The best young painters of the 17th edition of the Maľba competition are now known

Ján Bátorek, Samuel Kollárik and Martina Červenková join the 17-year Maľba initiative list of next-generation best painters

The trio of young artists was awarded a public honour by an international jury and financial support of EUR 20,000 to support the development of their artwork. This year, the Maľba competition gave exceptional attention also to Sara Zahorjanová, who received special recognition from the judges. The VÚB Foundation once again enables everyone to enjoy first-class contemporary art. Twenty final artworks can be viewed for free at Nedbalka Gallery until 27 November.

The professional and independent evaluation of the 17th year of the renowned competition "Maľba – VÚB Foundation Award for Painting for Young Artists" was conducted by Hungarian art historian and curator Mónika Zsikla, Czech visual artist and educator Marek Meduna, and renowned Italian gallerist Vincenzo Della Corte. Curator and art historian Katarína Bajcurová rounded off the team of judges for Slovakia. The experts shortlisted 20 finalists in the first round of evaluation. Then during the second session and in-person evaluation of artworks this week, they chose three winners.

1st place - Ján Bátorek

The international jury selected Ján Bátorek as the author of the most artistically valuable artwork of the 17th edition of the Maľba competition. For his Sídliskový chlapec artwork, he received the prestigious title, valuable recognition from esteemed figures, and EUR 10,000 from the VÚB Foundation. "The jury appreciated the winning artwork's dialogue with art history, the surprising use of historical principles, and the expressive richness of modern painting. The artwork was also interesting for its expression of contemporary civil poetics. Artist Ján Bátorek enriched this with a humourous distance and digital image options, all on a background of innovative painting expression and urban subculture view of the world," said Mónika Zsikla, chair of the evaluation committee.

2nd place - Samuel Kollárik

Samuel Kollárik took second place and EUR 6,500 to support his artistic advancement for his painting We were born upside down/Narodili sme sa dole hlavou. This competition debutant works in an original way with elements of (sur)realistic aesthetics and with hidden meanings of items and phenomena – while reflecting on serious personal and life issues in a profound way. Particularly interesting is the contrast of the realistic depiction with the fluidity of thought and the sometimes elusive and open meaning of the painting.

3rd place - Martina Červenková
Martina Červenková was placed third and received EUR 3,500 for her Privátne javiská artwork. According to the jury, this sounds potentially decorative at first glance. But upon paying deeper attention and delving behind the depiction using a painterly approach close to hyper-realism, this artwork surprises with inspiration and visuality based on film image and cinematography. 

Jury's special recognition - Sara Zahorjanová
This year the jury unanimously agreed that in addition to the three winners, it was also necessary to draw the attention of the professional public and fans of modern painting to the fourth finalist. Hence the jury's special recognition went to another debutante of the competition, Sara Zahorjanová, for her Homecoming artwork. They appreciated her way of expressing intimate sensations and experiences, playing with the history of abstraction through combining organic objects and solid forms, and overall interesting experimentation with various painting techniques and styles.

The 109 young painters in the competition this year included 40 new participants. The jury selected eight "newcomers" to progress to the final twenty. These include three of the four awarded artists this year. This year's winner, Ján Bátorek, had already reached the final in the past two years.

Freely-available young art
The VÚB Foundation, in cooperation with the Nedbalka Gallery in Bratislava and the expert competition adviser Nina Gažovičová, has once again prepared a free exhibition that aims to educate the general public about high-quality local art. From 28 October to 27 November, all 20 of this year's finalists will have their Maľba 2022 artworks exhibited (in alphabetical order): Ján Bátorek, Martina Červenková, Barbora Durajová, Juraj Ďuriš, Oskar Felber, Simona Folková, Ján Hrčka, Marek Jarotta, Beáta Kočner Bencová, Samuel Kollárik, Alžbeta Koprdová, Dominika Kováčiková, Juliana Matiová, Ivana Mojšová, Michal Nagypal, Miroslav Sandanus, Adam Šakový, Helen Tóth, Év van Hettmer, and Sara Zahorjanová.