Juraj Toman's exhibiton Views in Nová vlna

Exhibition dates: September 25 – October 24, 2025

Opening: September 25 at 7:00 PM

Venue: Kukučínova 718, Trenčín

Curator: Martin Kratochvíľ

Juraj Toman was born in 1985 in Trenčín. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava (Studio of Klaudia Kosziba) and from the Academy of Arts in Banská Bystrica, where he earned his ArtD (Doctor of Arts) degree in 2014.

He not only pursues his own artistic practice but also shares his experience with students of drawing and painting at the Department of Fine Arts and Education at Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra.

The upcoming solo exhibition Views is introduced by the exhibition curator Martin Kratochvíľ. The exhibition is part of the project and exhibition cycle “With Roots in Trenčín” within the European Capital of Culture 2026 Trenčín.

The views in the paintings open up new perspectives—illusory windows into different realities, moments, and viewpoints that blur the boundaries between genres and between layers of space and time. The methods I develop take on the character of an absurdly directed play. Through the constant layering and overlapping of the illusory world of painting, I create a complex spatial fiction that tests the viewer’s attention. I have realized that within a painting, another image can subtly appear. Every image—whether digital, analog, or mental—stimulates the imagination while at the same time erasing its own edges, since the abstract mind has no edges.

My process involves looking for a longer time at the painting I intend to overpaint and imagining which part of the studio I will insert into it, and which part of the original painting will remain—to function as a picture within a picture. These pictorial surfaces naturally complement one another.

Sometimes this is immediately visible; at other times the viewer needs more time to realize that there is yet another image hidden within the painting.

Text: Martin Kratochvíľ