Possessed

„The artistic world of Liza Libenko captivates with the raw beauty of melancholy, decadence, and an omnipresent sense of apocalypse. Her work reveals evocative slices of emotional landscapes, dominated by records of past experiences interwoven with a dreamlike atmosphere that exists in an indeterminate time and place. Dreams morph into nightmares, and inhospitable environments deny the presence of life. There are no figures or fragments of bodies; human existence is suggested only by processed industrial materials mingling with organic remnants, serving as a memento of the fragile boundary between life and death.

Based in Prague, visual artist Liza Libenko continues her exploration of evocative imagery by combining diverse techniques and original methods. Her previous significant series of blackened, charred sunflowers has gradually evolved toward more universal depictions of societal states, consciousness, or inner experiences. Her visual poetics and unconventional representations of beauty lean toward themes from the "dark side of the Moon."

Libenko's debut solo exhibition at the Karpuchina Gallery serves as a symbolic ritual space, composed of her latest series of paintings, site-specific installations, and poetry. The cohesive environment draws inspiration from the themes and atmosphere of Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du Mal, introducing new motifs and metaphors that enhance and develop her mature artistic program.

As in her earlier works, her current creations challenge the potential of hanging paintings, merging diverse painting techniques with objects and sculptural practices. The resulting spatial works are raw, textured, and layered with physical detail. The mix of materials—combinations of oil, asphalt, blood, soil additives, and remnants of plants—opens up a range of connotations. However, it is the wire objects and their sharp structures, combined with the chosen motifs, that bring a complex and intensely narrative dimension to the pieces.

Libenko presents an intimate and mystical atmosphere through her crafted situations, scenes, and referenced poetry. At the center of her focus lies the symbol and form of the circle, explored through representations of the Sun, Moon, or the marking of a ritualistic and simultaneously safe space. The Sun gives way to the Moon and the night, where everything withers and dies, followed by the arrival of a new day. This natural cycle emphasizes our transience. Existential themes appear in stylized forms within the paintings and in the spatial works that expand into complex environments.

The artist disrupts traditional painting techniques with embedded wire flowers ("flowers of evil") that extend outward from the paintings, reaching toward the remnants of ritual spaces delineated by burnt candles. She creates an imaginative world at the boundary between dream and apocalyptic reality, where ritualistic symbolism and hints of obsession trigger inner monologues, reflections on existence, and quiet dialogues about what has occurred and what lies ahead.“ – Michal Stolárik, exhibition curator

Born in 1996 and living in Prague, Liza Libenko graduated from the Drawing Studio of Jiří Petrbok at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. In 2023, she received an honorable mention as a finalist for the STRABAG Artaward International. She has exhibited in galleries such as the Felix Jenewein Gallery in Kutná Hora, STRABAG Artlounge in Vienna, HIDDEN Gallery in Prague, Portheimka Gallery in Prague, Kampus Hybernská in Prague, and the City Gallery in Ptuj, among others.