Klára Hosnedlová and Nona Inescu at Polansky Gallery

Artists: Klára Hosnedlová and Nona Inescu

Exhibition title: The Inhabitant

Curated by: Christina Gigliotti

Venue: Polansky Gallery, Prague, The Czech Republic

Date: March 17 – May 5, 2018

Photography: Radek Brousil / all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and Polansky Gallery

Some animals’ bodies are so vulnerable to their surroundings that they need to be encased in hard shells to survive.

(Her mother always told her she better get a thick skin)

My shell is composed of a few rituals that arm me against the outside world. It is not so much physical danger that it shields me from, but more a feeling of total loss of control. I light a candle and stare at the flame. I get into the bath and let my body dissolve. I take a Brightening Infusion Hydrogel Sheet Mask out of its wrapping and lay it on top of my face for 20 minutes. All of this wellness makes me softer, as if to protect against hardening.

“All of your problems ever are because you are not drinking enough water.”

When you say someone has come out of their shell, it’s like saying that they are becoming – they’ve been reborn. Hermit crabs will outgrow their shells and search for new ones. Only under the cover of night do they scuttle naked across the sand, never to be seen whilst unveiled.

-Christina Gigliotti

– –

Klára Hosnedlová (b. 1990 in Uherské Hradiště, CZ, lives and works in Berlin) graduated with and MgA at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague in 2015 and is currently completely her Doctoral Studies at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Brno. Her work encompasses a variety of media including photography, sculpture, furniture, embroidery, and site specific installation. She is interested in the relationship between spaces created for living, leisure and activity during the modernist era and the human body. Recent solo exhibitions include Soap – Special Feature on Art Viewer (2017), Girls Want to Learn at Vila Tugendhat in Brno (2017), Yellow Morning Waistcoat at Knize in Vienna (2017) and Red Riding Hood in cooperation with Igor Hosnedl at Gallery Jelení in Prague (2016). Her work has been included in group exhibitions such as Somebody is About to Enter at Significant Other in Vienna (2017), Vogl at Hunt Kastner in Prague (2016), and Boys Don’t Cry at the National Gallery in Prague (2015).

Nona Inescu (b. 1991 in Romania, lives and works in Bucharest) completed her studies in the summer of 2016 at the National University of Arts in Bucharest (Photography and Video Department) after studying at the Chelsea College of Art & Design in London (2009-2010) and at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp (2010-2011). Her art practice is interdisciplinary and encompasses photographs, objects, installations and sometimes video works. Informed by theoretical and literary research, her works are centered on the relationship between the human body and the environment and the redefinition of the subject in a post-humanist key. Recently, she has been exploring the human interaction with natural and prehistoric elements. Recent solo exhibitions include: Lithosomes at Exile in Berlin (2017), Conversation with a stone at SpazioA in Pistoia (2016), Her latent image at Kube in Bucharest (2016), and Hands don’t make magic at Sabot Gallery in Cluj (2015). Her work has been included in group exhibitions such as Survival Kit 9 in Riga (2017), Life A Users Manual at Art Encounters in Timisoara (2017), Grotto Capitale at Exile in Berlin (2017) and Gestures of Tomorrow at Kunstverein Nuremberg (2016).

Klára Hosnedlová, Untitled (from the series Girls Want to Learn), 2018, wood upholstered furniture with model Nataša Novotná

The Inhabitant, 2018, Exhibition View, Polansky Gallery

Nona Inescu, Our Flesh Surrounds Us with Its Own Decisions, 2017, latex, surgical steel piercings, chrome-plated steel 155 x 75 x 55 cm

The Inhabitant, 2018, Exhibition View, Polansky Gallery

Klára Hosnedlová, Untitled (from the series Girls Want to Learn), 2018, embroidery on canvas, 22.2 x 17.5 cm

Klára Hosnedlová, Untitled (from the series Girls Want to Learn), 2018, wood upholstered furniture with model Nataša Novotná

Klára Hosnedlová, Untitled (from the series Girls Want to Learn), 2018, wood upholstered furniture, detail

The Inhabitant, 2018, Exhibition View, Polansky Gallery

Klára Hosnedlová, Untitled (from the series Girls Want to Learn), 2018, wood upholstered furniture with model Nataša Novotná

Klára Hosnedlová, Untitled (from the series Girls Want to Learn), 2018, embroidery on canvas, 23.5 x 18.5 cm

The Inhabitant, 2018, Exhibition View, Polansky Gallery

Nona Inescu, Lodger (Hypothetical Ancestral Mollusc), 2018

The Inhabitant, 2018, Exhibition View, Polansky Gallery

Klára Hosnedlová, Untitled (from the series Girls Want to Learn), 2018, embroidery on canvas, 24.5 x 19.2 cm

The Inhabitant, 2018, Exhibition View, Polansky Gallery

Nona Inescu, Untitled (A hermit crab outgrew his shell), 2018, painted steel, polyester, key, chain, 250 x 210 x 2 cm

Klára Hosnedlová, Untitled, 2018, ceramic, metal earring

The Inhabitant, 2018, Exhibition View, Polansky Gallery

Klára Hosnedlová, Untitled (from the series Girls Want to Learn), 2018, embroidery on canvas, 22.5 x 18 cm

Klára Hosnedlová, Untitled (from the series Girls Want to Learn), 2018, embroidery on canvas, 22.3 x 17.5 cm

The Inhabitant, 2018, Exhibition View, Polansky Gallery