Oskár Čepan

Vanesa Hardi (1971, Novi Sad, Serbia) studied painting with Professor Ján Berger at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava (1990–1996) and with Professor Gunter Damischat the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (1994–1999). Her artistic pursuits involve minimal art at the boundary between flat surface and three-dimensional media. She does notfocus on the content but rather on the very form of painting ant the process by means of which energy, inner thoughts and mental states are transported into the external world and transformed into the form of a material picture. Besides painting, she employs the media of photography and objects made of various materials, the artistic intent however remains the same. She uses the principle of monochromatic painting, produced by layering coats of paint of various shades of color. She then manipulates the surface by scratching and imprinting, thus giving the picture depth and vibration. She usually exhibits her works as animated objects in the form of spatial installations. The individual paintings of various formats communicate with each other but also with the space wherein they are placed. They form pairs, groups of three or more, protrude into space, creating various types of relations, ranging from harmony all the way to tension. Hardi won the Oskár Čepan Award in 2000, back when it was called the Tonal Young Artist of the Year. The awarded artwork was displayed as part of the related exhibition at the Bratislava City Gallery, where she exhibited together with finalists Marianna Čunderlíková, Marek Kvetan and Bohuš Kubinský.