LINZ.- In Simulacra, Nika Kupyrova explores the blurred boundaries between the real and the imaginary, the virtual and the non-virtual, the organic and the mechanical. The solo exhibition of the artist—recipient of the Kardinal König Art Prize—is on view at the Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz until 17 August 2025.

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With Simulacra, Lentos presents the artist’s first solo museum exhibition. Kupyrova weaves digital aesthetics, pop-cultural references, and mythological motifs into a dense visual language, envisioning a digital animistic cosmology—a world poised between dream, technology, and reality.

Digital Archive as Starting Point

Kupyrova draws upon a personal digital archive grown over years: .jpgs, .pngs, and screenshots serve as raw material in her reflections on reality and illusion. The internet becomes a collective repository of images, emotions, and cultural codes.

“I spend a lot of time online, which is why many of the ideas for Simulacra come from that space. A consequence of screen time is that the seemingly playful interpretations I encounter online are coupled with a pressing anxiety about the world’s condition and a deep technological unease,” explains artist Nika Kupyrova.

White Dogs and Surreal Objects

A central work in the exhibition is a series of four large-format image panels featuring white dogs—motifs that originally circulated online. The cryptic titles, such as C696879b62f37ed3d7f7d0204c0d49b8.jpg, refer to the original file names.

In collaboration with her mother, classically trained painter Irina Kupyrova, the artist transforms these digital files into multilayered, tactile artworks. On painted wooden panels, dog portraits merge with collages of shells, googly eyes, and surreal objects like a cast hand acting as a shoehorn.

These assemblages draw with irony from the visual worlds of naturalism and horror. The white dogs appear as markers of altered consciousness—reminiscent of transitions between sleep and wakefulness or reality and simulation. In this liminal space, boundaries between the organic and artificial dissolve.

Between Sleep and Simulation

The metal sculpture Alectrona, a stylized eye, symbolizes awakening from a half-slee —referencing the Greek goddess of the dawn. Nearby, a sunset wallpaper suggests another transitional state: between day and night, reality and imagination. The wallpaper condenses into an atmospheric “image cloud.” Kupyrova translates originally digital “poor images”—low-resolution visuals typical of the internet—into a pseudo- analogue screen-printed aesthetic.

The eponymous video work Simulacra brings these themes together. In a dystopian fantastic setting, the animated avatars Eidolon and Orphe—hybrid beings of myth, code, and body—meet. Sound artist Ai fen creates an eerie acoustic space, reinforcing the idea of a sentient, animistic digital realm.

Tactile Aesthetics Over AI-Generated Images

Simulacra invites visitors on an expedition into a dense network of references—from ancient myth to internet memes to posthumanist theory. The lines between what we perceive as real or fictional are increasingly fluid—a phenomenon intensified by images generated through deep-learning models.

“Kupyrova consciously avoids the use of AI-generated images, instead opting for tactile aesthetics. In a world oversaturated with visual stimuli, the artist questions the status of the original, the perception of reality, and the significance of images in a simulation-infused present,” says Lentos director Hemma Schmutz.

Exhibition Duration & Program Highlights

Simulacra is on view at the Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz until August 17. A diverse accompanying program offers opportunities to meet the artist in conversation with art historian Denise Sumi or to create paper-mâché dream creatures with the family.