Miroir Noir

Novus Nigrum Speculum

Find here relevant new paintings that we love and think are turning points or great advances in our always provoking way to start from zero every time we gather for a work meeting. 
We strongly believe that they are seeds for new series to be developed. 

Novomanzelia, 2013. 

Novomanzelia 1, 2012-2013.

I Want to Marry You, 2013. Acrylic on canvas, 120 x 100 cm.

Nevesta Tops, 2013.

Rakusky Nevesta, 2013.

Romanovci, 2012. Acrylic on round canvas, 220 cm diameter.

4 Masturbateurs sur la plage, 2012. Acrylic on canvas, 185 x 120 cm.

Propter Nuptias II

We have modeled these paintings according to the period photographs known mainly from the bedrooms of our parents or grandparents. The stories hidden behind those images have been uncovered by our „delayed“ painterly transcriptions. History repeats itself here and this sort of “uncovering after years” is intimately familiar to all of us. Our own destinies are looming behind the white veil.
And always expressively shaped portraits, as Miroir Noir trademark. 

Elizzabetta, 2013. Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 80 cm.

Sta. Cecilia, 2013. Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 80 cm.

Mme. Gothika, 2013. Acrylic on canvas, 120 x 100 cm.

Eva (Adolf in my eyes) Brown, 2013. Acrylic on canvas, 120 x 100 cm.

URSS Cascade, 2013. Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 80 cm.

Propter Nuptias

The purpose of this project is to present works, paintings and objects that Miroir Noir created during the time period 2012/2013 and whose motifs are connected to the topic of wedding and the actual wedding ceremony. 
The emotional tension of people during what they call THE MOST BEAUTIFUL DAY OF THEIR LIFE produces unique expressions of disguised stories. In accordance with historical tradition and effects of public advertising, the subsequent destiny following the Big Day should unfold itself mainly in the colours of pink of the just married. 
As hours and days come, the reality often transforms into black and white banality. What looks like a handicap in life may become a potential meaning in arts. There lies an infinite scale of grey tones within that black and white everydayness. 
This range of meanings and colours is the principle for the palette of these works. 

Mariage 1, 2013. Acrylic on canvas, 190 x 180 cm.

Coy, 2012. Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 80 cm.

Crazy Marketa, 2012. Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 80 cm.

Sacre Coeur, 2012. Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 80 cm.

La Vie en Rores, 2012. Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 80 cm.

Batman Bride, 2012. Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 80 cm.

Lady with Bouquet, 2013. Acrylic on canvas, 120 x 100 cm.

Bunny, 2012. Acrylic on canvas, 80 x 70 cm.

Satyr, 2012. Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 80 cm.

Marilyn Black, 2012. Acrylic on canvas, 80 x 70 cm.

Bubulina, 2012. Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 80 cm.

Innocenti

Miroir Noir are looking for genuineness, a certain artistic and painterly “living in truth” and in this sense works from the series “Innocenti” have gone even further. These experimental and partly playful works are not depictions of any specific people, but use grotesquerie and exaggeration to examine and blur the limits between beauty and ugliness. These are faces of people plagued by illness of both body and mind: confrontation of artistic and authentic reality. These are faces of wretched men, in their own way incapable of social interaction and any hypocrisy whatsoever. An example of humanity standing on its last leg.
'Jirí Olic'

Original photos of 'Down' people were found by MN in an abandoned communist mental institution in the wildest eastern Slovaquia, and the intervention made was an attempt to show their inner beauty or strength...

Geisha, 2010. Acrylic and pencil on found photo, 60 x 50 cm.

Big Forehead, 2010.  Acrylic and pencil on found photo, 60 x 50 cm.

Sad Clown, 2010. Acrylic and pencil on found photo, 60 x 50 cm.

This Hat Suits You Well, 2010. Acrylic and pencil on found photo, 60 x 50 cm.

Bad Tooth, 2010. Acrylic and pencil on found photo, 60 x 50 cm.

Shall We Go Carnivale? 2010. Acrylic and pencil on found photo, 60 x 50 cm.

Cheveux Ebouriffés, 2010. Acrylic and pencil on found photo, 60 x 50 cm.

The Make-up, 2010. Acrylic and pencil on found photo, 60 x 50 cm.

Cebeza, 2010. Acrylic and pencil on found photo, 60 x 50 cm.

Mirrored, 2010. Acrylic and pencil on found photo, 60 x 50 cm.

Realita Barocca

Beauty is the core theme throughout MN work, and deservedly so. The painter of today has to come back to this topic over and over again, to keep searching for its true face, for he is also part of the today’s world inundated by tabloids and their celebratory norm of beauty. If the result was only kitsch, we would be smiling at the products of this dejected genre. Yet there is something more at stake, at least when we realize the cynical and profit-seeking manipulation of viewers through “public visuality.” It is therefore no coincidence that it is especially posters (even before they were plastered on the public walls and billboards) that has become the most convenient starting work material for Miroir Noir.
'Jirí Olic' 

Velasques, 2007. Mixed on advertisement on canvas, 180 x 98 cm.

Vij, 2008. Collage and painting75 x 50 cm.

Old General, 2007. Acrylic on advertisement, 58 x 45 cm.

Pontiff, 2007. Acrylic on advertisement, 58 x 45 cm.

Salome, 2007. Mixed on advertisement, 180 x 77 cm.

St. Vitus Dance, 2007-2012. Mixed on advertisement, 180 x 77 cm.

Zlatohlav, 2008. Acrylic and solvent on advertisement, 58 x 45 cm.

Young Bishop, 2010. Acrylic on calendar, 68 x 48 cm.

Old Bishop, 2010. Acrylic on calendar, 62 x 48 cm.

Baccus, 2008. Acrylic on paper, 95 x 200 cm. 

Maja au Noir, 2008. Acrylic on old painting, 162 x 92 cm.

Memento Mori

We cannot really assert that the era of dictators and rulers with absolute power is a thing of the past. The members of the Miroir Noir group personified this certainly crucial topic in Lenin, Stalin and Franco, that is in the dictators that were supposed to be exposed after death like idols – both to the venerating crowds and to the photographers that did what they could with their cameras. They tried to record and capture the final image of “immortality” and also to capture something naturally unobservable – the strange aura of charisma and power. We can see a portion of that aura, or rather a hellish, sinister luminescence in this paintings.
'Jirí Olic' 

20-N (est arrivé), 2011. Acrylic and oil pencil on canvas, 130 x 97 cm.

19-N (the long wait is over), 2011-2012. Acrylic and oil pencil on canvas, 130 x 97 cm.

Nature Morte, 2012. Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 115 cm.

The Spirit of Communism (I hold you), 2012. Acrylic on canvas, 80 x 100 cm.

Papa Lenin, 2012. Acrylic on canvas, 85 x 70 cm.

Franctomas, 2012. Acrylic on canvas, 50 x 90 cm.

Evita, 2012. Acrylic on canvas.

Angel of Death, 2012. Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 160 cm.

Nos Mao, 2011. Acrylic on canvas, 70 x 85 cm.

General Elvis Gadaffi, 2011. Acrylic and collage on canvas, 50 x 50 cm.

Gorillai

The name Gorilla is derived from the Greek word Gorillai meaning hairy women. 
In Slovakia has been recently used referring to the 'cause of the gorillas', in reference to a political-economic scandal, and describes the shady characters who pull the strings of corruption. 

The Time of Grillas Has Arrived, 2012. Acrylic on advertisement, 120 x 234 cm.

Petit Gorillas, 2012. Acrylic on advertisement, 120 x 80 cm.

Slovak Boss, 2008. Acrylic on advertisement, 138 x 138 cm.

Dr. Jekyll, 2011. Acrylic on canvas, 40 x 70 cm.

Mr. Hyde, 2011. Acrylic on canvas, 40 x 70 cm.

Anathema

Series of works on religious iconography and its limits, which began by applying graphic interventions to old religious picture cards of Saints purchased by weight at the Encantes flea market of Barcelona. Those works were also further developped at Cal Rosal Residency, with bigger religious images that people from the village were bringing and giving along as presents or offerings to be restored(?),to the door of the monastery, where MN was working. 

Modlitba (the prayer), 2007. Acrylic on old religious print, 35 x 30 cm.

Blue Phantom, 2007. Acrylic on old religious print, 26 x 19.5 cm.

Virgo Skulls, 2011. Acrylic on old religious print, 70 x 35 cm.

Sagrada Familia, 2011. Acrylic on oldreligious print, 55 x 40 cm.

Nun Shout, 2011. Acrylic on oldreligious print, 50 x 37 cm.

Anima Animus

Milos Koptak and Rai Escale work with images that represent faces or figures which have been transformed to deformed shapes; whereas when they worked individually, their approach to it was slightly different. Working together, they changed their techniques, but their primary input hasn’t changed – printed images extracted from advertisements have already been modified according to the aesthetic rules of the present day. This first moment in the process of working is notable – usually, a visual advertisement is unnaturally changed and exaggeratedly worked out in comparison to the basic reality in which existence is important in its own right. There is an image that exists and visually not only affects, but disturbs cultured psychical perception. The second moment, more important in this process, is based on simplifying this artificially evoked illusion and moreover, on adding to it ‘a new profile’, or new image which might be more typical, more real.
'Zsófia Kiss-Szemán' 

Kanec (Wild Boar), 2010. Acrylic on calendar, 63 x 48 cm.

Spiderman, 2010. Acrylic on calendar, 63 x 48 cm.

St. John the Baptist, 2010. Acrylic on calendar, 63 x 48 cm.

Jack Nicholson, 2010. Acrylic on calendar, 59 x 49 cm.

Natura Incognita

A series of paintings on animals, the death of beauty, and the mystery of life. 

This series began in the Multipoint residence in Nitra (Slovakia) in 2010, and continued in 2011 in the Sympat residence in Komarno (Slovakia). 

It is the most poetic series to date, attempting to create a more open and enfolding vision of space as opposed to Miroir Noir’s usual Baroque scenes, which tend to be darker and more monochromatic. 

Pri Prameni (Near the Source), 2010. Acrylic  on canvas, 100 x 80 cm.

Day.break, 2010. Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 80 cm.

Fire Dog, 2010. Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 80 cm.

Lajka, 2013. Acrylic on canvas, 80 x 75 cm.

Bob, 2013. Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 80 cm.

Vapu, 2012. Acrylic on paper.

Good Hunting, 2011. Acrylic on canvas, 80 x 120 cm.

Last Dog (in the Universe), 2012. Acrylic on canvas, 120 x 80 cm.

It rains cats and dogs, 2010. Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 80 cm.

Fawn, 2011. Acrylic on canvas, 50 x 50 cm.

Fasiangy, 2011. Acrylic on canvas, 50 x 50 cm.

Koniec dna, 2011. Acrylic on canvas, 80 x 100 cm.

Cull Stag, 2010. Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 80 cm.

Dog.Fish.Skull, 2010. Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 80 cm.

Hugo, 2011. Acrylic on canvas, 120 x 140 cm.

Solve et Coagula

The series of religious themes was further developed in the venue offered by Konvent.0, an abandoned monastery in Cal Rosal in Berga (Barcelona), spring 2011. Crucifixes found in situ were used to confirm the possibility of continuing the same deconstructive-reconstructive surrealist process on 3D objects, previously applied to paintings and graphic works. 

Evasion, 2011. Object//installation.

Splash, 2011. Object//installation.

The Long Road, 2011. Object//installation.

Bruce Lee Style, 2011. Object//installation.

Sad Sardana, 2011. Object//installation.

The Kissing, 2011. Object//installation.

Berga's Oracle, 2011. Collage on back of old miror, 15 x 10 cm.

Miracle of the Desire Hug, 2011. Collage on back of old miror, 12 x 8 cm.

I Am the Light, 2011. Collage on back of old miror, 11 x 7 cm.

Minus Minime

Series of works on religious iconography and its limits, which began by applying graphic interventions to smallest old religious picture cards of Saints purchased by weight at the Encantes flea market of Barcelona. Starting point of an intense postal relationship between Bratislava and Barcelona, it opened up new possibilities in respect to rhythm and frequency based on work stages carried out at a distance. 

Miniatura #08, 2010. Mixed on oldreligious print.

Miniatura #16, 2011. Mixedon old religious print.

Miniatura #12, 2010. Mixedon old religious print, 

Miniatura #02, 2010. mixed on old religious print.

Miniatura  #19, 2011. Mixedon old religious print.

Miniatura #21, 2011. Mixed on old religious print.

Miniatura #31, 2012. Mixed on old religious print.

Miniatura #06. Mixedon old religious print.

Miniatura #38, 2010. Mixedon old religious print.

Miroir Noir is a four-handed, pictorial collaboration between Miloš Kopták (Žilina, Slovakia, 1969) and Rai Escalé (Barcelona, Spain, 1964). This project started in August 2007 as an attempt to update -and pulvertize- the darkest of Spanish and Slovakian traditions together with their national icons: Goya, Velázques, Saura, the Golem, Kafka, Báthory, Vachal, Franco, Stalin...

These wild painting sessions are held in Bratislava or in Barcelona during intense paint-trances in which both artists paint at the same time as well as on each other's works until an exceptional and dark mix of paintings is revealedl full of rage and poetry, but also filled with twisted irony and strong sense of humour.

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Although it is hard for us to lose our individuality -we are unassailable painters with powerful egos-Miroir Noir compels and transforms us into a third entity that transcends us. The moments we do manage to recover a sense of ourselves are spent on practical matters: correcting a colour a perspective, asking the other to make a more synthetic brushstroke or discussing frameworks, mere nuances.

Website

Rai Escalé

Milos Koptak