Draft:Helen Tóth

Helen Tóth (born 17 July 1992) is a Slovak visual artist. She studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava. She is a three time finalist of the VÚB Painting Prize , also in 2022 was selected for the longlist of the STRABAG Artaward International award. In 2022 was nominated for the Piero D'Amore E Colore Prize at The Others art fair in Torino, Italy.

Works
Helen belongs to the young generation of Slovak contemporary artists working in a field of painting, drawing, installation and land art. Her main focus lies on captivating the forest's otherness and to explore the limits of our existence in relation to the desire to become a forest and the meaning of a collective idea about the forest. In her essay "When the forest breathes it does through colors" published in a Slovak Gender oriented Magazine Glosolália she reflects on how does the forest transmit awareness about itself to us, how is the forest revealing itself in the darkness and how can we archive the perception of an utroubled mind of an infant to connect with the entirety of a nature.

Her interest in a forest environment is not scientific or botanic. There are many ways to approach the forest, Helen studies nature from a visual point of view. She use in her artistic practice different mediums and techniques, sketches, analogue photography and fallen branches. She's collectiong soil from the Slovak forest's and bringing them back to the gallery space as an installation. The viewers can read the differencies about regions also the current state of the forests.

She mainly depicts coniferous trees, with no crowns or leaves, sick or even broken ones for their dramatic and theatrical aspect. Portreiyng them the way the old masters did people, involving an imbalance of hues and biological instability, absurdity. Her ambition is to create something visually distinctive about branches and natural materials and shift attention that "dead" wood has got all the rights to remain part of the ecosystem.

Solo shows

 * 2016 Meet God by the River, DOT. Contemporary Art Gallery, Bratislava, Slovakia
 * 2016 Hibiscus Horcrux, Art Café, Banská Štiavnica, Slovakia
 * 2017 The speaking fingers of trees, DOT. Contemporary Art Gallery, Bratislava, Slovakia
 * 2018 To be a forest, Atelier Xlll, Bratislava, Slovakia
 * 2021 OPEN STUDIO, Nová Cvernovka, Bratislava, Slovakia
 * 2021 The forest's breath, Gallery 19, Bratislava, Slovakia
 * 2021 The endless tree, Turiec Gallery, Martin, Slovakia
 * 2022 Levitating uncertainty, Gallery Slávia, Košice, Slovakia
 * 2022 One of those nicer nights, A7 Gallery, Banská Bystrica, Slovakia
 * 2022 Light like a broken tree, Gallery Výklad, Trnava, Slovakia
 * 2023 Ode to the conifers, Blu : gallery, Modra, Slovakia
 * 2023 I carry ferns on my shoulders, Gallery Sumec, Bratislava, Slovakia
 * 2023 La Push, 40x60brussels, Brussels, Belgium
 * 2024 Among these trees is my hiding spot, Curva Pura, Roma, Italy

Group Exhibitions

 * 2016 Until Now, DOT. Contemporary Art Gallery, Bratislava, Slovakia
 * 2016 DOT. 2016, DOT. Contemporary Art Gallery, Bratislava, Slovakia
 * 2017 Winter Selection 6´, Flatgallery, Bratislava, Slovakia
 * 2017 Failings before final, DOT. Contemporary Art Gallery, Bratislava, Slovakia
 * 2017 VÚB Painting Award, Nedbalka, Bratislava, Slovakia
 * 2019 lv, Galéria ABC, Bratislava, Slovakia
 * 2019 Buy now or cry later, DOT. Contemporary Art Gallery, Bratislava, Slovakia
 * 2021...on paper 4, Galéria 19, Bratislava, Slovakia
 * 2021 End of the season, OPENING!!!, Hájovňa-červená studňa, Banská Štiavnica, Slovakia
 * 2022 Four rooms, Nová Cvernovka, Bratislava, Slovakia
 * 2022 Printing Still, Galerij Epreuve d 'Artiste, Antwerpen, Belgium
 * 2022 VÚB Painting Award, Nedbalka, Bratislava, Slovakia
 * 2022 Printing, still, Station Contemporary Art Gallery, Bratislava, Slovakia
 * 2022 Christmas Party, Blu : gallery, Modra, Slovakia
 * 2023 VÚB Painting Award, Nedbalka, Bratislava, Slovakia
 * 2023 Forest Line, Nitrianska galéria, Nitra, Slovakia

Art fairs and art festivals

 * 2011 Transart Communication, International Performance and Intermedia Art Festival, Kino Mier, Nové Zámky, Slovakia
 * 2015 Mediawave, International Film, Music and Art festival, Durvacrew art house, Dunajská Streda, Slovakia
 * 2018 Art Market Budapest, represented by DOT. Gallery, Hungary
 * 2018 Yia Art Fair, Paris Contemporary Art Show, represented by DOT. Gallery, France
 * 2022 The Others Art Fair, Torino, represented by Blu : gallery, Italy
 * 2023 Fraj Festival, Rimavská Sobota, Slovakia
 * 2024 Open House Roma, Roma, Italy

Represented in public collection

 * Nedbalka, Slovakia, (Vrbické pleso, oil on canvas, 2017)
 * Slavia Modern Art Gallery, Slovakia, (When will it be my turn?, oil on canvas, 2022)

Catalogues and art magazines

 * Catalogue: Línia lesa, 2023, Nitrianska galéria, ISBN 978-80-85746-93-8
 * Cover: Knižná Revue 2022/6, Magazine about books, ISSN 1210 –1982
 * Annual catalogue G19: Annual catalogue of Galéria 19, 2021, ISBN 978-80-972618-9-4
 * Mayhew-Smith, A.: Tree Time, feature article in The British Czech and Slovak Review / Oct.-nov.2021, Issue 180, ISSN 1471-9525
 * Cover and Illustrations: Vertigo 1-2/2021, Magazine of poetry and poets,  ISSN 1339-3820
 * Cover and illustrations: Veršeonline, Notebooks of contemporary poetry – Vertigo, Mihalkovič/Insomnia, ISBN 978-80-89763-73-3
 * Geržová, J.: From voiceless nature to a subject with its own voice, Profil contemporary art magazine 1´20, ISSN 1335-9770
 * Mačaj, P.: Looking throught the forest's eyes (essay about Helen Tóth's work), Glosolália, Gender oriented magazine 4/2019, ISSN 1338-7146
 * Cover and illustrations: Glosolália, Gender oriented magazine 4/2019, ISSN 1338-7146

Art criticism

 * 2019, Peter Mačaj: Looking through the forest's eyes
 * 2021, Kristína Hermanová: The endless tree
 * 2022, Roman Gajdoš: Forest, tree, twig. Searching for magic through geocaching
 * 2024, Eva Kapsová: Does it make sense to go to the gallery when I can go to the forest