Introducing Girls By Martina Paukova [@martinapaukova]

The book club in Shoreditch presents Paukova’s first exhibition launch Girls, curated and directed by Liat Chen, showcasing a collection of images by Martina Paukova celebrating the beauty in the relaxed, domestic, and off-duty female form where women are truly themselves.

Martina Paukova (1983) is from Slovakia where she studied politics. Attracted to all things illustrated, she moved to London to study graphic design followed by illustration at Camberwell College of Arts. She currently lives and works in Berlin, where she spends her time drawing people, set in flattened environments – main focus being the domestic and the everyday. She works mostly digitally and some of her clients include Pull&Bear, Converse, Google, Guardian & The New York Times.

In a world that encourages girls to be glamorous, to pose and perform at all times, her illustrated girls feel familiar. We find them lying, sitting, standing or kneeling, with an occasional laptop, phone or a man thrown in. Plants and steaming coffee cups are compulsory. Girls are lanky and awkward, set in Paukova’s staple geometric and flattened domestic environments.

In these images Paukova repeatedly both celebrates and mocks the banal; light and humorous mood with sporadic darker streak is a must.

First and foremost – I am one of them! So I am very well versed with these situations and self-made worlds. Also, girls are way more fun to draw than men, their hair shape is more interesting and the overall air is somewhat sweeter and more organic. These domestic environments are little self-made worlds of sort. Away from the outside world where we are pushed to pose and perform, it is usually at home, within the four walls, where we are at our most natural and non performing selves. I guess I like capturing setups like these – super banal and off-duty.  – Paukova

 

The exhibition will run till the 8th of April. Go check it out!

8th February 2018
Time 6-2
Address: 100- 106 Leonard Street 
EC2A 4RH