The Verge

Milan Vagač The Verge Curator: Michal Stolárik The space breathes history, saturated with moisture, time, and traces of the past, inviting us to step into another dimension. A delicate fissure between worlds opens before us — a fragment of an unknown portal. We find ourselves at the edge between reality and fiction, between surface and depth, between what is alive and what merely resembles life. The thin line symbolizes what lies ahead and what lies behind, what has been and what is yet to come. It is a place where forms transform, materials lose their identity, and physical experience dissolves into memory and the digital flow of data. Time behaves elastically; here, the past and the future speak through the lens of the present. Milan Vagač (b. 1987, Bratislava), a Prague-based Slovak visual artist, has in recent years focused his artistic practice on the fluid intersection of painting, object, and spatial installation, exploring it within the context of the physical image inspired by both technological and digital environments. He juxtaposes a distinctly systematic approach — a tendency toward analogue variations, formal rigidity, and the modularity of individual elements — with organic forms, natural materials, and raw textures. In his paintings, we witness a natural transition from abstract image toward figurative suggestion, with the viewer’s experience playing a crucial role. Static geometric elements coexist effortlessly in dialogue with fragments of living organisms. On the canvases, Vagač creates an illusion of volume, inviting a haptic encounter. His unique morphology borders on design and architecture, yet simultaneously resonates with the organic forms and rhythms of nature. The solo exhibition The Verge traces the evolution of the artist’s signature style and highlights the ever-intensifying approach of responding to the character of individual spaces and locations. At Label201 Gallery in Rome, it thematically leans toward the convergence of the technological and biological worlds, exploring the boundary between surface and depth while evoking an atmosphere of dystopia, science fiction, and a kind of de-spiritualized transcendence. On the canvas surfaces, the artist presents details of ambiguous objects that raise questions about their function or time of origin. At the core of the project lies the painting installation ARCH:3ON (2025), which transforms an old door frame into an imaginary portal between worlds. By stacking canvases, Vagač constructs an object whose character resembles that of a technological artifact, seamlessly integrating the original interior element of the door into a joint dialogue. The composition recalls an architectural relief with biomorphic details and maintains geometric elements and symmetry, while the artist softens and rounds the individual systems. The grey and ochre colour palette, with its subtle painterly textures, evokes a material marked by erosion, allowing it to engage directly with its surroundings. The unsettling glimpses into the portal’s core reveal hints of life, which heighten tension and offer space for imagination. Just as in his remaining objects and paintings, the artist explores the relationship between body and technology. Here, too, it is unclear whether we are observing the remnants of an unknown civilization, fragments of future machines, or ritual objects beyond our current experience.