EMMA ŠTĚPÁNOVÁ




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information
ZODIAC I & 2
EXXON VALDEZ-OIL SPILL-PELECANUS CRISPUS
INTAGLIO SERIES
HIDE FROM “THEM”
INSIDE & OUT
WHAT IS THE SPACE OF NIGHTMARES 
AND DREAMS ACTUALLY MADE OF?

UNTITLED (ENCAUSTIC)
IN THE BODY OF A CREATURE
moodboard
biography





REM HIVE – REM SCAPE


site – specific installation
beeswax, gauze, metal wire
2026


REM HIVE – REM SCAPE is a monumental site-specific installation that represents the materialized space of the subconscious. The artist perceives it as a constantly evolving archive composed of dreams, memories, emotions, and experiences that accumulate and expand over the course of a lifetime. She translates this immaterial space into a system of suspended panels made of beeswax and gauze, whose fragility, translucence, and mutability allude to the very nature of dreaming.

The installation appears as a single organic whole, which, upon closer inspection, breaks down into individual layers—records of dreams and traces of the subconscious. Dreams are not depicted here through specific images, but are present through the material, space, and atmosphere. Beeswax and gauze, materials associated with protection, healing, and preservation, become a metaphor for caring for the fragile contents of the human mind.

Through its open, permeable space and the characteristic scent of wax, the installation opens up a field for individual imagination and associations. The viewer enters a landscape oscillating between dream and reality, where memory, the subconscious, and the shifting layers of personal experience intertwine.








© Emma Štěpánová, 2026
infoEmma Štěpánová is a multidisciplinary artist based in Prague, Czech Republic. In her work she deals with the relationship and boundaries between consciousness and the subconscious, the motifs of dreams and nightmares, but also environmental themes related to the devastation of aquatic ecosystems. When exploring the changing nuances of these interactions, she focuses on both existence of these matters and their extinction. During her internship at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Dresden Štěpánová developed her interest in working with beeswax – medium that offers both technological and expressive possibilities. She is currently focusing her work around space and how it can become an autonomous element of the work, searching for ways in which materials and their boundaries can be pushed in their natural form.

EMMA ŠTĚPÁNOVÁ
stepanova.em@seznam.cz
@emma__stepanova
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ZODIAC I & 2


kinetic object, metal, concrete
70 × 100 × 100 cm
2023




3 objects, concrete, 
40 × 45 cm, 
20 × 15 × 10 cm, 
25 × 15 × 13 cm


The word „Zodiac“ in Czech is composed of two words, animal and circle. This idea was born during thinking about kinetic objects, something playful and extinction of species. Zodiac is something very fragile and unstoppable. All these animals are classified as endangered.  The faster the viewer spins the zodiac, the more the animals on the circle shake and may fall down. This is a symbol of the thin line of fragility of existence. The Zodiac II is the second view of my project, another way how to work with something that is loosing it’s stability and existence.


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EXXON VALDEZ-OIL SPILL-PELECANUS CRISPUS


asphalt, metal
2 objects
A 100 × 75 × 130 cm, 
B 117 × 240 × 130 cm
2023



The work EXXON VALDEZ– OIL SPILL– PELECANUS CRISPUS reflects one of the most destructive manifestations of human interference with nature: the formation of an oil spill. The work highlights the moment when animals covered in oil lose their ability to survive, and death becomes the inevitable consequence of human error, negligence, or even deliberate disruption and damage to the ecosystem. The Dalmatian pelican, whose population was severely affected by environmental disasters in the Persian Bay, has become a symbol of these numerous disasters on bodies of water. The objects were created from waste material, which underscores the theme of destruction and the irreparable traces that humans leave behind in the landscape.



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INTAGLIO SERIES


dry needle, soft cover250 x 353 mm
2023–2025



Using the “drypoint” printmaking technique, I transform dreams—especially nightmares—from mere memories into two-dimensional forms. The process of roughly etching individual lines into a metal plate allows me to capture the sensation we perceive in our subconscious.
NIGHTMARE, 2023
THE HARVEST SUMMONER, 2024

THE CYCLE, 2023
TWO, 2023
THE FIVE O’CLOCK BEAR, 2023
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HIDE FROM “THEM”


concrete, metal,
velvet, wax
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190 x 95 x 95 cm
2024

What is fragility? What is the core of being fragile? Where does it come from? Where are the borders and the critical point when our memories and thoughts become fragile? How things could be so fragile? How could be thoughts be so fragile? How could be memories so fragile? When do we realize that something is fragile to us? It is possible to feel fragility of our own transformation into something strong? What does it feel like when we do realize it? What is our ideal state of mind when we accept our own fragility? How to get rid of our fragile forms? Or should we feel calm even if we feel fragile? Maybe yes. For me it is okay to feel fragile. 
    Because if we feel fragile, we can still feel our own strenght. We are dancing around our own fragility, trying to reach something more stable, thats gonna keep us on the point, where we won’t fall down into the fragile lake. But dont be afraid, be fragile, feel the tences, feel the moments when we realize, that we all are made of flesh and bones. We are so used to be powerfull and racional out there. Every day….


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INSIDE & OUT



concrete, beeswax, velvet
4 objects (tetraptych) 40 × 27 cm
2024


A series of objects that tells a story of motherhood and the relationship between a mother and her child. To tell this seemingly simple yet actually complex story, I drew on the principles of representation found in medieval iconography. The ideal image of the Madonna and Child is here expanded upon in detail to include all its complications and hardships. Behind these symbols and icons lie many reasons and stories, just as wax icons are hidden and well-protected inside concrete caves, whose surface and thus also their core are protected by wax.

This tetraptych is accompanied by a four-chapter linocut strip. 
One chapter – one color – one icon 
– one cave – 4 chapters – 4 icons 
– 4 caves – 1 story



06.WHAT IS THE SPACE OF NIGHTMARES AND DREAMS ACTUALLY MADE OF?


beeswax, bronze, metal
2025



What form does the space of our dreaming take under the influence of our subconscious, which is able to connect the real and the surreal? How many layers does a dream have? What does it consist of? How can we influence what we dream?

The installation explores the subconscious through recurring dreams and nightmares, which I record and transform into material form. The bronze object is a materialization of a recurring nightmare, surrounded by layers of wax that represent the shifting dreamscape and the boundary between reality and fiction.


06.UNTITLED (ENCAUSTIC)


A4, beeswax and oil pastel 
on paper
2025 - 2026



Encaustic pieces represent the visualization of dreams. It is a process of visual documentation based on dream journals written immediately upon waking.

The written form is transformed into a visual one.

06.IN THE BODY OF A CREATURE

Parafine, ink, oil pastels
4 objects – 27 × 2 cm
2025



What if human experiences and emotions are shaped into the animal forms and bodies? These creatures, carved into parafin and filled up with ink as a tattoo represents memory. Shaped into the circle it's a symbol of constance and repetition.

mood
bio

EDUCATION




2023 – x
The Academy of Fine Arts in Prague 
// studio Sculpture 2


2023 – 2020
Faculty of Fine Arts at Brno University of Technology // studio Sculpture 1


2020 – 2016
Secondary School of Applied Arts Uherské Hradiště // ceramic design



EXHIBITIONS




2026

I Caress the World with Your Roots – Světova 1 in Prague, Czech Republic 
/ group exhibition


2025

Synapse – Kobka 17 (GHMP) in Prague, Czech Republic / group exhibition


Passing Through – Hochschule für bildende Künste in Dresden, Germany 
/ group exhibition


2024

Memory of Memory – Contemporary Art Festival in Prostějov, Czech Republic 
/ group exhibition


Archeology of the Present – public space interventions in Tallinn, Estonia 
/ group exhibition


Pomezí identity – Stará Radnice gallery in Vsetín, Czech Republic 
/ group exhibition


Rybářská show – Open Studios Festival in Brno, Czech Republic 
/ group exhibition


Archeology of the Present – in collaboration with Center of Polish sculpture in Oroń, Poland 
/ group exhibition


2023

Contemporary Art Festival – Gallery of Contemporary Art in Prostějov, Czech Republic 
/ curator


Sochy mezi květy – Botanical Garden of the Faculty of Science at Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic 
/ group exhibition


Overlaps – Zámek Gallery in Prostějov 
/ group exhibition


2022

Pokoje – Exhibition of Young Art in Hrzán Palace, Prague, Czech Republic 
/ group exhibition 


Setkali se zas – Stará Radnice Gallery in Vsetín, Czech Republic / group exhibition


Prototyp – art installation at PROTOTYP festival in Brno, Czech Republic


Tíže – Industra Gallery in Brno, Czech Republic 
/ group exhibition


Sochy mezi květy – Botanical Garden of the Faculty of Science at Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic 
/ group exhibition



GROUP PERFORMANCES




2022

We Stand Behind Ukraine – 3 hours, Prague, Czech Republic / performers: Emma Štěpánová, Andrea Krnáčová, Jan Petr, Zuzana Šrubařová, Sara Wollasch, Terezie Rausová, Petra Mrňová, Nela Maruškevičová, Becka McFadden, Antonín Brinda, Ay Lak Yakubouskaya



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