Pavel Baghy is a Slovak painter based in Bratislava.

My paintings explore the unstable space between perception and reality. I am interested in the moment when recognition begins to fail — when a landscape, structure or environment appears familiar, yet remains difficult to place or fully understand.

The paintings often begin with fragments of observed reality, images and memories, which I gradually transform through the process of painting. I am less interested in faithfully depicting a particular place than in constructing an image that exists somewhere between the observed and the imagined. By withholding a definitive reading, I leave space for the viewer’s own memories, associations and assumptions to become part of the image.

This uncertainty reflects a broader interest in how we construct reality from what we see. Our perception is never entirely separate from memory, expectation and experience. Painting allows me to slow this process down and examine the gap between what is visible and what we believe we are seeing.

Alongside my painting practice, I work as a 3D artist in the visual effects industry, focusing on look development, lighting and digital environments. Working between painting and digital image-making has shaped the way I approach space, light and visual construction. While the processes are different, both practices allow me to construct and question visual reality.