Milan Houser

The work of the Czech painter Milan Houser (1971) is characterised by experimental painting methods, where he prefers non-figurative, non-illusive painting in border positions of the iconobject with a distinct colour autonomy. He reduces his artistic research to the basic material components of painting. His relationship to painting is specifically "non-painterly": he has long used industrial materials, which he has had custom-made and tested new technological processes, pouring layers of resins or varnishes almost endlessly, benefiting from their mutual dialogue and the reactions of pigments, varnishes, metals, magnets and other components of painting. The central platform of his work is not only a fascination with selected chemical and physical processes and materials, but also an overall conceptual perception of the origin and formation of the materials used. He often works in complete series of works that have also been previewed at DSC Gallery in the past, such as In Pearl, Lithographs, Roofs, Kaluze, Vanitas. In the current exhibition at the DSC Gallery in Prague, he presents a brand new collection of works under the title Melancholy. It is again a clash of visual "civilizations" - layered nitrocellulose lacquers and chemical coating. When the bodies of the paintings are annealed with flame and then cooled, the paintings crack and a silver mirror film appears on their surface, much like the magic of traditional photographic processes. The heat of the fire, chemical reactions, cooling, cracks and other factors that come into play in the creation - transformation of this actually ever-changing living rganism image create the actual state in which we see ourselves. These are primarily a series of monochrome canvases ranging from bloody cadmium tones to brooding silvery black shades - 210 x 140 cm, 2024, which create a melancholic, post-humanist feeling, or an intense dystopian atmosphere in which the reflective, shrunken bodies of the paintings are revealed. The artist "tortures" the paintings with fire and time, the cracked surfaces of the paintings gradually solidify and melt into the entropy of matter. The soft cast tissues, whose passage through time, embody an urgent statement of the painter's essence, reflecting the impression of our darkened, oppressive present. The formats of the mirror paintings correspond to the size of the human figure, thus naturally mirroring the perceiver and the space itself in a golden section. Houser thus continues to develop his distinctive story of "non-contact" painting - without the input of handwriting or brush. As the painter himself aptly says: "The painting creates itself - by controlled chance, by chemical reaction, with my physical assistance, it has a will of its own...". Milan Houser thus continues to bring innovative painting approaches to the traditional medium of visual culture.