The Seekers

The art collective Nephro Studio (established 2020) was founded by Lena Luga and Denis Baštuga. As individuals they emerged from diverse creative spheres, and as a collective they are gradually inventing a specific form of visual expression, located on the boundary between free art, fashion photography and kinetic pictures. They function as a platform for performers and fine artists from various different environments, and the foundation of their output is interdisciplinary co-operation. Their core themes include the depiction of nature and human physicality and their digital post-production, in order to create poetic compositions, sometimes even with a touch of surrealism, which are played out on the boundary of the natural and the virtual. Their works are inhabited by bodies, characters and objects that operate as narrators of associative visual stories. Denis Baštuga (born 1994, Púchov) is currently studying at the Painting Studio 2 under Vladimír Skrepl at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. In his work he takes inspiration from psychological themes, the fluidity of gender and the diversity of the qualities of the body. His process art combines painting, performance art and sculptural experimentation with attributes of surrealist aesthetics. Lena Luga (born 1985, Košice) is a photographer and artist. She studied at the Contemporary Art Studio at the Technical University of Košice, under the mentorship of Dr. Adam Szentpétery (2008-2014). In her photographic work she focuses on intersections between fashion photography and free art.