Michaela Vrbkova

My artistic research focuses on exploring the subconscious and fluidity, which I see as a gateway to the imaginary. I am currently studying at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence. My work was profoundly influenced by an exchange semester at ARBA-ESA in Brussels. My discovery of lithography radically transformed my approach: it led me to view fluidity no longer merely as a technical method, but as the central driving force of my imagination.

By using materials such as oil, bitumen and shellac, I allow images to emerge spontaneously from the darkness of the material. Through this process, I have learnt to relinquish rational control and to see myself as a pure medium – as a conduit through which hidden narratives and latent figures push their way to the surface.

Inspired by the logic of dreams and matter’s ability to take on physical form, I use painting to navigate the landscapes of my own experiences and personal traumas. The canvas thus becomes a psychological space on which silhouettes and fragments of scenes manifest in an embryonic state – hovering between the abstraction of the gesture and the clarity of memory.