The Geometry of Boundaries

Simona Štulerová operates at the intersection of the organic and the constructed. Her work does not merely depict landscapes; it dissects the friction where natural terrain meets human habitation. By utilizing a geometric language, she strips away the sentimentality often found in landscape painting, replacing it with a rigorous examination of space and form. This approach transforms the canvas into a site of structural tension, where the chaos of nature is forced into dialogue with the precision of human architecture.

Her practice is defined by a refusal to stick to a single medium. While she is known for large-format acrylic paintings, her technical range extends into the meticulous and the discarded. She moves between the delicate, repetitive discipline of traditional cross-stitch embroidery on canvas and the heavy, industrial reality of car wreck parts. This contrast creates a physical dialogue between the domestic and the industrial, a theme that runs through her entire body of work.

Technical Divergence and Recognition

The evolution of her practice is marked by a transition from formal academic training to a highly individualized material language. Her development is characterized by several key milestones in her professional trajectory:

• Formal training in contemporary painting at the Faculty of Arts, Technical University in Košice (2008–2014).
• Selection as a finalist for the Maľba roka (VÚB Foundation Prize) in 2016.
• Advanced research as an internal doctoral student at the Academy of Arts in Banská Bystrica starting in 2017.
• Expansion of exhibition history across Slovakia, Hungary, Austria, the Netherlands, and the Czech Republic.

This technical versatility allows her to tackle different scales of perception. In her smaller works, such as her 2016 acrylic compositions, she explores architectural and industrial motifs through abstraction. In her larger works, the scale becomes a tool to confront the viewer with the sheer presence of the landscape's boundaries.

A Material Presence

To look at a Štulerová work is to confront the physical reality of its components. She does not rely on illusion; she relies on substance. Whether she is working with the flat, matte surface of acrylic or the jagged, metallic edges of automotive debris, the material dictates the outcome. This reliance on the tangible prevents her work from drifting into pure abstraction, keeping it anchored in the physical world of industry and nature. Her presence in the contemporary Slovak art scene is defined by this refusal to retreat into the purely decorative, opting instead for a confrontation with the materials that define our modern environment.