A New Selection from the Last Thirty Years of Contemporary Art in Slovakia

Retrospective Exhibition at the Löffler Museum in Košice

Prior to the foundation of the Löffler Museum in Kassa, the elderly Béla (Vojtech) Löffler explicitly requested for the museum to include contemporary art. Featuring artists who have exhibited in the museum over the past thirty years, the exhibition Sextant is a testament to the fulfilment of this promise. Kontur Magazine’s video filmed on-site presents the artworks in the exhibition.

The selected artists have in common that they exhibited at the institution in the 1990s (except for the experimental textile artist Vlasta Žáková, born in 1981) and that at the same time or afterwards, they exhibited internationally as well. The exhibition thus becomes a kind of hall of pride featuring a group of artists who, after their early career debut, were able to join the contemporary mainstream. At the same time, it also reflects the institution’s commitment to nurturing emerging artists from the very beginning of their careers.

The thirtieth-anniversary retrospective was curated by Vladimír Beskid, who over the past thirty years has curated 74 exhibitions for the museum in Slovakia and abroad.

The exhibition primarily consists of paintings and objects. Paintings by Erik Binder are included, who was a prominent figure in Slovak Expressionist painting and who died in June 2023. Ilona Németh’s 2019 video installation Adósság (Debt) is also on view, in which she tells the story of her father.

Full list of the exhibiting artists: Erik Binder, Marko Blažo, Marek Kvetan, Vlasta Žáková, Roman Ondak, Ilona Németh.

Sextant (curated by Vladimír Beskid), Löffler Museum, Košice, 24.08.2023 – 22.10.2023.

Read our interview with Noémi Rácz, the former director of the Löffler Museum, who stepped down in 2023. In the interview, Rácz talks about the circumstances of the museum’s foundation, the Löffler couple, and her vision of running the institution with a focus on the contemporary art scene.