Ráchel Jutka
Paradox of Closeness
Exhibition opening: 10. 4. 2026 / 19.00 hod. Exhibition's duration: 11. 4. - 24. 5. 2026 Exhibition's curator: Petra Housková
Where does an image end and a relationship begin? Closeness in Ráchel Jutka’s work is not defined by distance. It is won through matter, process, and time. The artist uses cyanotype to materialise fragments of personal memory. Palms, sand, horses, flashes of childhood, and travel become chemical traces on fabric. They are firmly embedded in raw canvases and in the bodies of old furniture. These images do not demand immediate legibility.
They emerged slowly, dependent on light and chemical processes, without digital correction. Painting is similar: it develops over time, through intuition, layering, and concealment.
At this point, Jutka directly opposes the logic of contemporary image flows. While the world of social media consumes visuality in fractions of a second, her works demand a pause. Stitching fragments, layering structures, and physically embedding memory into space are gestures that invite the viewer into a different kind of presence — slow, attentive, bodily.
Ráchel Jutka is a visual artist and the 2025 laureate of the Oskár Čepan Award. She graduated from the Studio of Painting at the Faculty of Arts, Technical University of Košice, and the Fine Art BA Hons programme at the University of the Highlands and Islands, northern Scotland. Jutka has participated in numerous artistic projects, residencies, and collaborations across the UK and the EU.
Her work has appeared in group exhibitions such as Art is Not a Competition But I’m Winning, Galéria Jána Koniarka (SK); Bold Red Line, VUNU (SK); Your Water Our Water, Delphi Space (DE); aqb Budapest (HU); U10 Space, Belgrade (RS); New Contemporaries 2023, Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh (UK); and Soil Not Oil, Slovak Institute in Prague (CZ), among others. Her solo exhibitions are Modrá Studňa, KTC Hájovňa, 2023; Another Profile Pic, Šopa Gallery, 2023; and Objects in the Mirror May Be Closer Than They Appear, Galéria na treťom, ARTA, 2025.
The project is supported by the Nadácia Tatra banky.
