Gallery NIKA

 
2020 — 2021

During her Master's studies Eva had the opportunity to curate Gallery NIKA for a period of one year – a small UMPRUM gallery located in the lobby of the Prague metro. Despite the pandemic of Covid-19, nine exhibitions were organized, moving image was exhibited for the first time ever and the openings were accompanied by live DJ sets. The gallery's location in a public space proved to be a big plus in a time of institutional closures.


Nikola Balberčáková: Handle with Gloves

NIKA is a student-run, non-stop exhibition space of the UMPRUM (Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague), which expands into public space in an effort to reach a broad audience. NIKA is located in the lobby of the Karlovo náměstí metro station. The gallery offers students the opportunity to realize new, site-specific exhibition projects and to present works already created. The oval showcase of monumental size also invites to think of tailor-made installation solutions and is therefore a challenge and inspiration. For 2020, its accessibility in public space proved to be its great advantage, making it possible to visit NIKA even when galleries and other institutions were closed because of the pandemic of COVID-19.



  
Leevi Toija: Free Man / Restricted Man

Nine exhibitions were held in 2020. The last one Leevi Toija: Free Man / Restricted Man was held in collaboration with Fotograf Festival and at the same it was the first exhibition of moving image at NIKA. In 2020, Jiří Macků took care of the overall visual design of the gallery and the photographic documentation of the exhibitions was taken by Karolína Matušková. Filip Kopecký was newly in charge of the creation of online content - filming and video production. The first two openings were also newly accompanied by live music, with the first opening being musically handled by DJ Tasya (Lunchmeat Festival, Mezipatra QFF). Michal Králíček performed at the second opening. With the pandemic the live music performances were replaced by DJ sets produced by the duo SugarCamel999 (Viktor Černý and Thomas Re, members of Vinohradio). The DJ set for the last opening was created by BCAA System (Jiří Sirůček and Noemi Purkrábková). Therefore, for archiving purposes of the newly created media, a Youtube channel was created, where all the videos are stored, and Soundcloud, where the DJ sets can be replayed. During this year Gallery NIKA crossed the 1,000 followers mark on Instagram and the column about the gallery in the Dolce Vita magazine (special March issue with the theme of art) was published.


  
Dávid Valovič: Magneto


NIKA Gallery exhibitions in 2020 

  • Leevi Toija: Free Man / Restricted Man  (11. 2. 2021 – 4. 3. 2021)
  • Karolína Matušková & Lucie Zelmanová: Sugar Be My Caramel: Forever (14. 1. 2021 – 4. 2. 2021)
  • Nikola Balberčáková: Handle with Gloves (8. 12. 2020 – 5. 1. 2021)
  • Dávid Valovič: Magneto  (18. 9. – 8. 10. 2020)
  • Marie Holá: Power Yoga (24. 7. 2020 – 13. 8. 2020)
  • Karolína Vorlíková: Post-Party Pillar  (26. 6. 2020 – 16. 7. 2020)
  • Jiří Macků, Vít Jebavý, Luciana Kvapilová: Feedback Loops 
    (28. 5. 2020 – 18. 6. 2020)
  • Marko Čambor: Sonder  (28. 2. 2020 – 22. 3. 2020)
  • Tomáš Račák a Oskar Koutný: Dykobraz (31. 1. 2020 – 23. 2. 2020)



  
Marie Holá: Power Yoga