Cosmos, space, time

Opening: June 4, 2026, 6:00 PM Curator: Miro Kleban Exhibition duration: June 5, 2026 – September 13, 2026 Sieň Q, Hlavná 27, Košice

Cosmos as an infinite space of possibilities, space as a fundamental category of existence, and time as an invisible quantity determining the rhythm of life and decay – three concepts that, since the dawn of civilization, have shaped human thought, imagination, and the need to understand the world. The exhibition Cosmos, space, time thematically connects artworks predominantly from the second half of the 20th century, exploring how the fascination with the universe, energy, movement, scientific knowledge, and metaphysical transcendence was reflected in the visual language of modern and contemporary art. The project also builds on the permanent exhibition of the East Slovak Gallery Comedy of the Spirit, where man finds himself as a being torn between rationality and existential uncertainty.

Discoveries of modern physics, Einstein's theory of relativity, the development of astronomy, cosmology, and psychoanalysis opened up new ideas about reality, in which time ceases to be linear and space ceases to be a firmly defined backdrop for human existence. Art responded to these changes not only formally but also philosophically. The cosmos became a metaphor for infinity, but also for human loneliness; space transformed into a field of relationships and energies; time began to be understood as a process, a trace, movement, or impermanence. The exhibition presents these tendencies through painting, drawing, printmaking, and sculpture. Geometric systems, imaginary maps of the universe, abstract spaces, optical rhythms, organic structures, and visualizations of energy and movement appear in individual works.

One of the most significant figures presented in the exhibition is Rudolf Sikora, whose work represents a peak of conceptually oriented art in Slovakia. Since the late 1960s, Sikora has addressed ecological, cosmological, and existential questions. His works such as White Hole – Black Hole, Time...Space X, Cycle of Life, Path of My Comet, and the cycles My Universe and Earthling present man as an insignificant part of the universe, moving between birth and decay, concentration and energy dissipation. Sikora uses the language of diagrams, scientific symbols, mathematical schemes, and textual interventions. Similarly, Stano Filko created a distinctive cosmological system in which art intertwines with metaphysics, spirituality, and a vision of transcendent space. Works like Reality of the Cosmos, 4th Dimension – Cosmology Blue Chakra, Maps of the Universe, and Monument to the Cosmos refer to Filko's effort to create a universal model of the world based on spiritual energies, color symbolism, and categories of consciousness. Filko's “cosmos” is not just a physical space, but primarily a liberating, mental, and spiritual space at the same time. A significant position in the exhibition is also held by the work of Juraj Bartusz and Maria Bartuszová, who, although working with different visual languages, both fundamentally reflected the categories of time, space, and natural processes. Juraj Bartusz explored the dynamics of movement, the energy of gestural intervention, and the temporality of the creative act in his action drawings and sculptures. Maria Bartuszová approached space more organically and introspectively. Her biomorphic objects, often created through processes of shaping plaster and the gravity of matter, resemble embryos, cellular structures, or cosmic structures. Her works are silent meditations on growth, birth, touch, and the fragility of life. Space in Bartuszová's work is not a geometric construction, but a living organism; time manifests itself in her works as a process of material transformation.

The exhibition also shows that the fascination with the cosmos was not merely a privilege of conceptual art. In the broader context of socialist Czechoslovakia, the universe also represented a symbol of escape from an ideologically controlled reality. The era of space conquest, supported by the propaganda of scientific and technological progress, often transformed into a metaphor for freedom, infinity, and imagination in art. Cosmic space allowed thinking beyond the boundaries of everyday reality and beyond the boundaries of the political system.

A special chapter is represented by geometric and constructive tendencies, in which space and time become the subject of analytical inquiry. Milan Dobeš, through optical reliefs and rotating structures, explores the visual perception of movement, light, and space. His works engage with kinetic effects and the changing perception of the viewer, thus activating the very process of seeing. Similarly, Štefan Belohradský uses principles of mathematics, cybernetics, and physical laws. His Pendulum Drawing and sculptural objects represent an attempt to visualize invisible forces acting in space. Mathematical and rationalizing principles also appear surprisingly in the work of Ján Mathé and Lýdia Jergušová Vydarená, reflecting the human need to name and systematize the world through numbers, symbols, and models. The hitherto little-known but remarkable artist Pavel Maňka, moving between geometric abstraction, constructivism, and visionary imagination, was one of the pioneers of abstract-geometric tendencies in Slovakia since the 1960s. Nevertheless, for many decades he remained on the fringes of the official art scene and spent most of his life working in the solitude of his studio in Bratislava. Besides his interest in construction, geometry, and space, he was lifelong fascinated by flying, space, and the idea of “non-terrestrial” dimensions of reality. The works of Anton Jasusch from the interwar period – The Course of Life, Spring of Life, Composition, and Demise / Death of the Planet represent unique visions of a cosmic and spiritual universe, in which expressive imagination intertwines with a philosophical reflection on existence. Already in the 1920s, Jasusch created monumental metaphors of birth, decay, and the cyclical nature of life. His works seemed to foreshadow the later cosmological tendencies of Slovak art.

The exhibition Cosmos, space, time does not create a linear narrative of art history but rather a network of relationships between different artistic strategies, philosophical questions, and visual representations of the world, as well as the needs for its rationalization in the context of modern history. Here, the cosmos becomes a metaphor for infinity and chaos, space is a place of relationships, movement, and energy, and time represents constant transformation, a process of birth and decay. Ultimately, it is a reflection of one of the oldest human desires to understand the world in which we exist and to find our place in the infinite space of time and the universe.

Exhibiting artists: Blažej Baláž, Juraj Bartusz, Maria Bartuszová, Štefan Belohradský, Milan Bočkay, Karol Csakó, Milan Dobeš, Orest Dubay, Alexander Eckerdt, Svetlana Fialová, Stano Filko, Daniel Fischer, František Gajdoš, Tibor Gáll, Jozef Jankovič, Anton Jasusch, Lýdia Jergušová Vydarená, Eugen Krón, Pavel Maňka, Michal Machciník, Ján Mathé, Milan Paštéka, Peter Roller, Jozef Sabol, Rastislav Sedlačík, Rudolf Sikora, Boris Sirka, Július Szabó, Adam Szentpétery, Ivan Štubňa, Miloš Urbásek, Boris Vaitovič, František Veselý

Cooperating organizations: Galéria Jána Koniarka, Múzeum vila ateliér Mathé, Nuba Gallery, Stredoslovenská galéria