Katarina Janečková grew up in Bratislava, the capital city of Slovakia. Fascinated by painting from an early age, she studied art and design at the Škola Umeleckého Priemyslu (High School of Applied Art) from 2004 to 2007, followed by six years at the Ysoká Škola Výtvarných Umení (Academy of Fine Art), where she completed her master’s degree. She describes her painting style as ‘messy’, but her colourful, spontaneous compositions show a sure hand and an immensely fertile imagination.

A life-changing experience was meeting her future husband, real-life cowboy Robert Walshe, while on holiday in Thailand, and moving to the southern coastal Texas city of Corpus Christi, where she enjoys the luxury of a huge basement studio.

As a European in America, Katarina Janečková Walshe is fascinated with the eccentricities of what she witnesses in American life, exploring gym culture, American masculinity, and the Southwestern landscape. With the birth of her children, and residing in a new country so different from her own, she tackles the beautiful and surreal moments of day-to-day life with work that reflects these new experiences. Her visceral, fantastical works explore notions of sexuality and gender dynamics through a cast of self-assured naked women going about their days in sun-baked landscapes and domestic interiors. And then there are the ever-present bears.

Katarina Janečková Walshe has exhibited internationally in five countries, and has a growing following in Europe and North America.

Katarina Janečková Walshe’s Instagram account, where she regularly shows new work, can be found here.

We would like to thank our Russian friend Yuri for suggesting the inclusion of this artist.