Stanislava Kovalcikova, Laureate of the Reiffers Art Prize 2026
Stanislava Kovalcikova was born in 1988 in Slovakia, lives and works in Paris, France, and Düsseldorf, Germany. She graduated with a BFA from the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf (Tomma Abts) in 2005 and completed the MFA at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf (Peter Doig) in 2018.
Stanislava Kovalcikova is the laureate of the fifth edition of the Reiffers Art Prize, Tinkering with the unknown.
Exhibition view of "Tinkering with the unknown"
Stanislava Kovalcikova, 2026
Exhibition view of "Tinkering with the unknown"
Stanislava Kovalcikova, 2026
Nautilius
Stanislava Kovalcikova, 2025
Snakehands
Stanislava Kovalcikova, 2016
Tale of the two suns
Stanislava Kovalcikova, 2021Biography
Poised and libidinal, Kovalcikova’s paintings exist as much through their mythological imagery as in their settings: theatrical
environments she stages for their mysteria to play out, featuring her play with light, mirrors, textiles and restrictions of our access to the painting itself.
Modernism and contemporary decay moulder together on the surface of her paintings and sculptures, piled with fragmented detritus of today’s life. Working through confrontation, fear, and compulsion with a psychosexual abandon, Kovalcikova reveals painting's tender entrails and retrieves history’s grief as much as our present escapes. Her current and recent solo exhibitions include Kunstverein Freiburg (Freiburg, 2026), Emalin (London, 2024), the Aspen Art Museum (Aspen, 2024), and Antenna Space (Shanghai, 2023).
She has also participated in group exhibitions at Emalin (London, 2025), Trautwein Herleth (Berlin, 2025), Crèvecœur (Paris, 2024), and Michael Werner (New York, 2021).