Soft Power at Umrian Gallery: When External Rules Become Internal Convictions

Umrian Gallery in Bratislava presents 'Soft Power', a group exhibition featuring four artists—Aziya, Dana Bartoníčková, Magdaléna Roztočilová, and Ivana Šáteková—running from 24 July to 13 September 2026. The show explores how power operates subtly through images, language, and everyday routines, becoming internalized as social norms. Aziya's paintings depict the human figure as a site of introspection, questioning identity construction in an image-saturated culture. Bartoníčková transforms knitted sweaters into concrete reliefs, turning intimacy into armor and exposing emotional power dynamics. Šáteková's embroidered works use folklore and domestic ornament to critique collective identity and the reproduction of gender roles. Roztočilová's sculptures present hybrid, organic forms that oscillate between human and non-human, addressing embodied existence. The exhibition refuses simple oppositions, instead revealing how familiar aspects of life are cultural constructions. Photography by Adam Šákovský, courtesy of Umrian Gallery.