Alexandra Barth is essentially a still life painter. Working in air brush, Barth portrays stark and moody interiors of a relatively nondescript, middle European character. Her cold, quasi-photographic imagery is freighted with a nebulous, if noirish narrative charge; far from cozy and welcoming, it contains a certain menace, as if these were forensic details of a crime scene. The uniform, Ikea-style furniture found in her interiors, which recalls the utopian production ideals of Bauhaus, Russian constructivism, and even post-war American design, assumes a somewhat dystopian character here, by virtue of having all but fully realized the homogenizing tendency of these movements. The unexpected angles of Barth’s compositions wield a rushed, snapshot quality while recalling the dramatic angularity of constructivism– a drama that is heightened by the work’s penchant for chiaroscuro lighting. As such, these ostensibly simple still lives are full of a rich and dynamic strangeness which subtly upends their apparent banality while depicting certain legacies of modernism within everyday life.
Alexandra Barth received her degree from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava in 2013. A selection of solo exhibitions have been held at Phoinix, Bratislava, Urban gallery, Pescara , Hotdock project space, Bratislava, and Chris Sharp, Los Angeles. Recent group exhibitions include Like a picture, Photoport, Bratislava, The Elevator, Temporary Parapet, Bratislava and MDŽ, White&Weiss, Bratislava.
Lives and works in Zohor, Slovakia and Sanguinetto, Italy
Alexandra BarthCarpet Roll, 2023Acrylic on canvas63 x 47.25 inches
