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A summer spent in Spain, in the heart of a national park, removed half an hour drive from any nearest town and shop! It was like a dream. But it wasn’t a dream but a reality! I went to Joya: AiR, an environmental artist residency set in between the ravines of white sedimentary rock walls full of fossils and fields, almond trees, and bee-eaters. Oh boy, I had some space to breathe! I love London, but I was a happy bunny to be away from it.
I was asked to write a little summary of what I did at Joya, at the end of my three weeks there. Here is a little excerpt, please follow up the link to continue reading.
“I’ve flown to Joya: AiR from London with an open mind. I wanted to relax, refresh and escape from my city life. Having done an art residency at Walthamstow Wetlands in London which stores around 40% of the water that will arrive in peoples’ taps after cleaning I wondered, what the landscape could be like in a desert environment? I wanted to know how the land and its’ habitat is affected by the driest spells of Andalusien summer.”
Following two images are taken by Jaron Rowan. Thank you!
Travel portrait/lifestyle photographer Kazumi Sakurai and I enjoying the sun.
Pictures from trip 4 at Walthamstow Wetlands working on The Rivers Project. Apart from the bedeguar gall (the red fluffy thing below), herons were very approachable this time to my surprise. I was thrilled to have used my binoculars for the first time, too! It was truly one of the exceptional days.
Image below: Diplolepis rosae is not a lichen which I thought first. It’s an insect nest. Who would have thought? Read more about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diplolepis_rosae
This heron was standing in apparently its favourite spot. I’ve seen at least half dosen small fish trapted in his beak and eaten. You can just about to see one tiny fish in his beak in this photo too.
The Rivers Project continues and this time I’m focusing my energy on a local place, oppose to one abroad in Slovakia. This new body of small scale works will be exhibited in a very local event too. The Leytonstone Library has been closed for a while, but it’s due to reopen with a big launch on Saturday 12th September. Once it’s open, my works will be on display for about a month, details are to be seen. I have no time to spare to be ready on time! Come and walk with me! And of course, please join us at the big opening in Leytonstone, if you are around! The series begins…
Here I am :
You can listen to my sound notes from the third visit in Walthamstow Wetlands on recorded on 16th August 2015. This is best to listen if you need to relax or just escape for a while. No rushing there but simple explorations. The notes are unedited and leave about 20 min to hear it in full. When I refer to a bird family of Bitterns, now I know they were Moots actually!
Canada Goose, Walthamstow Wetlands, 16.08.2015
Canada Geese family, Walthamstow Wetlands, 13.08.2015
Those blackberries I’m talking about in the recording.
I’ve collected some thistle seeds. They are so soft!
Geese munching on blackberries, Walthamstow Wetlands, 13.08.2015.
Two beautiful Mute Swans, Walthamstow Wetlands, 11.08.2015.
My favourite willow tree at Walthamstow Wetlands, 13.08.2015
My favourite willow tree touching the water and creating some shelter from the rain. Thankfully! At Walthamstow Wetlands, 13.08.2015
They don’t mind the rain I think. At Walthamstow Wetlands, 13.08.2015
Ever so shy Grey Heron at Walthamstow Wetlands, 16.08.2015
Common tern (right) and gulls.
Cormorant island at Walthanstow Wetlands, 13.08.2015.
Help me to support Nepal Please.
From MAY 1- MAY 7, I’m donating all profits from sales on krupinskart to Nepal. Prices from £17.99 – £325 and all shipping free everywhere! You’ll be notified via email how much from your purchase I’m going to donate. PLEASE HELP ME TO SUPPORT THIS CAUSE.http://krupinskart.tictail.com/
Graphic design: Samo Carnoky, a Slovak artist, who is helping to promote the cause. Thank you Lucia Benicka for your tireless efforts to help Nepal!
For more visit:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Damar-Expeditions-in-Himalaya/154815361221418?fref=ts
With the recent events and projects in my mind, here is one from 19.07.2012, Ilha de Armona, Ria Formosa Natural park, South Portugal. By the way, I had some curly kale for dinner, which rather resembles this, doesn’t it? haha
© Silvia Krupinska 2012
I love growing flowers and anything that would grow on my balcony. But this post isn’t about an ordinary plant, it’s a “Plant Transplant” I want to show you. It began on my research trip in Slovakia, where we visited a famous site in Hradok – Ganovce near Poprad. The Stonemason Koloman Koki found an endocranium (skull segment filled with travertine) in 1926. The skull supposedly belonged to a Neanderthal female, whom I’m guessing, was drinking from a mineral spring and fell into the well or some kind of a mini cave below, poisoned by the gases, never recovered from the fall and died there. The minerals fossilized and preserved her body, which was never found but the only travertine segment. (Ref. Exhibition catalogue Ganovce – The Neanderthal Man and his Living Environment, Podtatranske Muzeum Poprad, 2009)
Above: The samples found around the Hradok – Ganovce site, then in SLovakia waiting to fly to the UK.
Above: Transplanted plants growing in London – June 2014.
During my visit of the site in spring 2014, I’ve taken some plant samples which are a part of the research and exploration of the Neanderthal topic, in collaboration with Podtatranske Muzeum Poprad. To my delight, I was able to bring the samples to the UK and grow them in a planter on my balcony. This Plant Transplant is work in progress and I’m looking forward to bringing you more about it later.
Until next time, have a great summer!
Silvia
I’ve just returned from a short but very productive stay in Slovakia. Apart from a lovely family occasion, my cousin’s wedding, I’ve been busy working on a new collaboration with Poprad Museum, I’ve also met Kris from LivePozitive oz. and did a mini workshop in Creative Mapping and Cartography in Centrum Pod Lesom in The High Tatras.
I want to write one or two blog posts inspired by my stay in Poprad. But for now, an image of some work in progress. Once the series is finished, it will become a part in the permanent collection within the ‘Neanderthal Room’ in above mentioned, Poprad Museum. More to be revealed soon.
Work in progress. ‘Herbar from Ganovce’ 2014
Last Sunday the weather forecast promised to stay sunny, so we took this opportunity to visit another part of the UK – Suffolk, where I’d never been. We drove to a little village called Covehithe, which has a stunning nature and unique surroundings. Over 100 species of birds live in the Benacre Natural Reserve, which is near by. What I find fascinating about this area, is the fact how crumbly the coast is. The clay, sand and the stones in the cliffs there seem ‘puff pastry layered’ and ever changing. Salinity and the sea hitting the cliffs takes away part of England each time the tide is up high and the sea gets rough. As much as 4.5 metres each year fall down in these conditions, I read on Wikipedia. The thought, that one day, this would be gone, transformed and changed forever is puzzling. Even the fresh water pools and broads near by, such as Covehithe and Benacre Broads, would become salty and the local animal habitat would be pushed away, eaten by the sea! Whether this happens due to the raising sea levels, melting of glaciers, or simply because the land and the soil has these ‘feather fragile’ qualities, and was always going to fall down, this is a sad story. I’m on the other hand curious to see what happens in the next 5 years, and I’m planning to revisit the sight.
I created two new artworks, commissioned for a Winter Show (December 1st – December 24th 2013) at Bank Eye Art Centre, all inspired by the Benacre Natural Reserve. The diptych is part I of the story of this coast, and my mapping of it with abalone mother of pearl will continue in 5 years, when I plan (if not earlier) to re-visit it, and document the sad progress of fall. On the images, you can see two broads we walked around, Covehithe and Benacre Broad. The line in each image represents the near by coast-line, which is ever dangerously moving in!
Dimensions: 33x45x3.5 cm framed
Medium: cotton rag paper, abalone mother of pearl, glue
I leave this post open to comments and discussion. Do you know of an area similar to this? Are you thinking about a similar issue? Let me know, lets talk about it, educate ourselves and each other. The nature needs us, but not more than we need her!
Until next time, good bye! Thanks for reading.
On the image above is highlighted the region where I was born. Slovakia has a huge significance to me, as I lived there for the first eighteen years of my life. Interestingly, I’ve spent all my adult life in the UK. Being a visual artist, I’ve been exhibiting here, mostly in London, and I’ve been lucky enough to show my work abroad as well. However, not once since I’d moved to London, I’d shown in Slovakia! This puzzles me and I decided to make this right and interact more with the Slovak Galleries and my homeland artists. The next two or three blog posts will be introducing exactly those galleries from my region that I’m talking with. There is the potential to exhibit in them, as well as to take part in the international symposiums, and I’m excited about these prospects. Not forgetting to mention supportive and lovely Live Pozitive Organization about which I’ll dedicate the whole blog post NO.3 of this series.
The Spiš Artists’ Gallery, Spišská Nová Ves, Slovakia
The first gallery is The Spis Artists’ Gallery (Galéria umelcov Spiša), one of the youngest collecting institutions in the region, but also in Slovakia (25 years old). Its breathtaking Renaissance architecture with three-dimensional division with cross and barrel vaults with well-preserved details of arcades, columns, cornices and beams will blow your mind away. The current and permanent exhibitions aren’t dominated by the surroundings, quite the contrary, they work together in harmony. There is an outdoor space with The Garden of Art too. The exposition activity of the gallery maps and presents mainly the artists with relations to the Spis Region (see map on top), but it also touches Slovak Visual Art and not in a small amount it presents the work of foreign artists.
Amongst others, I loved the current exhibition SACRAL ELEMENTUM II, which consists of two parts – IKONY (ICONS) / original historical icons from collections of Zemplin Museum. This part was curated by Mgr. Dana Barnová and SAKRÁLNE V SÚČASNOM VÝTVARNOM UMENÍ (SACRAL IN CONTEMPORARY ART) including artists Katarína Balúnová – Andrea Čepiššáková – Michaela Knížová – Matúš Lányi – Martin Mlynarič – Dorota Sadovská – Monika Stacho – Viktória Šoltisová – Ján Vasilko – Eva Tkáčiková was curated by Lucia Benická, Kamila Paceková. Artists Michaela Knížová and Matúš Lányi caught my attention, I bring you a few photos of their works and a video by Michaela Knížová.
Matúš Lányi, IHS, 2012. Oil on canvas
Michaela Knížová, still from video performance Sv. Agata, 2010, which you can watch below.
Michaela Knížová, Photographic Installation accompanying video and performance Sv. Agata,
While visiting the gallery, I’ve had a chance to discover three permanent exhibitions. Two of them indoors – JOZEF HANULA’s drawings and paintings and the recently installed TERRA GOTHICA (Gotická cesta) – and the remaining outdoor exposition which opened in 2002, THE GARDEN OF ART, full of magnificent sculptures! A quick example of an outdoor installation I saw there is a piece by Miroslav Broos, ‘Darovanie zeme, 2013’ (free translation Earthly Gift). This is a process-based work which contains bulbs of soil collected in different locations, and those are then left to open up and disintegrate to dust. I love this process and look what was left for me to see when I visited (image. 2)! It’s nearly all turned to mud!
1. Miroslav BrooŠ, ‘Darovanie zeme, 2013‘ at the beginning of the process. Photo: GUS Facebook
2. Miroslav BrooŠ, ‘Darovanie zeme, 2013‘, ‘Earthly Gift’ 2013 (free translation), few months later…late July 2013.
And finally, I bring you to the last sculpture of this blog post. I was intrigued by Amálka Ľudmila Valenčíková‘s, piece Infiltration of Inner Space (Prenikanie vnutorneho priestoru) 2006, which is situated in THE GARDEN OF ART.
Amalka Ludmila Valencikova, Infiltration of Inner Space detail, Prenikanie vnutorneho priestoru, detail, 2006
Amalka Ludmila Valencikova, Infiltration of Inner Space, Prenikanie vnutorneho priestoru 2006
I’d asked the artist three very short questions in an email interview and this is what Amálka Ľudmila Valenčíková said:
SK Q: What are you focusing on now in your works, what changed since 2006, the year when you participated in the sculptural symposium in Spis Artists’ Gallery in Spisska Nova Ves and you produced the sculpture ‘Infiltration of Inner Space’ (Prenikanie vnutorneho priestoru)?
ALV A: Since then a lot has changed. I’m more focused on creations that are less demanding on space. I still like making installations and I’m drawn to organic shapes but with more intimate resonance and feeling. The new topics of femininity are present. For example in my solo exhibition in Spis Artists’ Gallery in 2011, ‘Zbieram krajky, čipky, zn. aj poškodené prineste do galérie.'(I’m collecting varied lace, even damaged, please bring to the gallery) I introduced some interactive elements in my work too. (Photo below)
Amalka Ludmila Valencikova, Interi(nn)er 01, 2011
SK Q: What project are you currently working on?
ALV A: I’m happily busy working on my relationship with my baby daughter; I’m on maternity leave, so most of my time is taken. However, this is very inspiring!
SK Q: As a sculptor, what materials do you prefer?
ALV A: I like natural materials. But what really interests me about them is their combination with other matter, often ready-made. For example silicon, epoxy, textile, plastic and others…and I mustn’t forget to mention lace too as a prime material combined with mirrors, paint, gold leaf, other metal objects, stones and other.
So that was the quick email interview with Amalka Ludmila Valencikova. Next time I’m in Slovakia, I’m going to bring you more in depth interviews with one, or more of these talented artists. I’ll keep you updated on any progress I’ll have in talks with the gallery and this brings me in a way to a natural end of the post. I hope you enjoyed this brief insight of my personal recommendations. Do visit Slovakia, the Spis Region and the gallery itself to have a look. I would love your comments and any recommendations you might have. As always, you can leave those in the ‘comment’ box or on twitter, and also on Facebook. In the next post, I’ll be introducing a gallery in my birth town, Poprad, Tatra Gallery Elektraren. See you then.
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Zimná 46
SK – 052 01 Spišská Nová Ves
tel.: +421 53 4464710, sekretariat@gus.sk, director: riaditel@gus.sk, Facebook: GUS Galeria umelcov Spisa
Tickets and opening hours:
Tuesday – Friday 8.30 – 16.30, Saturday: 9.00 – 13.00
Admission (gallery offers 5 individual exhibiting spaces):
Adults: € 1 / 1 exhibition; € 2,50 / all 5 galleries
Children, students, others: € 0,50 / 1 exhibition; € 1,50 / all 5 galleries
Family ticket: € 2,50 / 1 exhibition; € 5,50 / all 5 galleries
Video and photo upon agreement: € 2 / person
The give-away now ended and I’m certainly going to continue this new tradition in the near future, so if you missed it this time, don’t worry! I’m sending the artworks to eight of you in Canada, America and Europe. I’m so pleased with the input I received, thank you ever so much dear followers! Artist Joanna Rose Tidey also contributed with her landscape descriptions, and this is what she said about Organic Art Give-away:
“So happy that I will be receiving one of Silvia Krupinska’s pieces in the post!!! Am such a fan of her work! Find such a connection with her organic pieces, her thoughtfulness of her work. A piece that is made from abalone shell, something I carry around my neck every day for the past 6-7 years. Her work is sensitive to the materials sourced- if you haven’t had a peek at her work bows a chance to”
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This is how it started:
My art has a lot to do with different landscapes that I lived near by, visited or that in other way influenced me. Email me on silviakrupinska@gmail.com with a short paragraph of how and which landscape had an effect on you whatever country you live in, possibly which one you’d love to visit and in 4 weeks I’ll pick 8 people to whom I will post special signed artworks I’ll make for them on a white tag. (Feel free to include an image in your email and put ‘Landscapes’ in the subject line. Remember to include your postal address too.) Who will receive ‘Heavy Mountain Lake’ in post from me?
Follow me on Twitter @silviakrupinska with #OrganicArtGiveaway or like my Facebook page click here.
Silvia Krupinska, Tazke Pleso 2013 _Heavy Mountain Lake 2013. Abalone on white tag.
‘From the Bottom of the Mountain Lake’ Silvia Krupinska, 2012
‘From the Bottom of the Mountain Lake’ Silvia Krupinska, 2012
Botany Bay near Margate
Silvia Krupinska, Outdoor instalation at Botany Bay, England, 2012, Copyright S.Krupinska 2012
Working with these shells today.
I returned from a long holiday in Portugal, which never tires me of its beauty and the inspirational nature and the coast. I want to share with you some research photographs from the Algarve region. Olhao, Faro, Islans of Armona, Farol and Culatra, are a few favourite places these photos come from. I particularly admired the organic salt farms of Ria Formosa, stretching on the ground like rugs, reminding me of lanes of snow in the winter Slovakia. See what you think of my selection of images:
Happy New Year dear friends!
Copyright Silvia Krupinska 2011, All rights reserved.
My “From the Bottom of the Sea” sculpture on a beach in Abu Dhabi today. It shared a glass dome with some fish as a sculptural installation. Its sister sculpture visited and stayed in Azerbaijan, Baku. What is their next destination? Happy New Year 2012 and all the best from United Arab Emirates! Silvia
I’m here in Baku. I’m typing from my grand hotel room in the centre of the town and thinking, the generosity of this nation is amazing. I was travelling from London with an artist from Wales, Andrew Evens. I’ll introduce Andrew in more detail very soon. I’m full of positive thoughts and feel like a princess in a foreign far culture. The buildings are somehow different, I’ve never seen architecture like that before. I’m waiting to find out, what the rest of I see is like. Later on this evening catching a flight to Gabala, where the exhibition will be held. I’m hoping to have time to post images as well. That is all for now, I’m off to see some sights in Baku. Have a great day and more blogging from Azerbaijan coming soon. : )
Silvia Krupinska - Organic Contemporary Sculpture Blog 
