Veronika Bělská Durová

Veronika Durová (also given as Bělská Durová) was born on 7 June 1984 in Prague. She trained at the Václav Hollar Secondary School of Art in Prague (2000–2004) and then studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, where from 2006 to 2012 she completed the studio of figurative sculpture led by Jan Hendrych, gaining the MgA. degree. In 2010 she studied marble techniques at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Carrara, Italy, on an Erasmus programme, and around 2013–2014 completed a working placement in Taiwan.

During and after her studies she won two studio prizes (2008 and 2012). At a sculpture symposium in Erlbach, Germany, she took second place with the work Giant Knee (2009). From 2013 to 2022 she was a member of the fine art section of Umělecká beseda, and from 2014 to 2022 an active member of the PRÁM sculpture studio in Prague-Vysočany, where she also had her own studio. She has also taught and takes part regularly in competitions for designs of commemorative coins for the Czech National Bank.

The central subject of her work is the principle of the torso and the fragment — she is concerned with the tension between presence and absence that has always been inherent in figurative sculpture. She works with the authenticity of the detail, which concentrates the viewer’s attention on the micro level of perception and makes them fill in the hidden, missing wholes by association. Her documented works include Dialogue (2012), Giant Knee (2009), Ear (2013, Chanel pink marble), Where Are You Going (2017, grey Carrara marble) and Under the Table (2017). A permanent installation is the Avenue of Saints at the Gallery of the Central Bohemian Region (GASK) in Kutná Hora.

At the Art in the City festival in České Budějovice she was the author of the installation/exhibition “Seeing with the Heart” (the fragMENts cycle), presented at the Rabenstejn Tower.