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Nežní obri
Gentle giants
Event by: Krajská galéria v Prešove
Location: Saris gallery in Prešov, Hlavná 2896, Prešov
Exhibitions
About event
Duration of the exhibition: 4.12.2025 - 8.2.2026
Place: a/0 Malá galéria
Petra Kanócz (*1981, Košice) graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest in the field of painting (2000-2005) in the studio of Zsigmond Károlyi and Eszter Radák. She exhibited at many group and individual exhibitions in Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic. In her work, Petra Kanócz deals with the connection of figuration with abstraction. He draws impulses from everyday life - from people, animals and objects - which he transforms into pictorial situations with a strong personal statement. The author often works with detail, which becomes the starting point for further painting procedures and new compositions. Her work is characterized by a sense of humor and playfulness, which are present not only in the visual composition, but also in the titles of the works. The paintings are characterized by dynamism, variability and a distinctive visual expression that reflects the author's changing moods and life situations. Kanócz thus creates works that combine inner experience with observation of the outside world into a coherent, expressively rich painting language.
Flowers are the central motif of the exhibition Gentle Giants by the artist Petra Kanócz. In her presentation, however, the traditional symbol of beauty and abundance becomes a monumental, almost supernatural entity. The flowers on her large-format canvases grow to dimensions that confuse human perception. They draw the viewer inside the picture, until he finds himself in the space between the huge petals, like a reduced observer in the garden of dreams.
Kanócz thus transforms a common motif into an investigation of man's place in the world, his perception of size, fragility and transience. At the same time, it shifts the boundary between what is still considered beauty and what is already falling apart, withering, rotting. Her painterly dialogue takes place in this fine line between beauty and destruction. Her bouquets are not meant to be perfect - they are withered, broken - and yet life pulsates in them. Their majestic size contrasts with their inevitable ephemerality. The symbolism of cut flowers, whose life is separated from the roots, brings these works closer to the tradition of still lifes of the vanitas type – a genre pointing to the passage of time, futility and the inevitability of the end.
Petra Kanócz's painterly speech is spontaneous, layered and experimental. Within a single painting, he alternates techniques - from precise stencil lines to drips, spray surfaces or gestural layers of paint. This contrast between control and chance mirrors the very essence of nature: chaos that is constantly transforming and yet seems harmonious. In expressive color variations, from translucent layers to richly shining contrasts, the author's feeling for the emotional power of color is revealed.
Kanócz moves between lyrical intuition and conceptual insight. Her works are an image laboratory in which she explores the border between life and death, beauty and decay, between nature and (cultural) symbol. The diminutive observer finds himself embraced by the flowers as gentle giants.
Curator: Martina Mrázová
Place: a/0 Malá galéria
Petra Kanócz (*1981, Košice) graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest in the field of painting (2000-2005) in the studio of Zsigmond Károlyi and Eszter Radák. She exhibited at many group and individual exhibitions in Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic. In her work, Petra Kanócz deals with the connection of figuration with abstraction. He draws impulses from everyday life - from people, animals and objects - which he transforms into pictorial situations with a strong personal statement. The author often works with detail, which becomes the starting point for further painting procedures and new compositions. Her work is characterized by a sense of humor and playfulness, which are present not only in the visual composition, but also in the titles of the works. The paintings are characterized by dynamism, variability and a distinctive visual expression that reflects the author's changing moods and life situations. Kanócz thus creates works that combine inner experience with observation of the outside world into a coherent, expressively rich painting language.
Flowers are the central motif of the exhibition Gentle Giants by the artist Petra Kanócz. In her presentation, however, the traditional symbol of beauty and abundance becomes a monumental, almost supernatural entity. The flowers on her large-format canvases grow to dimensions that confuse human perception. They draw the viewer inside the picture, until he finds himself in the space between the huge petals, like a reduced observer in the garden of dreams.
Kanócz thus transforms a common motif into an investigation of man's place in the world, his perception of size, fragility and transience. At the same time, it shifts the boundary between what is still considered beauty and what is already falling apart, withering, rotting. Her painterly dialogue takes place in this fine line between beauty and destruction. Her bouquets are not meant to be perfect - they are withered, broken - and yet life pulsates in them. Their majestic size contrasts with their inevitable ephemerality. The symbolism of cut flowers, whose life is separated from the roots, brings these works closer to the tradition of still lifes of the vanitas type – a genre pointing to the passage of time, futility and the inevitability of the end.
Petra Kanócz's painterly speech is spontaneous, layered and experimental. Within a single painting, he alternates techniques - from precise stencil lines to drips, spray surfaces or gestural layers of paint. This contrast between control and chance mirrors the very essence of nature: chaos that is constantly transforming and yet seems harmonious. In expressive color variations, from translucent layers to richly shining contrasts, the author's feeling for the emotional power of color is revealed.
Kanócz moves between lyrical intuition and conceptual insight. Her works are an image laboratory in which she explores the border between life and death, beauty and decay, between nature and (cultural) symbol. The diminutive observer finds himself embraced by the flowers as gentle giants.
Curator: Martina Mrázová