Adéla Janská part of the Dough Portraits project

14 6 2025 | Author: Eliška Skácelová

Adéla Janská is a Czech figurative painter whose work focuses primarily on the theme of female identity. She is a graduate of the Academy of Arts in Banská Bystrica, but her artistic development is mainly connected with her home environment, then with European and world painting.

Solitary female figures and portraits, often stylized in the form of dolls with shiny porcelain skin, are a significant motif of her work. She places these figures in interiors reminiscent of dollhouses - enclosed, fragmented spaces with hints of domesticity. This is enhanced by the compositional play of furniture with different materials and textures of fabrics or walls. The result is an atmosphere of isolation, suspended time and a certain tension between intimacy and alienation. The women in her paintings, often appearing as singular heroines with an unknown story, are sometimes immersed in their own activities, at other times making direct eye contact with the viewer. Their gazes are often provocative and sensual, combining strength and fragility. Beauty and perfection are blended on her canvases with a narrative about womanhood and the roles given and the expectations of fulfilling them.

Adéla Janská, Naked as paper, 2024, Half Gallery New York

Adéla Janská, Naked as paper, 2024, Half Gallery New York

Janská draws inspiration from the aesthetics of porcelain dolls as well as Milan Kundera's literature and philosophy. In her paintings she often works with themes of the gaze, objectification and representation of the female body, which brings her closer to contemporary feminist discourses. Her works are often interpreted in the context of the theories of John Berger and Laura Mulvey, which deal with the power of the gaze and gender relations in art.

Adéla Janská, Metamorphosis, 2021, Wolfgang Gallery

Adéla Janská, Metamorphosis, 2021, Wolfgang Gallery

The photograph by Søren Dahlgaard, which shows art collector Barbora Půlpánová with her dog Herman, shows Janská's work from the Bride series from 2021. This series thematises female identity, societal pressures on women and issues of women's role in the present. Janská depicts women in situations that are at first glance familiar, but at the same time disturbing and symbolic. The painting shows a woman with an animal, making strong eye contact with the viewer.

Janská has exhibited in prestigious galleries in Europe and the USA, including the Koenig2 Gallery in Vienna, as well as the Adrian Sutton Gallery in Paris and the Half Gallery in New York. She has already presented her work at the Telegraph Gallery in the 2020 exhibition Commanded Release with six other artists. At the end of this year, the Telegraph Gallery will include a three-woman show with Polish artist Paulina Olowska and English artist Caroline Walker.