Erika Bornová

Erika Bornová was born in 1964 in Czechoslovakia, and she studied from 1983 until 1988 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. Her participation in the third Konfrontace exhibit helped lay one of the cornerstones for the integration of Czech female artists into exhibitions and other public activities. Sculpture has always been an integral part of Bornová’s work. Her earliest works were often created from old furniture—chairs or stools—that she wrapped in textile, fixed with mastic, and then colored. Some of her later pieces, including monumental beings constructed of Styrofoam, are meant to serve as reflections on ideals of beauty. With a healthy dose of irony, Bornová flirts with kitsch to create figures of humans and animals which become symbols of beauty for our time.