Svaetopluk Mikyta

Given his date of birth Svätopluk Mikyta could be deemed a Czechoslovak artist. However, he began to apply himself to art actively only after the republics split. The origin and territory of movement is for him more important than the sources of the materials he works with, identifies with, and uses to create visual narrative. His work links two historical lines: those of Duchamp and Picasso. He borrows reproductions of books, magazines and posters as readymades and intervenes using his own drawing or graphic design. He calls these interventions overdrawings. He is motivated by considerations and not judgements. From the ruins of the postmodern upheaval in values he creates new forms in which representative period reproductions of photographs are transferred into new situations. Although he often selects the most illustrative propaganda images for his overdrawings, thanks to the manual character of his interventions his work is very personal in nature. 

The exhibition concept and the composition of individual exhibits that are then perceived as a whole is also important for Mikyta. His most recent exhibitions, The Variability of Turbo (Krokus Gallery, Bratislava, 2014) and Postmodernism and Seven Monochromes (Pollansky Gallrey, Prague, 2014), have featured a bold installation plan in which a 3D interaction plays a significant role.

A fellowshipship in Stuttgart in 1995 was important for his artistic development and kick started a period of travel around Central Europe provoked by his experience of totalitarianism and the realisation that still water can be toxic. During this period he purchased a leather suitcase with the idealistic plan to take his first exhibition to America. He achieved this aim in 2009, when after winning the Oskár Čepan Award he travelled to New York, the inspiration behind the exhibition By the Way (Photoport Gallery, Bratislava, 2009). The exhibition contained Polaroids in which his suitcase figured as his alter ego immortalised in traditional tourist cameos. 

Subsequently red interventions in black-and-white reproductions became the hallmark of his style. Generally these make reference to history, local traditional and memories that he activates by means of associative images. The potato acquires a special significance, as does the McDonald’s logo, oft-reworked by artists. This material has been summarised in the book Homo Viator containing a text by Jan Zálešák. Partial parallels with his work on the Czech scene can be found in the work of Dalibor Chatrný or the picture archives of Zbyněk Baladrán.

Svätopluk Mikyta Pre – kresby / Re – drawings, vydanie prvé, Bratislava 2006, Vydavateľ Svätopluk Mikyta a HIKHOK Culture, str. 51, ISBN: 80-969630-4-X Svätopluk Mikyta and Johannes Schlichting DIES NATALIS, vydanie prvé, Bratislava 2004, Vydavateľ Svätopluk Mikyta, str. 22, ISBN: 80-969399-6-3

2011
INTER - VIEW 2 2011
Šestý Nový zlínský salón 2011 / 6th New Zlin Salon 2011 (Společná přehlídka současného českého a     slovenského umění / Joint exhibition of contemporary Czech and Slovak visuat art) 2009
donumenta 2009 – Slovakia Formáty transformace 89 - 09 / Formats of transformation 89 - 09 (Sedm pohledů na novou českou     a slovenskou identitu / Seven views on the new Czech and Slovak identity) Prague Biennale 4 / Prague Biennale Photo 1 2005
IV. Nový zlínský salon 2005 / IV. New Zlín salon 2005 (První přehlídka současného českého a      slovenského výtvarného umění / The first review of contemporary Czech and Slovak visual art) 2004
7. Mezinárodní sympozium malby pod glazuru (Tradice a možnosti 2004) 2002
Slovník českých a slovenských výtvarných umělců 1950 - 2002 (VIII. Man – Miž)