EVA KOŤÁTKOVÁ
Eva Koťátková (born in Prague, 1982) lives and works in Prague. With her project ‘The Heart of a Giraffe in Captivity is Twelve Kilos Lighter’, she is representing the Czech Republic at this year’s Venice Biennale. Inspired by surrealism Eva Koťátková’s distinctive artistic vocabulary unites sculpture, text and performance. As metaphor of modern civilisation her comprehensive work illustrates dreams, expectations and deals with mutual anxieties mainly experienced by children, elderly people and animals – the so-presumed weak of society to indicate the fragility of the subject facing maintained structures. She further explores the relationship between the private and personal on one hand and the public, authoritarian sphere on the other and their antagonistic relation constantly implying and questioning a sublime institutional critique beneath the surface.
Her work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Nottingham Contemporary (2023); Arter (Istanbul, 2023); National Gallery Prague and CAPC Bordeaux (both 2022); Kestnergesellschaft (Hanover); Kunsthal Charlottenborg (Copenhagen, both 2019); Kunstverein Hamburg; Pirelli Hangar Bicocca (Milan, both 2018); 21er Haus – Museum for contemporary Art (Wien, 2017); Museum Haus Esters (Krefeld); Centre d’art contemporain (Pougues-les-Eaux, both 2016); Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden (2014) and Wroclaw Museum of Contemporary Art (2013).
Significant group exhibitions include those at Gropius Bau (Berlin, 2022); Fotogalerie Wien (2020); Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, 2018); Migros Museum (Zurich, 2016); MASP (São Paulo, 2016); Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (2015); Kunsthalle Wien (2013) and Budapest and Mucsarnok Kunsthalle (2008). Koťátková’s works have additionally been presented at Ruhrtriennale (Duisburg, 2023); documenta fifteen (2022); the 16th Istanbul Biennial (2019); the Venice Biennale (2013); the 18th Biennale of Sydney (2012) and the Liverpool Biennial (2010). Her work is present in numerous public collections such as Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt, MIT Boston, Guggenheim New York, Migros Museum Zurich, MoMA New York, Ludwig Museum Köln, Reina Sofia Madrid and Centre Pompidou Paris.
Text courtesy Meyer Riegger
Representative Artworks
Eva Koťátková, from the series 'Lenka (Unlearning Instinct)' (2023). Mixed media on paper. Courtesy Hunt Kastner, Prague.
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Eva Koťátková, from the series 'Lenka (Unlearning Instinct)' (2023). Mixed media on paper. Courtesy Hunt Kastner, Prague.
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