Statement
“I come from here.  Here, meaning the grass and stones beneath a person’s feet, the ground upon which they are raised. Because that will never change, regardless of who happens to be ruling at any particular moment. Here pins each person to something solid against which they can always reference themselves, no matter how weird or confusing things get, the way a drunk puts his toes on the floor beside the bed to try to stop the swirls.”

Inara Verzemnieks: Among the Living and the Dead: A Tale of Exile and Homecoming on the War Roads of Europe

The historian Eagle Glassheim describes the region where I grew up as an area with “crossroads, a liminal space filled with ends, beginnings, and crossings.” Once called the Sudetenland when inhabited by German-speaking population, later the Borderlands although the borders remained shut, the narrow stretch of land along the Czech-German frontier has changed names, forms, and identities throughout history. Left depopulated after the 1945 expulsion of people with German roots; the traditionally agricultural area was left open to the communist vision of modernization through heavy industry. Newcomers from other parts of the country and the Eastern Bloc were encouraged, or forced, to move in. Among them was my maternal grandfather who settled his family in a house left empty by the fleeing Germans – the house where I grew up. Several decades after the destruction of Czech-German settlements and records, more towns and villages were demolished to make way for lignite coal mining. Today, the land still carries the scars of environmental exploitation, depopulation, displacement, and erasure of memory.

Driven by a need to re-familiarize myself with the landscape of my childhood after years of absence, I explore locations connected to familial past and discover that many of them have transformed beyond recognition. Guided by contemporary and historical maps, personal narratives, and above all, by the landscape and architecture itself, I search for clues that reveal what is no longer there. In an overgrown forest, I seek wrinkled and twisted fruit trees that point to a long-lost human presence. I scan the landscape for vast meadows that cover past fields or trace the bed of a stream that used to meander through the town where my father grew up. In towns and cities, I examine the walls of old buildings that carry layers of forgotten history.

Intended to be a book that combines text and images, A House with No Walls explores the Czech Borderlands as a real and an imaginary place, a repository of memories, a place that speaks of its changing identities and histories otherwise lost.

Bio
Anna Mikušková grew up in the Czech Republic and is currently based in Maine and upstate New York. Before turning to visual arts, she received an MFA in English literature from Masaryk University in Brno. Mikušková studied photography at Maine College of Arts and Maine Media Workshops. For six years, she apprenticed silver gelatin printing with Paul Caponigro – a cooperation that culminated with several group and two-person exhibitions. Currently, she is an MFA candidate in the Photography and Related Media program at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Her work is held in private collections in the United States and the Czech Republic and has been exhibited in galleries across Maine and New York. In 2020, she was awarded the  RIT William A. Reedy Memorial Scholarship and the Pfahl/Richard Stanley Scholarship. Her essays were published in Maine Arts Journal and in the British journal On Landscape.

CV

Education      

Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY
Photography and Related Media, 2021 MFA candidate

Independent study with master printer Paul Caponigro, Cushing, ME, 2013 – 2019

Maine Media Workshops & College, Rockport, ME
Professional Certificate Class with Elizabeth Greenberg, 2014- 2015
Workshops with Lydia Goetze and Neil Parent, 2010-2013

Maine College of Art, Portland, ME
Traditional Black and White Photography, 2013

Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Rep.
MA, English Language and Literature, 1999 – 2005

Experience

RIT Wallace Library, Rochester, NY
Library assistant, 2020-present
Promoting library resources, services, workshops and events focusing on the School of Photography Arts and Sciences

RIT William Harris Gallery, August 2019-January 2020
Gallery Assistant
Installation and deinstallation, gallery preparation, reception and tear down

Immigrant Resource Center of Maine, Lewiston, ME, 2018 – 2019
Coordinator
Program was an anti-bias program aimed at increasing trust and understanding between long time Americans and immigrants

Steve Wessler, Human Rights, Education and Advocacy, MDI, ME
Assistant
Responsible for research, editing and proofreading, 2012-2019

The Little Dog Coffee Shop, Brunswick, ME
Food Program Director, Baker, Barista 2010 – 2019

Douglas Payne J Attorney at Law, Brunswick, ME
Office assistant 2011

111 Maine, Café & Catering, Brunswick, ME
Breakfast Chef, Server, Caterer, 2006 – 2010

Language School “Slune”, Brno,  Czech Republic
Teaching ESL 2005

Volunteering Positions

Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, Portland, ME
Assisting clients with completing immigration forms.  2014-2015

Harbor Works Gallery, Harpswell, ME
Greeting and guiding visitors, exhibition installation and tear down, 2011

UBECI, Quito Ecuador
Helping an NGO run childcare center provide care, 2010
attention and basic education to street children

Languages
Czech, English, Spanish

Selected Exhibitions

The Light We Share: Paul Caponigro, Ni Rong, Eleanor Owen   Kerr, Dirk McDonnel and Anna Mikušková, Cove Street Arts,  Portland, Maine, November 2019 – February 2020

RIT Art Out, Bevier Gallery, juried by Margot Muto Rochester Institute of Technology, Henrietta, NY, November 2019

Collective Work II: Paul Caponigro, Ni Rong, Eleanor Owen Kerr, Dirk McDonnel and Anna Mikušková, Gallery at 162 Russell Avenue, Rockport, Maine, July 2019

Kennebunk River Club 63st. Annual Art show,  Kennebunk, Maine, August 2018

Reflections on Silver:  Paul Caponigro and Anna Mikuskova, Frank Brockman Gallery, Brunswick, Maine, April 2018,

Migration Experience: April 2018, UMVA Gallery, Portland, Maine

Arrival: Work by and about New Mainers: September-November 2017, Waterfall Arts, Belfast, Maine

Kennebunk River Club 62st. Annual Art show,  Kennebunk, Maine, August 2017, Honorary mention

 Kennebunk River Club 61st. Annual Art show, Kennebunk, Maine, August 2016, Honorary mention

 3artists, 3visions at 3fish: Heath Paley, Kim Stone, Anna Mikuskova,  curated by Susan Porter, 3Fish Gallery, Portland Maine, 2016

A House With No Walls: Kerry Michaels, Anna Mikuskova, and Mary Woodman, Elizabeth Moss Galleries, Falmouth, Maine, 2016

Open Regional Photography Show: juried by Bruce Brown, Barn Gallery, Ogunquit, Maine, 2015

Connections: Solo Exhibition, Curtis Memorial Library, Brunswick, Maine, 2015

Structures: Group Exhibition with Maine Traditional Film Photographers, Ballard Center, Augusta, Maine, 2015

Art 2015:  juried by Britta Konau, April 2015, Harlow Gallery, Hallowell, Maine

Black & Whites and Tones of Gray: juried by Tina Ingraham, February, 2015, River Arts Gallery, Damariscotta, Maine

Selected Scholarships, Awards and Publications

RIT William A Reedy Memorial Scholarship,  2020
RIT  Pfahl/Richard Stanley Scholarship, 2020

Kany, Daniel. “Former CMCA space fills need for photo shows,” Maine Sunday Telegram, August 4, 2019.

Kany, Daniel. “In Brunswick, two gifted practitioners of the art of gelatin silver printing,” Maine Sunday Telegram, April 15, 2018. 

Anna Mikuskova; “Origin Stories,” April 2018, Maine Arts Journal: The UMVA Quarterly, 

“New Mainers Speak,” March 2018, WMPG 90.9 and 104.1 FM,

Anna Mikuskova: “The Northern Exposure,” November 2017, On Landscape

“Kennebunk River Club 62st. Annual Art show,” Kennebunk, Maine, August 2017, Honorary Mention

 “Kennebunk River Club 61st. Annual Art show,” Kennebunk, Maine, August 2016, Honorary Mention

“Art 2015” juried by Britta Konau, April 2015, Harlow Gallery, Hallowell, Maine, Best Traditional Photograph