Beata Hechtová joins nico bernath
Artist’s portrait
We are pleased to announce the representation of Beata Hechtová.
Beáta Hechtová (b. 1991, Prague, Czech Republic) is an artist living and working in Vienna. She graduated from the University of Applied Arts Vienna in 2020. Hechtová develops speculative visions of an uncertain future, where utopian and dystopian conditions exist side by side. Enigmatic landscapes are inhabited by peculiar creatures and post-human figures. These faceless and often transparent beings are in a constant state of transformation, adapting to altered environments and searching for new forms of community, meaning and spirituality.
selected works
Nature is worshipped and celebrated, yet remains filled with tension and melancholy. By inventing rituals, myths and belief systems, Hechtová explores how societies reshape their values and identities in response to change. She refers to this approach as “futuristic folklore.”
Selected presentations include Touch Nature at Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz, Subterranea at la BEAST gallery in Los Angeles, New Translation II at East Slovak Gallery in Košice. In 2025, Beata Hechtová received the Critics' Award for Young Painting, one of the most prestigious accolades for emerging painters in the Czech Republic.
Our first comprehensive collaboration with the artist will be a presentation at Untitled Art, Miami Beach, December 2—5.
Beata Hechtová, Cave, Oil on canvas, 112 x 138 cm, 2024
artist's instagram:
beata_hechtova
Matei R. Mai joins nico bernath
Artist’s portrait by Natália Evelyn Benčičová
We are pleased to announce the representation of Matei R. Mai.
Matei R. Mai (b. 2001, Košice, Slovakia) builds monochromatic paintings from found photographs and archival material, layering glaze and airbrush to mimic the look of digital decay. His approach draws on Hito Steyerl's idea of the "poor image," treating the human face as data that has been copied, compressed, and passed through technological systems. Instead of painting a face as a whole, closed form, he assembles it gradually, point by point, so the figure surfaces only after the fact, much like an image resolving out of digital fragments. He draws on psychiatric records, medical scans, and other institutional archives, materials that already carry the wear of circulation and read less as portraits than as damaged visual information. Through taping, scraping, sealing, and repeated layering, he rebuilds these traces by analogue means.
selected works
Steel structures extend the paintings outward, acting as frames that push the image into physical space while nodding to systems of storage, classification, and containment. Combining degraded imagery with industrial construction and material experimentation, R. Mai's work considers how unstable the human subject has become within today's systems of representation.
R. Mai has presented work in exhibitions including Kárhozat (Damnation) at the kunsthalle c/o VUNU, Košice; Act or Adapt at nico bernath, Bratislava; When You Look Back, You Are There at Lučenec Synagogue; and After Us: An Imprint of Digital Matter at Mikoviniho dom, Banská Štiavnica.
Our first comprehensive collaboration with the artist will be a solo presentation at Astoria Art Show, Vienna, September 10—13.
Matei R. Mai, F02S01, 2026, ink and acrylic on canvas, 80×60 cm
artist's instagram
@atem.mai
Réka Lőrincz joins nico bernath
Réka Lőrincz, DIY Magic, 2018
We are pleased to announce the representation of Réka Lőrincz.
Lőrincz (b. 1978, Budapest, Hungary) is a multidisciplinary artist working across sculpture, contemporary jewellery, moving image, and text. Her practice explores the relationships between the body, objects, and systems of knowledge, considering material forms as mediators between inner experience and the external world. Moving fluidly across disciplines, she combines everyday materials with precious and symbolic ones to examine themes of agency, embodiment, productivity, and transformation.
Selected works
Lőrincz has presented solo and two-person exhibitions at Kunsthalle Košice c/o VUNU, Torula, Győr, and the Institute of Contemporary Art Dunaújváros (ICA-D). Her work has been exhibited at institutions including the Ludwig Museum, Budapest; Hungarian National Museum; MODEM Centre for Modern and Contemporary Arts, Debrecen; Kunstpavillon, Munich; Museum of Coins and Medals, Kremnica; Petőfi Literary Museum, Budapest; and the Lowe Art Museum, Miami. She has participated in international exhibitions and biennales including the Contemporary Metal Art Biennale, Vilnius, Design Biennale Saint-Étienne, New York Jewellery Week, Schmuck Munich, SOFA Chicago, Shanghai Design Week, SaloneSatellite Milan, and FORM Miami.
Her works are held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City; Mint Museum, Charlotte; Lowe Art Museum, Miami; Racine Art Museum, Wisconsin; Museum of Applied Arts, Budapest; MODEM Centre for Modern and Contemporary Arts, Debrecen; and the Petőfi Literary Museum, Budapest.
Our first comprehensive collaboration with the artist will be a solo presentation
at Riga Contemporary 2026.
Réka Lőrincz, Only cash, silver, sapphire, diamond, 2026
@rekalorincz_
https://www.rekalorincz.com/