To anyone who isn’t an art historian, a bodegón might evoke the image of a street figure—phonetically, for example, a vagrant. But that’s no bad thing, because the attention that Alice Nikitinová devotes to these objects seems to bring them to life.

Children’s toys, wedding dresses, and ventilation systems all tell stories, just as does the curtain in the window of a bankrupt store. Telling their stories doesn’t require much—all it takes is a bit of courage, finding the right form for them, and transforming them into works of art.

Alice Nikitinová does just that, acting not only as a painter but also as a curator. She preserves the uniqueness of objects that would otherwise gradually fade into oblivion before people stop taking them for granted—or before they are thrown away. To turn one’s back on them would mean allowing oneself to be fully engulfed by the Baroque—not that of the past, but of the present.