Andrea Junekova was born in Slovakia. In 2010, she completed a Master degree in photography and new media at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava. The young photographer is often playing on the psychological string, creating scenes and atmospheres in which absurdity, uncertainty, sinister uneasiness and humour are subtly intertwined.
In her artist´s practice, Andrea Juneková is primarily dedicated to art photography; however, she also reaches out to other media, installation, video and others. Her work is dominated by multi-layered content, the uncovering of existential and psychological narratives as well as self-reflexive questions and related complex references, with the emphasis on deviations from established socio-political stereotypes, and keen interest in suppressed topics she presents on the background of newly uncovered layers of content.
The imagination of the author and contemplation of the internal cosmos of the individual constitute a reference to Surrealism that is further developed in the subtle play of random encounters questioning the ideals of beauty and society. Through their apparent incomprehensibility, Junekova’s visions emphasize the clear formal language employing contemporary means of expression of staged photography, portrait, diary recording or atmosphere of a symbolic natural landscape. Her use of the gesture, selection of the props, image crop or applied aesthetics suggest that the individual images – solitaires are meant to recall the rather onerous and dark side of human existence. Delicate and sensitive use of oval-shaped light that is typical for a large part of Junekova’s creation reveals inner poetics often found in Gothic art. Fiction of night, darkness, death, cadaverous stiffness of human figures, flying spoons, shattered items or dark liquid in the sink… Junekova’s photographs are characterized by sophistication and subtlety that are supported by precise mastering of technological aspects of the media of photography. Also present is persisting controversy over the notions of impersonal and personal. Author’s work is characterized by a sufficient degree of complexity, multi-layer quality, mystery and emotionality, guided by a personal concept. Particularly rewarding aspect of the work of Andrea Juneková is the game of image and its reflection in the mirror: undistorted reality is visible clearly enough while at the same time challenged and distorted by the experience and self-delusion of the viewer. text: Mgr.Art Jozef Sedlak