Female Perspective

Kontur Magazine’s March Exhibition Recommendation

Our March exhibition recommendation highlights female creators. In addition to key figures from the Slovak art scene, works by international artists are also featured. These multi-generational exhibitions not only showcase the diversity of female artistic perspectives but also reflect the intersections of global (primarily Central and Eastern European) and local discourses.

The common thread among the exhibitions is sensitivity, a shift in perspective, and the search for new narratives. Let’s celebrate the diversity of female creators together!

Ilona Németh’s Exhibition // Gandy Gallery

Bratislava, March 18 – May 17, 2025

On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of Gandy Gallery’s operation in Bratislava, Ilona Németh’s solo exhibition will open on March 18. It reflects on the ecological impacts of climate change and the effects of human presence on nature.

One part of the exhibition focuses on the decay, drying out, and diseases affecting the thuja trees in southern Slovakia, along with the reasons behind these phenomena. Due to climate change, new insect species have appeared in the region, gradually exterminating this tree species, originally imported from America. Once known as the tree of life and part of the landscape for centuries, its disappearance serves as a warning: a symbol of the irreversible changes in nature.

Another key element of the exhibition is a white glazed ceramic installation with the following sentence embossed in relief: “When we arrive here, the garden is already here.” (“Quand nous arrivons ici, le jardin est déjà là.”) This quote is a reinterpretation of a thought by Belgian artist and gardener Eline De Clercq, who views gardens and human presence in nature from an eco-feminist perspective. We must accept the garden the moment we step into it and adopt a respectful attitude toward the place. The fragility of the ceramic and the imprint of the text in the material symbolize the permanence of human impact.

The story of the disappearing thuja trees and the fragility of the porcelain objects simultaneously allude to the vulnerability of the ecosystem and the existential threats humanity currently faces.

Klaudia Kosziba: Thermal // Station Contemporary Art Gallery

Bratislava, February 26 – March 17, 2025
Curator: Lucia Miklošková

The latest exhibition at the Station Gallery showcases Klaudia Kosziba’s newest paintings, which evoke the peculiar atmosphere of the geothermal spring located near the artist’s residence. For the artist, painting is a dialogue with nature, where the motifs of the healing water drawn from the spring and the surrounding abandoned structures play a central role. Over time, the once man-made, now rusting pipelines and the deserted heat exchange station form a new symbiosis with nature – as if the lifeless structure transforms into a living organism. In her paintings, the pipes pulse like arteries, the rising steam turns into breath, and the landscape nourishes the earth like a mother. Kosziba’s works explore the concept of time, the cyclical transformation of nature and life, and the duality of life and death.

You can read our in-depth interview with Klaudia Kosziba here.

Helen Tóth: The Dusk Belongs to Us // Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum

Bratislava, February 25 – March 30, 2025

The Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum is presenting the works of painter and intermedia artist Helen Tóth (a native of Dunajská Streda) for the first time. Tóth’s meticulously crafted central motif is the forest, which she depicts as an organic, living community where branches and fungal threads communicate through an invisible network. In her creations, trees are not merely landscape elements or aesthetic objects but sentient, living entities, which she elevates to the level of classical human portraits through her portrait-like approach. Tóth’s works are entirely devoid of human presence, creating an idealized, pure world where nature can finally exist undisturbed. Dusk is also a time of transformation: during this period, nature regains its power, and the forest and animals can exist without disturbance. The artist treats these living beings with reverence, acknowledging their resilience, growth, and ability to carve their path despite the challenges posed by weather, environmental conditions, and human activity.

You can read about Helen Tóth’s solo exhibition in Rome here and her exhibition at the A7 Gallery in Banská Bystrica here.

Rita Koszorús: Ephemeral Onsets // At Home Gallery

Šamorín, March 29 – May 11, 2025
Curator: Éda Meggyesházi

Rita Koszorús’s exhibition, Ephemeral Onsets, is a complex spatial installation that transcends the boundaries of pictorial composition to explore the questions of perception and temporality. Elements familiar from the artist’s paintings step out of the canvas plane, forming new connections within the exhibition space and transforming into dynamic, associative structures.

The exhibition focuses on parallel realities and temporal shifts: the merging of past, present, and future, the nostalgic resonance of memories and imaginary landscapes, and the simultaneous, sometimes contradictory, presence of emotions. Koszorús’s works have always sensitively responded to the layers of personal and collective experiences. Now, they guide us into new dimensions of associative thinking and spatial perception. Visitors become part of a kind of “time travel,” where moments of arrival and departure intertwine.

We previously wrote about the artist’s three earlier exhibitions here, here, and here.

Katarína Balúnová: Dimension Y // Prešov District Gallery

Prešov, February 6 – April 27, 2025
Curator: Viktória Pardovičová

Katarína Balúnová‘s intermedia works – paintings, collages, videos, and objects – create a personal mythology where geometric shapes and vibrant colors evoke both the dynamics of cosmic space and futuristic aesthetics. Balúnová’s site-specific installation at the Prešov District Gallery explores the possibility of rethinking utopia while questioning future worldviews through retro-futuristic cosmology, memory, and the breaking points of a present burdened by crises. Her works balance the past, present, and future, critically reflecting on the existing world order while examining the concept of utopia as an ambivalent yet alternative possibility. The exhibition is an interdimensional journey where the artworks provide space for imagination, personal and collective mythologies, and thinking beyond the boundaries of our world.

Women’s Quota 02 – Female Creators, Creative Women from the Collection of the Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art // Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art

Budapest, January 24 – March 16, 2025
Curator: Krisztina Szipőcs

In celebration of the 35th anniversary of the Ludwig Museum in Budapest, a two-part exhibition has been organized, featuring a selection of works exclusively by female creators from the museum’s collection. While the first part of the exhibition focused on stereotypes related to women, the ways in which discrimination manifests, and the issues surrounding the female body and roles, the second part addresses topics and genres chosen by women, as well as the achievements of female artists.

The exhibition includes works by Ilona Németh and Kateřina Šedá, two defining female artists of the Slovak and Czech art scene.

Exhibiting artists: Zsófi Barabás, Ioana Bătrânu, Mária Berhidi, Mária Chilf, Magda Csutak, Ágnes Deli, Hélène Delprat, Marta Deskur, Róza El-Hassan, Ágnes Eperjesi, Kitti Gosztola, Kinga Hajdú, Flaka Haliti, Ildi Hermann, Jenny Holzer – Lady Pink, Mariann Imre, Valerie Jaudon, Katalin Káldi, El Kazovszkij, Zsófia Keresztes, Ilona Keserü, Lesia Khomenko, Kinder Album, Katalin Kortmann-Járay, Lola Kovács, Éva Köves, Anne Loch, Ilona Lovas, Kateryna Lysovenko, Mira Makai, Dóra Maurer, Vera Molnar, Hajnal Németh, Ilona Németh, Yoko Ono, Judit Reigl, Valéria Sass, Kateřina Šedá, Emő Simonyi, Dorottya Szabó, Lilla Szász, Beáta Széchy, Ágnes Szépfalvi, Kata Tranker, Erzsébet Vojnich.

In The Space Between Words // Copeland Gallery

London, March 12 – 16, 2025
Curators: Zula Rabikowska, Vera Hadzhiyska

Rethinking Eastern Europe is a collective of visual artists founded in May 2024 in London when Polish-born documentary photographer Zula Rabikowska organized a cultural event featuring an exhibition, film screenings, and performances. The project’s goal is to challenge and reinterpret the narratives and stereotypes surrounding Central and Eastern Europe, highlighting the work of artists from the former Eastern Bloc.

The latest exhibition of this project is hosted at the Copeland Gallery in London. Through diverse media – including video, installation, photography, sculpture, and performance – the exhibition explores the complexities of identity, history, religion, and the geopolitical transformations shaping the region. It also questions the legitimacy of both visible and invisible borders. The key aim of the event is to foster new dialogue on the diversity and ongoing redefinition of social and cultural identities in Central and Eastern Europe within a globalized world.

Slovakia is represented by Karla Šavrtková, a student at the Photography and New Media Department of the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava, while Hungary is represented by Zsuzsanna Somogyi (artist name: Ida Zsuzsanna Papp), editor of our Hungarian section and an intermedia artist currently based in Bratislava.

Exhibiting artists: Arti Siudem, Diana Serban, Eve Gil, Filip Gesse, Grupa Łono, Hanna-Katrina Jędrosz, Ioana Marinca, Ismail Khokon, Karla Šavrtková, Katerina Kouzmitcheva, Katie McCraw, Ksenia Kazintseva, Laura Bivolaru, Lăcră Grozăvescu, Lina Ivanova, Marcelina Amelia, Maria Gvardeitseva, Nastassja Nefjodov, Patricia Petersen, Paulina Korobkiewicz, Roxana Savin, Vera Hadzhiyska, Zsuzsanna Ida Papp, Zula Rabikowska.

The exhibition is supported by our partner, ZoomEuropa.

Cover photo: Women’s Quota 02 – Women Artists, Creative Women from the Collection of the Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art, exhibition interior (Photo: Dániel Végei ©Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art)