Curator: Michal Stolárik

White & Weiss Gallery opens the exhibition of the talented Košice artist Svetlana Fialová, titled “Millennial Misery,” on Wednesday, December 6th. It brings an intense dive into the mind of the young generation, into a world often considered a millennial marathon full of challenges and questions. The author boldly delves into the depths of the contemporary young person, exploring questions of identity, societal pressures, and the endless noise of social media.

The “Millennial Misery” exhibition communicates the author’s natural observational talent and the ability to speak to others through personal struggles, doubts, and impressions. Fialová primarily focuses on drawing and graphic techniques, creating raw, bitterly amusing, and ironically serious visual records of immediate experiences. She naturally gravitates towards traditional media but subject them to both formal and media experiments over the long term. Common pencils, charcoals, and dry pastels are complemented by imaginative childlike markers, drawings created with cables or threads. She moves from paper to tapestries, graphic matrices, or neon installations, updating established boundaries with each new project.

The exhibition “Millennial Misery” by Svetlana Fialová, curated by Michal Stolárik, will run until January 19, 2024.

Svetlana Fialová (1985, Košice) lives and works in Košice. She studied at the Faculty of Arts at the Technical University of Košice (2008), completed her master’s studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (2010) under the guidance of Assoc. Vladimir Skrepl, and pursued her doctoral studies at the Bratislava School of Visual Arts (2015) under the guidance of Prof. Daniel Fischer. Currently, she serves as an associate professor at the Faculty of Arts in Košice in the Studio of Graphics and Experimental Creation under the leadership of Prof. Peter Rónai. In 2013, she became a laureate of the Jerwood Drawing Prize competition, and in 2012, 2015, and 2020, she was a finalist in the Painting – VÚB Foundation Prize competition. In 2011, she was a finalist for the Essl Art Award and the Critics’ Prize for Young Painting. Fialová completed a one-year internship at the Red Gallery in London and a residency at the Youkobo Art Space in Tokyo (2018-2019). She has exhibited solo in cities such as Paris, Vienna, Prague, Trnava, Bratislava, and Košice. In 2021, she released her first comprehensive monograph.

White & Weiss Gallery programme in 2023 was supported from the public funds by the Slovak Art Council.