Michal Czinege
czinegemichal@hotmail.com
Bio
Michal Czinege is a Slovak-born visual artist living and working in Finland. Czinege studied painting and earned his Doctor of Arts degree from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, where he worked as assistant professor at the Painting Dept. until moving to Finland in 2016. Czinege’s works have been widely exhibited internationally and can be found in several European collections, such as the Albertina Museum in Vienna, Kunsthalle Praha or the Slovak National Gallery.
Large-scale canvases and spatial installations have always been a natural means for Michal Czinege to explore borders of visual recognizability and the relationship between two-dimensional representations of space and real space, the virtual and the physical. His current practice negotiates imperceptible phenomena, such as how small changes in wavelengths of light can radically affect the way we experience, perceive and interpret the visible world. Inert objects, images and large colour surfaces turn into transient perceptual events in Czinege’s installations, while transience and impermanence are central questions also in his hand-bound artist’s books.
CV
Michal Czinege
* 1980 in Bratislava, Slovakia, lives and works in Nurmes, Finland
Education
2011 Doctor of Arts, Art.D., Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Bratislava, Slovakia
2006 MFA in Painting, Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Bratislava, Slovakia
Academic teaching
2011-15 Assistant professor at the painting department, Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Bratislava, Slovakia
Selected solo exhibitions
2025
≡~~ Double Negative (with M. Laurinen), Gallery Fikka, Porvoo Art Hall, Finland
Garden of Death, MUU Helsinki Contemporary Art Centre, Cable Factory, Helsinki, Finland. Part of the Lux Helsinki Light Festival
2023
Slow Painting, Galleria Tyko, Nurmes, Finland
Garden of Death (Kimitoön islands), Kulturhus Björkboda, Kemiönsaari, Finland
2021/22
Open Shells, Gallery Cin Cin, Bratislava, Slovakia
2021
Double Negative, (with M. Laurinen) Pimento, Oulu
200 Milliseconds and Beyond, (with M. Laurinen) Studio Mustanapa, Rovaniemi, Finland
You Were Never Really Here, Gallery Huuto, Helsinki, Finland
2019
Disappearing Act (with M. Laurinen), Gallery Ars Libera, Kuopio, Finland
Peter Schlemihl’s Shadow, Galerie Pleiku, Berlin
2018
Behind the Moon, Gallery MUU, Helsinki, Finland
2017
Eat Snakes!, Gallery Cin Cin, Bratislava, Slovakia
MATIKETO, Galleria Tyko, Nurmes, Finland
Blind Spot, Galleria Lapinlahti, Helsinki, Finland
2015
Night Palette, KulttuuriKauppila, Ii, Finland
The Loneliness of the Traveller, Gallery Huuto, Helsinki, Finland
Hlava, cestovateľ a ostatné, Kabinet, Bratislava, Slovakia
2014
This Is Not a Love Story, Industrial Gallery, Ostrava, Czech Republic
Look What I Found, Blansko City Gallery, Blansko, Czech Republic
2013
Have We Met Before?, Galleria Tyko, Nurmes, Finland
Na hranici viditeľnosti, Slovak Institute in Budapest, Budapest, Hungary
2011
Michal Czinege, Wannieck Gallery, Brno, Czech Republic
There Must Be Something There, Jan Koniarek Gallery, Trnava, Slovakia
2010
Land(e)scape, Galerie Sýpka, Valašské Meziříčí, Czech Republic
From Dusk Till Dawn, Soda Gallery, Bratislava, Slovakia
The Emergence of Figures, Galerie Soga Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
Deep in Grass, Gallery F7, Bratislava, Slovakia
2009 Michal Czinege, Kressling Gallery, Bratislava, Slovakia
2008 HORROR VACUI, Slovak Institute, Rome, Italy
2007 Double Scapes, Trnava synagogue, Trnava, Slovakia
2006 Lost Island, Tranzit Studios, Bratislava, Slovakia
2005 New Connection, Museumsquartier 21, Vienna, Austria
2004 Bartošová-Czinege, Slovak National Museum, Bratislava
2003 Symbioza, Galéria mladých, Nitra, Slovakia, Slovakia
Selected group exhibitions
2025
M_itä? Biennale of Contemporary Art, KUMMA Kuopio Art Museum, Finland
BOOKED 2025, MUU Helsinki Contemporary Art Centre, Helsinki, Finland
2024
The Blast, XXVIII Mänttä Art Festival, Mänttä, Finland
BOOKED 2024 @ Itä, Taidekeskus Itä, Lappeenranta, Finland
Booked 2024, MUU Helsinki Contemporary Art Centre, Cable Factory, Helsinki
2023/24
Forest Line, Nitra Gallery, Nitra, Slovakia
2023
The Artist’s Book: Unique and Diverse, Kristiansand Kunsthall, Kristiansand, Norway
Beyond Everything, Taidelaitos Haihatus, Joutsa, Finland
Bergen Art Book Fair, presented by Codex Polaris, Bergen Kunsthall, Bergen, Norway
Supermarket Art Fair, Stockholm, Sweden
Trienale dum umení II, Gallery of Fine Arts in Zlín, Czech Republic
2022
Booked 2022, artists’ book exhibition, MUU Helsinki Contemporary Art Centre, Helsinki
DaDaDaDaDa, audiovisual performance, Joensuu, Finland
Ground Zero, ArtRooms Moravany, Moravany nad Váhom, Slovakia
2021
Material Light, Northern Photographic Centre, Oulu, Finland
Flash3 Biennale (installation with M. Laurinen), Helsinki, Finland
2020/21
Material Light, MUU Helsinki, Kaapelitehdas, Helsinki, Finland
Fleeting Existence, Joensuu Art Museum, Finland
2019
Entrotopia, Gallery Rantakasarmi, Helsinki, Finland
ArtFair Suomi, Cable Factory, Helsinki, Finland
2017
Symphony for 5 Senses, GUS, Spisska Nova Ves, Slovakia
2016
5000 m2, Lappeenranta, Finland
Symphony for 5 Senses, Central Slovak Gallery, Banska Bystrica, Slovakia
Slovak Painting – New Generation, Gallerie d’Italia, Milano, Italia
4 Elements of Innovation, Council of the European Union, Brussels, Belgium
2015
The 50th Anniversary of the Nitra Gallery, Nitra Gallery, Nitra, Slovakia
10 Years of Painting, Central Slovak Gallery, Banska Bystrica, Slovakia; Bratislava Castle, Slovakia
2014
Freudenthal Show 2, Galerie Freud&Thal, Bruntál, Czech Republic
Zukunst 2014, Valtický zámok, Valtice, Czech Republic
2013
Like It, Essl Museum, Vienna, Austria
ArtD. No1, House of Arts, Bratislava, Slovakia; Central-Slovak Gallery, Banska Bystrica, Slovakia
2012
Nord Art 2012, Kunstwerk Carlshütte, Büdelsdorf, Germany
Indefinite Scenery, The Gallery of Miloš Alexander Bazovský, Trenčín, Slovakia; Gallery Medium, Bratislava
I LIKE turn around paintings, Kressling Gallery, Bratislava
2011
September Harvest (Young Slovak Painting), Caesar Gallery, Olomouc, Czech Republic
ObraSKovo, Wannieck Gallery, Brno, Czech Republic
2010
Painting After Painting, Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava
Drawing as Thinking, Gallery Medium, Bratislava
2009
Black and White, Kressling Gallery, Bratislava
Métamorphoses, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France
11+1, House of Art, Bratislava
Selection 11.1, Václav Špála Gallery, Praha, Czech Republic
2008
Cross Section of SLOVAK Visual Art, Kressling Gallery, Bratislava
CZ – SK Contemporary Young Painting, Wannieck Gallery, Brno, Czech Republic
2 Dollars For All We Are So Small…, Bastart Contemporary, Bratislava
2007
Felix Culpa, with Walsh, Bicek, Czinege, Mrvová, BASTART Gallery, Bratislava
Find 10 Differences, SPACE Gallery, Bratislava
Workshop 001 (Bartošová, Czinege, Mrvová), Tranzit Workshops, Bratislava
PitoreSKa, Wannieck Gallery, Brno, Czech Republic
2006
Made in Akryl, Galerie AD Astra, Kuřim, Czech Republic
Contemporary Art From Slovakia, European Central Bank, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
For Some Seeds the Meal Is the End of the Journey, Tranzit workshops, Bratislava
4th Zlín Youth Salon, House of Art, Zlín, Czech Republic
Fresh Europe, KOGART, Budapest, Hungary
Young Painting, Jan Koniarek Gallery, Trnava, Slovakia
2005
Essl Award, Gallery Medium, Bratislava
Forever Hungry!, Tranzit workshops, Bratislava
Farbi100/dikOBRAZovo/, Jan Koniarek Gallery, Trnava, Slovakia; Nitra City Art Museum, Nitra, Slovakia
2004
Svétliny, Galéria na bidýlku, Brno, Czech Republic
Trip na tri (with M. Sedlák, E. Šille), Štátna galéria, Banská Bystrica, Slovakia
2003
Laco Teren Paradiso perduto & guests Bartošová and Czinege, Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava
Wasser, voda, víz, Symposium in Bad Fischaubrunn, Vienna, Austria; Budapešť, Hungary; Bratislava, Slovakia; Šopron, Slovakia; Poprad, Slovakia
Residencies
2023–24 – Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation’s Artist Studio, Helsinki
2016 – AiR Sandnes, Norway
2015 – Kulttuurikauppila, Ii, Finland
2007, 2008 – Taidetalo, Nurmes, Finland
2005 – Museumsquartier 21, Vienna, Austria
Works in collections
Albertina Museum Collection, Vienna, Austria
Bratislava City Gallery
The European Central Bank, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Kunsthalle Praha, Prague, Czech Republic
Marek, A Collection of Contemporary Czech and Slovak Art, Czech Republic
The Slovak National Gallery
Nitra Gallery, Slovakia
The Olomouc Museum of Art, Olomouc, Czech Republic
The Orava Gallery, Dolný Kubín, Slovakia
RikArt Artists’ Book Collection, Helsinki, Finland
Wannieck Gallery, Brno, Czech Republic
Memberships
Artists’ Association of Finland
MUU ry, Finnish interdisciplinary artist association
FLASH, The Finnish Light Art Society
SOLU Bioart Society
Awards and grants
2025 – Project grant, Arts Promotion Centre Finland
2025 – Working grant, Karjalaisen Kulttuurin Edistämissäätiö
2024 – Incentive grant, Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation, Finland
2023 – Artist grant, Arts Promotion Centre Finland
2022 – Working grant, Arts Promotion Centre North Karelia, Finland
2021 – Working grant, Finnish Cultural Foundation
2020 – Project grant, Arts Promotion Centre Finland
2020 – Working grant, Arts Promotion Centre Finland
2019 – Project grant, Alfred Kordelin Foundation, Finland
2019 – Project grant, Arts Promotion Centre North Karelia, Finland
2018-25 – Project grant, City of Nurmes, Finland
2018 – Working grant, Arts Promotion Centre North Karelia, Finland
2017 – Travel grant, Arts Promotion Centre Finland
2016 – Working grant, Arts Promotion Centre Finland
2015 – Project grant, Slovak Ministry of Culture
2011 – Nomination for The Sovereign European Art Prize
2011 – Shortlisted for Strabag Kunstforum ArtAward
2006 – Laureate of MFA graduates of the Academy of Fine Arts and Design
2006 – Winner, Painting of the Year competition, VUB Foundation
2006-10 – Finalist of Painting of the Year competition, VUB Foundation
2005 – Finalist of Essl Art Award
Commissioned Public Artwork
2024 – Tree of Wishes /collaboration with M. Laurinen, Elias Lönnrot park, Nurmes, Finland
2019 – Karhusaari /collaboration with M. Laurinen, Pikku-Kaarle nursery courtyard, Nurmes, Finland