I wanted to be a nature scientist throughout my whole childhood, but I was way too temperamental to sit and learn back then. I studied stone-sculpturing in high school and after that, I studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts. Since I have my own garden to observe and I am close to nature, I feel much more ‘complete’, not only as a person but as an artist as well.

Now I am interested in all kinds of arts and time periods, but when I was younger, I was very much excited by the figurative painting of the past. Honestly, there was nothing else I could see around me, just old art. While I was growing up, my mom would take me to museums to see Rembrandt, or to Florence to see some Renaissance Art because that’s what she understands.

I would love to know that actually. Humans have been destructive to the environment, to other species and other humans since forever.

Art can definitely have some role to play. We have seen that art plays a role in issues such as feminism, race and identities in general, so why not environmental issues?

Because it fits my temperament. I can be very, very focused but only for thirty minutes.

Nice paintings.

A few years ago, I had to force myself to use colours again, it was a very rational decision. I felt like I was learning how to paint again. Everything looked too good and felt too comfortable when painting in monochrome. I locked the black paint in the cabinet so I would not use it for a while.

I always spend the summers at my house in the south-west of Slovakia and I want to keep it like that. In the fall and spring time, I am usually in New York City; in December, I am in Bratislava and I lived in Berlin for a few months in 2017. I used to spend some months every year in Southeast Asia in places like the Philippines or Cambodia, but this year, I decided not to go for the first time because of the terrible carbon footprint that flying causes. Although I will go to New York City this year anyway, so I sound terribly hypocritical now, but I am trying to fly less. I think every artist wants to escape from something and so they move around, and moving to their painting studio is a very effective way to escape.

Besides other things like the show at Dittrich & Schlechtriem and the group show in New York City, which opens in the fall, I am preparing my first really big museum show in the Czech Republic, which opens in September. For this show, I’ve actually done a few collaborations with ceramic designers, fashion designers and contemporary dancers.