Ján Mančuška

Born in Bratislava in 1972, Ján Mančuška grew up in Prague, where he has lived since 1978. He studied in Prague at the Academy of Fine Arts (1991-1998). He has been a member of the group BJ (Bezhlavy jezdec/Headless Horseman) since 1997.
Mančuška's installations were first made with the peripheral material of civilization (such as Q-tips, plastic bags, straw, paper, soap or wax) and his interest in the “authenticity” of production relates to places with a strongly emotional-social charge (kitchens, bathrooms, housing projects or week-end cottages to name a few). Lately his approach has become slightly more objective - through the use of language in site-specific installations. Cutting texts into a wall or displaying a story within the space, the artist creates a tension between reading and seeing, narrative and painting, the personal and public space.
Ján Mančuška's work has been featured in exhibitions at the National Gallery, Veletrzni Palac in Prague; in “Manifesta 4” in Frankfurt, Germany; at the Neue Berliner Kunstverein in Berlin; and in the 8th Baltic Triennial of International Art at the Center for Contemporary Art in Vilnius, Lithuania. He also occupied the Czech Pavillion at the Venice Biennale in 2005.