwide, rendering it at once particular and universal. The works feel recognisable in the strongest sense - not generic, but arriving at a kind of shared truth through the specificity of their material and historical grounding. The jury noted with appreciation the maturity of his visual language. This postconceptual idiom carries the weight of its local specificity while operating within a global conversation around labour, industrial decline, and the communities shaped and ultimately abandoned by it. Portrét/Portrait: Martin Lacko @thetalkingclub Spoluorganizátor / Co-organizer: @collect__ive Partneri / Partners: Residency Unlimited, YVAA, Trust for Mutual Understanding, Nadácia Tatra banky

💘 Odborná porota Christina Li, Vojtěch Novák, Noit Banai a William Stover vybrala spomedzi 48 uchádzačov a uchádzačiek laureátstvo Ceny Oskára Čepana 2026! Gratulujeme / Congrats: Andrej Kiripolsky @andrejkiripolsky Natália Šimonová @nataliaasimonovaa Norbert Kuki @saint.lambo Vyjadrenie poroty: Tento rok nás potešil veľký počet uchádzačov a uchádzačiek. Výber poroty spojil tri odlišné umelecké prístupy, ktoré zdieľajú spoločný záujem o otázky pamäti, identity a miesta. Tvorba Andreja Kiripolského, Natálie Šimonovej a Norberta Kukiho svedčí o ich vytrvalom fokuse na vybrané témy, pričom sa zrelým a kritickým pohľadom vyrovnávajú so vzťahom medzi miestnou špecifickosťou a širším významom. Namiesto toho, aby sa rozhodli pre rýchle alebo extraktívne prístupy, investujú do pomalšieho a náročnejšieho procesu pozorného zapájania sa. Od Kukiho zaoberania sa otázkami identity, komunity a reprezentácie, cez Kiripolského zakorenenie v postindustriálnej krajine, odkiaľ pochádza, až po Šimonovej umelecký výskum odkrývajúci vrstvy kolektívnej pamäti prostredníctvom vrstiev hrdze vo verejnom priestore. / The Oskár Čepan Award 2026 Jury, consisting of Christina Li, Vojtěch Novák, Noit Banai and William Stover selected three laureates from among 48 candidates. Jury Statement: This year, we were pleased with the large number of applicants. The jury's selection brings together three distinct artistic positions united by their engagement with questions of memory, identity and place. The practices of Andrej Kiripolsky, Natália Šimonová and Norbert Kuki each demonstrate a sustained commitment to their respective subjects, navigating the relationship between local specificity and broader relevance with maturity and critical clarity. Rather than opting for quick or extractive approaches, they each invest in the slower, more demanding process of attentive engagement. From Kuki's engagement with questions of identity, community and representation, to Kiripolsky's grounding in the post-industrial landscapes of his origins, to Šimonová's research-driven excavation of collective memory through layers of rust of public space. Spoluorganizátor/ Co-organizer: @collect__ive

Anatomy of Solitude brings together several series • Anatomical Folding Books, Blue Heart, This Space is Too Small For Our Bodies • each of them a different approach to the same question: what does the body carry, and what does it conceal? Robert Gabris @robert_gabris_ works primarily in drawing, a medium he understands as both an analytical and deeply political tool. His lines are so fine, so precise, they resemble embroidery slowly stitched into the surface of the paper. Organic and anatomical motifs intertwine with themes of queer corporeality, Romani memory, and the mechanisms of social exclusion. The result is a visual language that is simultaneously scientific and almost mythological. For the first time in Slovakia. Gabris has spent years building a body of work that moves through the most intimate and uncomfortable questions of human existence. Identity, corporeality, exclusion, memory. His drawings, created with an almost obsessive precision, treat the body not as a stable image but as an archive: fragmented, layered, always in the process of being written and rewritten. #collective #supportive #robertgabris

For the first time in Slovakia. Robert Gabris @robert_gabris_ has spent years building a body of work that moves through the most intimate and uncomfortable questions of human existence. Identity, corporeality, exclusion, memory. His drawings, created with an almost obsessive precision, treat the body not as a stable image but as an archive: fragmented, layered, always in the process of being written and rewritten. Anatomy of Solitude brings together several series • Anatomical Folding Books, Blue Heart, This Space is Too Small For Our Bodies • each of them a different approach to the same question: what does the body carry, and what does it conceal? Gabris works primarily in drawing, a medium he understands as both an analytical and deeply political tool. His lines are so fine, so precise, they resemble embroidery slowly stitched into the surface of the paper. Organic and anatomical motifs intertwine with themes of queer corporeality, Romani memory, and the mechanisms of social exclusion. The result is a visual language that is simultaneously scientific and almost mythological. Despite an international career that includes documenta 15 in Kassel, Villa Romana in Florence, exhibitions across Europe and soon, America, this was Robert’s first exhibition on home ground and we are grateful that it was with us that his work finally found its way to Slovak audiences. As Emília Rigová @bari_raklori writes in her curatorial text accompanying the exhibition, a visual artist, curator, and educator whose own practice draws on the Romani experience and the critical reflection of social and historical mechanisms of exclusion, their relationship reaches far beyond the professional. “I had first met Robert as a student, then as a colleague and artist and somewhere along the way, we became close friends.” — Emília Rigová #collective #supportive #robertgabris

For the first time in Slovakia. Robert Gabris @robert_gabris_ has spent years building a body of work that moves through the most intimate and uncomfortable questions of human existence. Identity, corporeality, exclusion, memory. His drawings, created with an almost obsessive precision, treat the body not as a stable image but as an archive: fragmented, layered, always in the process of being written and rewritten. Anatomy of Solitude brings together several series • Anatomical Folding Books, Blue Heart, This Space is Too Small For Our Bodies • each of them a different approach to the same question: what does the body carry, and what does it conceal? Gabris works primarily in drawing, a medium he understands as both an analytical and deeply political tool. His lines are so fine, so precise, they resemble embroidery slowly stitched into the surface of the paper. Organic and anatomical motifs intertwine with themes of queer corporeality, Romani memory, and the mechanisms of social exclusion. The result is a visual language that is simultaneously scientific and almost mythological. Despite an international career that includes documenta 15 in Kassel, Villa Romana in Florence, exhibitions across Europe and soon, America, this was Robert’s first exhibition on home ground and we are grateful that it was with us that his work finally found its way to Slovak audiences. As Emília Rigová @bari_raklori writes in her curatorial text accompanying the exhibition, a visual artist, curator, and educator whose own practice draws on the Romani experience and the critical reflection of social and historical mechanisms of exclusion, their relationship reaches far beyond the professional. “I had first met Robert as a student, then as a colleague and artist and somewhere along the way, we became close friends.” — Emília Rigová #collective #supportive #robertgabris

Oskár Čepan Award 2025 Art is not a Competition, but I´m Winning Ľuboš KOTLÁR @kotlarlubos 
“The installation is characterized by the colour green, which is used in photography, advertising and film as a background – a so-called green screen for the subsequent projection/keying of a digitally created environment onto a monochrome surface. This color is also used because it differs most from the color of human skin. The artificiality of the color and the space transformed by it thus serves as a gateway for possible projections featuring human figure, but in Kotlár's work, it remains in its unanimated technical state.” Title: Sometimes I like to go to the gym with my hair loose Medium: Installation Technique: environment, objects Dimensions: variable Technical collaboration: Dionýz Troskó (objects) @holyhotpunx , Matej Maturkanič (painting) @wallforall.studio , Maroš Greš (architecture) @gresmaros Koppel´s villa, Ján Koniarek Gallery, Trnava, Slovakia @galeria_jana_koniarka Duration: 12.12.2025 – 1.3.2026 Monday: Closed Tuesday - Friday: 10:00 - 18:00 Saturday - Sunday: 13:00 - 18:00 Curator: Miroslava Urbanová @miroslavaurban Visual Identity: Matúš Buranovský @matusburanovsky Photographs: Michaela Prablesková @prablesk Organizer: Foundation - Centre for Contemporary Arts Co-Organizer: @collect__ive Partners: Tatra banka Foundation @tatra_banka , Sovereign Invest Foundation, Residency Unlimited @residencyunlimited , @___yvaa___ , Trust for Mutual Understanding, @ffi.sk , Self-Governing Region Trnava @trnavskazupa Media Partners: Artalk @artalk_info , Devín Radio