Jiří Petrbok

Jiří Petrbok's paintings blend the real world with the imaginary. They simultaneously combine the psychological and physical experience of the whole society with the individual. The neutral architectural space in which the action of the painting takes place is easy to read, but the dominant characters are completely fictional and absurd. We observe surreal encounters between characters and objects as well as the artist's favourite vegetables. The vegetables in his works come from the fact that he has been a vegetarian for many years and is fascinated by all the different forms of vegetables. The resulting form of Jiří Petrbok's figures is modelled by imagery; the body is transformed, it is pulled up, it is etched, it drains, it disappears, it is subjected to suffering, deformation and various forms of discomfort. And although the human being, especially its body, is the focus of most of Petrbok's works, we often get the feeling of being deliberately excluded from the picture. The somewhat claustrophobic dimension of his works is downplayed by situational humour based on the physical clumsiness or awkwardness of the actors.