ADÉLA JANSKÁ | Near Field

Text by Nicolas Vamvouklis 

 Rolando Anselmi is pleased to present Near Field, a solo exhibition by Czech artist Adéla Janská, following her collaboration with the gallery in 2024, when she participated in its first residency program in Rome. Bringing together new oil paintings on canvas, the show continues her exploration of female identities, shaped by tension and resolve. The title is taken from a work on display, Near Field II (2026). In scientific language, a “near field” is the area immediately surrounding an electromagnetic source, such as an antenna, where waves behave differently than at a greater distance. Janská shifts this abstract term into a human register. Her figures stand in proximity, bound by force and unease. This nearness is not passive; it produces charge. Across the exhibition, the gaze becomes a central device. The protagonists meet us with authority, yet their expressions escape definition. Their eyes suggest confidence and resistance, without settling into a specific emotion. Fragility stays visible. The artist is interested in this unstable relation between looking and being seen. The address is direct, but not conclusive. Painting women is decisive for her, although the practice is not limited to a statement about gender. It grows from a personal search for voice and agency, then reaches a communal scale. The intimate gains a public dimension when viewers recognize their own questions in these faces. For Janská, portraiture is a way to approach what binds us beneath singular histories and private circumstances. The new series also carries the trace of a recent family loss. An intense period of caregiving entered the paintings before she could fully articulate it. The project started from an encounter with a male mask in a shopfront. She bought it, used it as a model, and gradually altered its features into a gentler likeness. What began as a fixed object developed psychological depth. The process challenged her usual method and opened an unexpected route for constructing character. Many artworks show two similar bodies, as if one identity had split. They function as reflections or companions. This dialogue arises from the fact that she did not experience grief alone, but shared it with her sister. The second presence casts a tender gravity over each canvas. It stages mutual dependence, with separation and connection equally active. Janská paints spontaneously, guided by intuition. One impulse leads to the next, and the final form is discovered through the act of making. Her hand is fast and gestural, with a precise sense of completion. Warm colour lends the compositions a soft atmosphere, while small sharp details create friction. In Private View I and Private View II (both 2026), stencilled patterns set a repeated ground where silhouettes appear as if seen through a window. Her visual archive often includes old photographs and advertisements, giving several pieces a retro mood. Stylised garments and jewellery surface as markers of role-play. Sometimes flowers introduce a fleeting note. Yet the effect is not nostalgic. The subjects seem suspended, as if caught between memory and arrival. In works such as Loading (2025) and Cut Out (2026), exposure and concealment leave an eerie pull. The figures are larger than life, not as ideals, but as heightened selves. Their beauty is never simply seductive. Something strange remains behind it, holding attraction and discomfort in the same frame.