Self-taught artist Anna Zemánková was born in Moravia and began producing lyrical compositions in late middle age. When viewed as a series, Zemánková’s works constitute an invented herbarium of otherworldly organisms. In her own words, she was “growing flowers that are not grown anywhere else”. While her practice has been compared to that of Hilma af Klint and other mediumistic artists, Zemánková never claimed to be informed by a mystic philosophy or communication with a spiritual realm. Instead, her works originated from a subcognitive drive rooted in her own interiority. Forms seem to metastasise with a vital force of their own, laden with fruit-like appendages and delicate arabesques. The imagery of the pieces on display straddle both microcosmic and macroscopic orders, evoking a cartography of unknown astronomical formations as well as the reproductive structures of imagined plant life.
—Sybilla Griffin
