Ira Svobodovà

Overview

Void 70, 2025, 160x120 cm, acrylic on canvas

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“In my work, shapes are not just forms, but symbols that carry hidden meanings and stories."

Born in 1986 in Prague, Ira Svobodová studied New Media and Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, where she graduated in 2012. A pivotal moment in her development came in 2009 with a study exchange at the Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro. Over the past several years, Svobodová's work has garnered significant attention, earning her spots in prominent exhibitions, including repeated appearances at the Volta Art Fair in New York, as well as recent showings at Viennacontemporary and Artgenève.

Svobodová's early works were deeply influenced by modernist architectural principles. This formalist vocabulary continues to inform her evolving aesthetic, as she studies the potential of specific surfaces and materials in creating methodical forms. She sensitively analyzes the possibilities of geometrically modeling and structuring space through the use of clearly defined surfaces. Her abstract compositions explore geometric shapes, spatial depth, and the play of light and shadow. Utilizing techniques such as layering, folding, and slicing paper, she constructs complex still lifes that are later translated into meticulously rendered paintings. Working in a typically monochromatic palette, often black and white as well as blue and pink, her work is defined by clean lines, careful structure, and a symbolic resonance given to form.

Svobodová's artistic process is grounded in precision and material sensitivity. She begins by constructing models, which she photographs to serve as sketches for her paintings. These models are not merely tools, but integral subjects in her exploration of form and space. In her hands, surfaces cease to be neutral mediums and instead become a field of inquiry, studied in terms of their ability to shape, divide, and articulate space. Her work captures the subtle tension between tactile construction and painted illusion, resulting in compositions that are both calculated and contemplative, and achieving a three-dimensional mirage. Svobodová's work is defined by an outstanding and delicate precision in capturing the essence of the forms she creates.

The Void series exemplifies the conceptual depth of her practice. Premiered at Gaspard de la Nuit in Znojmo, the series reflects Svobodová's ongoing exploration of space as a physical, constructive and philosophical phenomenon. The title, drawn from Maurice Ravel's composition inspired by the poetry of Aloysius Bertrand, hints at her broader symbolic framework. While the meticulously shaded paper forms take visual precedence, it is the empty space, the void, that truly commands attention. These voids function on multiple levels: physically, as the absence of form; structurally, as elements that construct space just as much as the paper itself; and symbolically, as meditations on transience and mortality. In this way, the surrounding forms serve to accentuate the void, shifting the viewer's focus from object to absence, from presence to meaning.

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