Anita Baloghova is a contemporary artist and designer, working under her artistic label by/Anit.
Email: art@byanit.com
byanit_
Her artworks are made of construction materials, mostly steel nails, attached to canvas and hand-painted with acrylic colours. This technique is her own visual form of expression based on her experiment with different media and materials shaped into visually distinctive 3D steel paintings.
My works translate a classical painting to painted steel object, deconstructing the visual foundation of the source of inspiration into a mosaic which uses steel nail-head as a point.
- Anit.-
Anit grew up on a construction site. She spent a lot of time discovering construction materials and playing with them. Her fascination with metals comes from her haptic preference and rule breaking need. In her late teens she was diagnosed with an allergy to certain metal alloys and was advised to avoid the touch with metals as much as possible. Since steel is an alloy which can contain different percentages of elements inducing skin allergy, she was supposed to avoid working with it. Her attachment to it however isn't based on stubborn insistence.
Iron, the major elemental component of steel, is one of the most plentiful elements in the earth’s crust and it is also a very important mineral in a human body. Anit struggled with iron deficiency for over a decade, and by working with metal alloy based on iron she psychologically reintroduced this element to her body through touch, mentally dissolving every negative association with her condition.
Steel for Anit represents strength. Prefabricate in form of a nail which she decided to work with, gives her the power to debilitate this primary quality of steel. She creates neat, soft-looking reliefs on canvas made of hundreds to thousands of steel nails which are shaped into rather fragile compositions. Apart from her affinity to metals, the use of steel nails with big flat rounded heads is also associated with her interest in geometric shapes. A point created by the nail head is a geometric shape itself, even though imperfect. This imperfection however gives life, transformation and uniqueness to every artwork.
When she started to experiment with the technique she chose difficult, conceptual recreation of old master portraits with a contemporary message hidden in the faces. Each of these paintings is composed of thousands of steel nails and took several months to create. After the fifth she needed a break to rejoice and transform the hard work into a playground. Immersed into her steel-nail technique she feelt the need to experiment and push the boundaries of her creative work with a new minimal approach she's embraced towards the end of 2022.
After 5 years of experimenting with her technique, she discovered a new wave of joy in accelerated pace and passion in craftsmanship creating playful geometric compositions in vibrant colours.
Her next experiment takes her to play even more with dimensions and will result in a kinetic sculpture.
2010-2012
Free Fine Arts Course
Master of Arts
Faculty of Fine Arts, Academy of Arts, Banska Bystrica, Slovakia
2010-2011
Printmaking Course - Studio I.
1 year internship, Academy of Fine Arts, Prague, Czech Republic
2006-2010
Visual Arts Course - Graphics-Space-Synergy
Bachelor of Arts
Faculty of Fine Arts, Academy of Arts, Banska Bystrica, Slovakia
2005-2006
Advertising and Graphic Design Course
Faculty of Creative Arts, University of Bedfordshire, Luton, Great Britain
LANGUAGES
English
Spanish
Portuguese
Hungarian
Slovak
Czech
2023 (July 31 - August 31)
Ocean Drive Barcelona, C/ d'Aragó 300, Barcelona, Spain
2023 (January 30 - June 9)
Steel by/Anit., Quiropráctica Eixample, C/Pau Claris 153, Barcelona, Spain
2023
Steel by/Anit., Virtual Gallery, Online exhibition, link to
VIRTUAL EXHIBITION
2022
Female R-Evolution, DADA Dance Production, Barcelona, Spain
2015
At liberty to fly, LGBTQ venue, Banska Bystrica, Slovakia
2014
Hipster Jugend, Impact HUB, Prague, Czech Republic
2012
19 hours, 12 minutes, Svetlik Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic
2011
Put me anywhere but quietly, The Underground, Prague, Czech Republic
2022
Misonny Art Festival, Barcelona / Catalina Gava Mar, Spain
2022
Open Art Barcelona, Artnumber23 Gallery, Barcelona, Spain
2017
Young art show vol.10, House of Arts, Piestany, Slovakia
2011-2013
The 3rd Bangkok Triennale International Print and Drawing Exhibition, Centre of Art and Culture, Bangkok, Thailand
2012
Kalene sklo, audio footage for a project of Katarina Hruskova (collaboration), Galeria +/- 0.0, Zilina, Slovakia
2012
I carry a tiny knife, audio footage for a project of Katarina Hruskova (collaboration), Weekender, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2012
Young art show vol.5, House of Arts, Piestany, Slovakia
2012
Print of the year, 18th annual competition in printmaking, Clam-Gallas Palace, Prague, Czech Republic
2012
Assimilation vs Original, Slovak Union of Visual Arts, Bratislava, Slovakia
2011
Young art show vol.4, House of Arts, Piestany, Slovakia
2011
Trans/media space of print, Nitra Gallery, Nitra, Slovakia
2011
Masoobjekt - GraM, 4D Gallery, Galanta, Slovakia
2010
Inter-center, Banska ST A NICA, Banska Stiavnica, Slovakia
2010
Illusion vs. reality, Academy of Arts Gallery, Banska Bystrica, Slovakia
2009
Image of text/text of image, UHCL Gallery, Houston, Texas
2009
Clothes make the man, Faculty of Applied Design and Visual Art, Houston, Texas
2022
Artells magazine FINEART vol.315, New York, USA
2022
ARTNUMBER23 Gallery, Open Art Barcelona, art show exhibition catalogue
2017
YOUNG ART SHOW 10, international art show exhibition catalogue
2015
INSPIRE MAGAZINE No. 74, article p.70-71, ISSN 1336-8249
2012
YOUNG ART SHOW 5, international art show exhibition catalogue
2012
The 3rd Bangkok Triennale International Print & Drawing Exhibition, exhibition catalogue
2011
YOUNG ART SHOW 4, international art show exhibition catalogue
2011
Trans/media space of print, exhibition catalogue, Academy of Arts, Banska Bystrica, ISBN 978-80-89078-88-2
2010
GraM, exhibition catalogue, 4D Gallery Galanta
2010
Inter-center, exhibition catalogue, Banska ST A NICA