Eva Puka

I was born in a small town in the Carpathian Mountains, called Huszt, which today belongs to Ukraine, and which had previously been part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. At the time of my birth and until I was 15 years old, it was part of the former Soviet Union.
It was in that cultural environment that I began to experiment with art, in this case with rather abstract representations, perhaps influenced by my uncle Boris, a well-known artist from Transcarpátia. There I also studied history of art for a year.
In the 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and taking advantage of the fact that I have Hungarian roots on my mother's side, I moved to live in Budapest, where I was able to share space in a residence for students from all over the world. It is there that this new mixture of cultures generates in me a new artistic restlessness that I combine with my studies of Russian and Portuguese literature.
After finishing my studies and after years of working in different occupations, I decided to travel to Spain to do the Camino de Santiago in 2010. That experience undoubtedly meant a change of perspective in my creative perspective, being the motifs from that moment on, incorporating surrealist elements as a tribute to the la...

After years of painting on traditional canvas, one day, walking through the villages of El Bierzo and Galicia (in the northwest of Spain), I was looking at the slate blocks on the roofs and walls of the houses, and at that moment I felt a special connection and imagined what it would be like to paint on that surface.
An idea took hold. To go back to painting on the stone as our ancestors did. To return to the cave to which we are somehow still connected. To return to the sacred, to that connection with the earth through the stone.
The tonality and feel of the slate manages to transmit a freshness and a sense of calm that I have been able to experience after hours of work. It really has a therapeutic effect that allows us to slow down the pace of today's society and to connect with past generations who have created their art in the caves.
As the color spreads with the stone it creates a contrast against the natural black background that moves and captures, as if it were the first rays of sunlight penetrating a cave.
The motifs so far have been diverse, I like contrasts, that's why there is partly some surrealism, a series centre on eyes, on looks, as well as a series inspired by Greco-Roman mythology. My idea is to go further back i...

2013 - Solo exhibition, Siraly, Budapest, Hungary
2015 - Collective Show/ Arte Poblenou, Barcelona, Spain
2024 - Collective Exhibition en Galeria Patricia Cancelo, Barcelona
2024- International Exhibition en Denmark, West Station Gallery