Roman Ondál

Roman Ondák (1966) is a Slovak conceptual artist. He studied at the Academy for Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava. His art has been exhibited in some of the most prestigious international museums and to date four times at the Biennale of Venice. Roman Ondák plays with various conceptual ideas, which move and sharpen the attention of the viewer to daily life. Growing up under the communist regime of former Czechoslovakia, the artist became aware of systems of inclusion and exclusion in this specific community. In his work Ondák puts question marks at the failure of communist structures and investigates the potential for different orders – new patterns of behaviour and ultimately alternative social and political possibilities. His art is often subtle and infiltrates, in a fantasy-rich and calm manner, the environment of the viewer, which in turn produces a new way of contemplating reality. With an almost anthropological approach and his keen sense of artistic humour, he combines aspects of everyday life and opens up space to challenge the rules of the everyday via his poetic changes. Ondák’s work is not only curious about the rituals and assumptions governing our life; he playfully questions both the artistic system as well as society in general and stimulates us to wider awareness.