Hanna Antonsson & Paula Gogola
September 3, 2025 — October 8, 2025
Holešovická Šachta, Prague, Czechia
photography by Jan Kolský
The duo exhibition of Slovak painter Paula Gogola and Swedish artist Hanna Antonsson, With Feathers and Flesh, presents works that deal with the transformation and potentiality of bodies. This transformation, however, also relates to a more general reflection on the transition from one state to another, that is, on never-ending metamorphosis and cyclical regeneration. Reflections on life and the finitude of the body, the organic and inorganic, materialize in Hanna Antonsson's practice as fluttering kinetic sculptures; in this exhibition, these are specifically works made from seagull wings, headlights, and car tire. Birds that once flew freely and were subsequently immobilized by the advance of civilization become, in the artist's approach, memorabilia that reflect the intertwining of the technological world with the natural environment. Antonsson finds the bodies of seagulls, pigeons, and magpies in Gothenburg, usually as victims of traffic accidents on roads or after colliding with building windows. Her fascination with feathers and mythical creatures takes the form of winged hybrids, resonating with archaic, timeless stories that explore the relationship of transformation – the "non-being" of an angel as a mediator between the material world and the spiritual world.
The same tensions between nature and technology (sometimes even cyborg-like) are also encountered in the work of Paula Gogola. Gogola's painting practice revolves around transfeminine positions based on queer experience, which are linked to the modification of the human body and, at the same time, various modes of identity construction. In the past, Gogola was inspired by the portfolios of clinics specializing in facial feminization surgery, where the results of these procedures increasingly resembled one another. The canvases thus explored the concept of the face as an instrument of class distinction and social norms – the imitation of a certain type of woman – and suggested how technology is closely related to the experienced corporeality of today's society. In her latest series of works, Gogola conceives of the body in close connection with environmental pollution, especially hormonal disruptors in water. In these images, the private bathroom is transformed into an experimental biotechnological and biochemical space, guided by the figure of an angel. The winged avatar functions here as a synthesis of mythological, transhumanist, and political discourse: historically sexless or androgynous, it escapes the binary nature of the body and function, and at the same time is perceived in the trans community as the patron of the process of transformation.
The symbolism of the angel resonates with varying intensity in Antonsson's objects and Gogola's paintings in different but complementary ways. While Antonsson's wings have a mechanical, almost posthuman construction, Gogola's represent an instrument of resistance, transformation, and healing. The fragmentation and combination of individual elements in the practice of both artists results in the merging (or, in the words of American artist and theorist Micha Cárdenas, "stitching") of originally separate areas – whether it be the clash of human civilization with natural processes, or the intermingling of Christian iconography with identity politics. However, both lead to questions about where the boundaries of the body end and social constructs begin, and where these levels intersect with environmental reality.
Paula Gogola (*1988) is a Slovak artist based in Prague. She graduated from the Painting Studio of Klaudia Kosziba at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, and later from the Painting Studio 3 led by Josef Bolf and Jakub Hošek at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. In the 2024/2025 academic year, she completed an exchange at Beaux-Arts de Paris in the studio of Mimosa Echard. Her practice focuses primarily on analyzing transgender experience from queer and feminist perspectives, exploring the body and its formal potential. Her paintings move between atmospheric abstraction and figurative compositions. Her work has been exhibited in venues such as Galéria Medium (Bratislava), ACUD Gallery (Berlin), Crash Club (Warsaw), Longtermhandstand Hall (Budapest), Vunu Gallery (Bratislava), and Kunsthalle Bratislava. In the Czech Republic, her works have been presented at Zaazrak Dornych (Brno), Nová Perla, AM180 (Prague), among others.
Hanna Antonsson (*1991) is a Swedish artist based in Gothenburg. She studied Photography at HDK-Valand and the London College of Communication. In 2025, she received a one-year working grant from The Swedish Arts Grants Committee. Her practice combines kinetic objects, photography, and bird taxidermy, characterized by creating contrasts between the organic body and the industrial machine. Her works have been exhibited at Luxembourg Art Week, The Icelandic Photography Festival, Landskrona Foto Festival (Sweden), the Zachęta National Gallery of Art (Warsaw), CON_ (Tokyo), the Museum of Contemporary Art of Estonia, Göteborgs Konsthall, FRAC Corsica, Subtitled.nyc (New York), and Safehouse 2 (London). In 2023, she exhibited with the Warsaw-based gallery Wanda at the Liste Art Fair in Basel.