Zuzana Vereski

Zuzana Veresky was born in 1955 in Padina; she lives and works in Kovačica since 1980. She painted her first canvas as a child. Her first exhibition was held in 1984. She became a member of Gallery of naive art in 1986. In 1993, she was accepted as a member of the Museum of naive art in Jagodina. During her fruitful artistic activity, her paintings were presented at many collective and solo exhibitions at home and abroad. Her 45th solo exhibition is installed in the Gallery of naive art and represents a retrospective of her long-standing artistic expression by colours and paintbrush.   

The most important projects in Zuzana’s artistic life, countries and cities, in which she presented her work: Israel, Cyprus, Germany, Tunis, Paris (UNESCO), Geneva (UNICEF), New York (UN), Brussels (EU), Strasbourg, Vienna (OSCE), Washington (MMF), China (Expo 2010 Shanghai), Spain, Slovakia and other european countries. She travelled through all five continents and she often says: „I don’t need a translator, because people understand the painting in their own languages...“

In her own words, she has painted since her childhood, and she has been painting things she remembers from her childhood, stories and legends told and experienced by genuine people in the village, which give her permanent inspiration and an inexhaustible source of themes. She found her interpretation and perception of the world in the view of the authentic passed times bound to the rural area, colored by the veil of the Slovak ethos. It is not surprising that her main visual motif, genre theme, and her work provide a real treasury of ever changing topics. In fact, we can say that she is an artist of rich imagination, on whose thematic palette we can always find something new, original and unique along with the sound of the memories and traditions. She is able to turn even the most banal topic into a story and transpose it with her artistic virtuosity into a fantastic composition. It is an unusual gift, which the artist projects on the canvas in a masterful, convincing and perfectly persuasive manner.

In addition to the genre, characterized by the lowland landscape, fantastic interior or rural veduta, depicting the traditions and customs, her pictures offer the ethnography of the Slovak nation. Her protagonists are always dressed in Slovak folk costumes, set in fascinating poses with lively gestures. One could say dispersed, but yet thoroughly elaborated composition, full of clear-designed details is present in the work of Zuzana Veresky as a leitmotif. First of all, the geese, which are often part of her visual scheme, then comes the dog and the black tomcat. However, the big heart and the beauty of the artistic soul are mostly expressed through her primary leitmotif, which makes her distinctive, original and unique, namely flowers. Red poppies and white daisies whose scents just make one feel tipsy and which give the painting a special charm.

Imagery expression, strong, sensual and resonant colours are transferred to the canvas in accordance with Slovak folklore. Compact drawing, clear colour relations, rational choice of details and accent constitute another unique feature and characteristic expression of Zuzana Veresky`s painting language.

Visual articulation of the artist is recognizable in oil on canvas, glass, silk, pastels, drawings, graphics, watercolour; her virtuosity and versatility are reflected in the paintings on ceramics and in applied arts. The entire body of her work, woven from an astonishing painter`s rhetoric, is easy to read, unobtrusive, it appeals jolly, luminous and carefree, and that is just what real art strives after. Therefore, it is not surprising that her paintings can be found on all continents, and that through the traditional form of expression and traditional iconography she managed to visualize and restore a permanent and unbreakable contact with the art audience, and to extend the tradition to eternity.