The Vampiress / Upírka, 2019

Family / Rodina, 2019

Portrait with Maya / Portrét s Májou, 2020

Portrait of Adam Štech / Portrét Adama Štecha

Bride / Nevěsta, 2019

Havel, 2020

The Huntress / Lovkyně, 2019

Adam Štech‘s paintings are inspired by real and found stories, as well as the confrontation of individual artistic expression. He refers to different historical periods, from Baroque to Cubism. His work is represented in many private and public collections in the Czech Republic and abroad. He recently had an exhibition ‘Deviant Dichotomy’ in Ascaso Gallery in Miami, USA.

Adam Štech invites the viewer to step into an alternate reality where recognizable figures are dragged, stretched, and reassembled into contorted portrayals of their former selves. The Czech painter commenced his formal studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague where he began to compile the techniques of baroque, expressionist, and cubist forms, fusing them to conceive his own approach to modernist art. His distinct approach is characterized by collaged and caricatured figures implanted into humorous - and inevitably idiosyncratic - circumstances of his alternate reality. No one is precluded from becoming the subject of Štech’s warped creations; the Czech painter is known for extracting individuals from his personal life to feature as the muse of his peculiar paintings and mosaics. His propensity for absurdity and parody allows him to dismember and reconstruct any reality, including his own. His witty personality is exemplified by his self-portraits, in which he implants himself completing a painting in peculiar scenarios. Though the artist’s unorthodox paintings may appear arbitrary and unmethodical, each of his creations commemorates the technicalities and intricacies of modernist expression that is neglected in favor of other expressions. 


Nude..jpg

David Bowie 

Debbie Harry

Liv Tyler

Glaciers Patagonia

Antonín Kratochvíl (*1947) lives a life of peril and adventure, similar to the epic hero Odysseus'. After fleeing Soviet Czechoslovakia in 1967, he spent time in a refugee camp in Austria, was imprisoned in Sweden, and sustained significant injuries while serving in the French Foreign Legion before settling in the Netherlands and studying photography at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. When he married an American woman in 1972 and relocated to the United States, he began working as a photographer for prominent magazines such as Vogue, Rolling Stone, New York Times Magazine, Los Angeles Times Magazine, and Detour. During this cooperation, he created legendary photographs of David Bowie, Keith Richards, William Defoe, and Liv Tyler.

Despite moving overseas in quest of freedom, he frequently returned to totalitarian countries as a documentary photographer. He documented the genocide in Rwanda, the life of Bosnian refugees, the AIDS pandemic in Zimbabwe, and drug cartel operations in Guatemala. He was imprisoned in Ethiopia, illegally entered into Iraq in a rented van, and in Afghanistan, an illiterate soldier threatened to shoot him because he couldn't read his American passport. Kratochvíl's renowned documentary images earned him a spot on American Photo magazine's list of the world's top 100 photographers in 1999. Kratochvíl has received three World Press Photo prizes and presented his work in the National Gallery and leading galleries worldwide.


FACES

AK Bowiexxx153_rv1sh.tif

Lightning, 2025

Shedding, 2024

Cave, 2024

Beáta Hechtová presents her own vision of a post-apocalyptic world. The creatures that have survived are building a new society, forming tribes, connecting with nature, and trying to understand their surroundings. The author focuses on the search for a new home and rediscovering oneself. She draws inspiration from various cultures and their rituals, myths, and legends, which she combines into unique rituals of a possible future. She emphasizes the principles of cooperation and collective experience. She refers to the chosen motifs as "futuristic folklore."
In her figurative painting, she depicts hints of characters existing on the border between human, animal, and spirit. Although we cannot see their faces, we observe them in various activities or interactions with each other. They wear futuristic costumes or remain transparent. We do not perceive them as individuals, but rather as symbols representing society, observing their hybrid bodies, accentuated by claws, thorns, or other physical deformities. They strive to adapt to their new environment and redefine their identity.

Screenshot 2025-11-06 at 9.24.24.png

J. Robert Oppenheimer, 2016

Skull, 2013

Sex, 2013

Švankmajer, 2013

Some consider David Černý sculptures to be the manifestations of brilliance; others regard his works as the mere “happenings” of an egocentric provocateur. Regardless of one’s appraisal of his works, it is undeniable that the Czech artist has made a palpable impression on the contemporary art industry and the global socio-political climate. In 1988, Černý began his studies at the Academy of Applied Arts in Prague with intermittent residencies in New York City, United States and Boswil, Switzerland. Černý’s inconspicuous practices abruptly ceased after the rising artist painted a Soviet battle tank bright pink in Náměstí Kinsky in central Prague. The inception of the pink tank and the bifurcated response from both the art and political community alluded to the future of David Černý’s unflinching sculptures that continue to cleave the international community today. Though Černý is most credited for his immense public installations, he continues his work in galleries across Czechia and Europe. Within enclosed spaces of a gallery, spectators can appreciate the craftsmanship of his polymer resin sculptures. Whether Černý’s creations are exhibited within the structured walls of a gallery or the boundless spaces of public squares, the force of defiance surges through the veins of David Černý’s compositions.

cerny-david.jpg

They Met in front of the Shop Window / Potkali se před výlohou, 2022

A Flower in a Purple Vase (Blue Background) / Květina ve fialové váze (Modré pozadí), 2022

Stone I (Leg) / Kámen I (Noha), 2023

Stone V (Arm) / Kámen V (Ruka), 2023

They Met in front of a Shop Window and He Was Staring as if He Couldn’t Stop /  Potkali se před výlohou a čuměl, jakoby neuměl skrývat své pohledy, 2023

They Met in front of a Shop Window and the Ear Grew Bigger / Potkali se před výlohou a ucho se zvětšilo, 2023

They Met in front of a Shop Window and He Was Staring as if He Was about to Press a Button / Potkali se před výlohou a čuměl, jako by měl zmáčknout tlačítko, 2023

They Met in front of a Shop Window (The Blond Guy) / Potkali se před výlohou (Blondýn), 2023

 Stone IV / Kámen IV, 2023

In the Bush / V keři, 2023

 Stone III / Kámen III, 2023

Water Sprite II (Once You Enter the Element, You Have to Learn to Swim in It) / Vodník II (Do elementu vstoupíš a už se v něm musíš naučit plavat), 2023

Unicorn / Jednorožec, 2021–23

In the Bush II. (Home Alone) / V Keři II. (Home Alone), 2023

Jakub Matuška aka Masker has gained a special position on the Czech art scene with his unmistakable illustrative handwriting, his demonic imagination and his affinity for comic book shortcuts.

'How should one be?' is the existential question that radiates within the nucleus of Jakub Matuška’s seemingly psychedelic paintings. The Czech-born artist's studies began at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. Similarly to many of his predecessors, Matuška studied the traditional teachings of the Old Masters as a foundation for his artistic career. Throughout the course of his studies, Matuška drew inspiration from the abstract visions of Spanish painter Joan Miró, the early-Surrealist works of Spanish painter Pablo Picasso, and the fantastical triptychs of Dutch painter Hiermonyous Bosch. Building off their artistry, Matuška has etched his own artistic personality. In a vortex of neon pigments and amorphous figures, the classical teachings of the Old Masters and the euphoric images of contemporary media have coalesced in Matuška’s work. The scrutinization of the psychospiritual plane alongside the convergence of reality and imagination are palpable across Matuška’s oeuvre. His pieces recurrently feature the dissociative profiles of nebulous figures drifting through the scenes of a melting reality. Though Matuška crafts an otherworldly experience for the viewer, his exploration of urban life and the perplexing uncertainties of existence remain grounded in our contemporary world.

_R5A3335 web.jpg

Three sitting girls, 2017-19

Bouquet, 2018

Interiér kostela, 2017

Svatý Jan Pod Skalou, 2017

Peacock Butterfly, 2017

Meadow Bouquet, 2021

Zátiší s křeslem, vázou a vlčím mákem, 2023

Kytice ve světle, 2023

Bez názvu, 2023

Zlatý lustr, 2023

Mírně žlutý bělásek, 2023

A typical feature of Jakub Špaňhel's work are cycles that are mostly devoted to a single theme based on the artist's perception of everyday life. He describes his painting style as "expressive impressionism" and likes to say that he always paints things that exist in reality. He manages to captivate both with his inherently expressive painting gesture, as well as by painting with specially made rollers, where he works with a very reduced, repetitive nature of his subjects. Thus, on one hand, we encounter motifs of temple interiors, chandeliers, landscapes, central bank buildings, gas stations, portraits, flowers and butterflies. On the other hand, there are patterns of beer pulliters, crosses, boats, ballerinas, Chimera and John of Nepomuk.

From My Country

_R5A6649.tif

V klíně / In The Lap, 2022

Arousal, 2022

Jan Heres' work, and especially his perception of colour, was greatly influenced by his experiences abroad, which include an internship at the Indonesian Institute of Art in Yogyakarta and a year's stay in Valencia. The study internship in Indonesia was formative for Heres. From this experience, one can perceive an undercurrent of color developed and used that is atypical for a Central European artist and viewer. The central theme of his paintings is interaction, both between humans and their surroundings and between humans and each other. In his paintings, he visualizes themes from his own life experiences, inspired by human stories and their resulting sensuality, particularly within emotional relationships. He observes the inner state of man and his confrontation with his surroundings, often resulting in paradoxical situations on his canvases, which have their counterpart in hallucinogenic colours. Jan Heres is a painter of wild presence, in his canvases we find the unbridled and colourful urban jungle, which is connected to individuals and their emotional worlds.

Tight Grip, akryl na pláně, 220 x 200 cm, 2022.jpg

Plamen, 2023

Lulka, 2023

Fenek, 2024

Skála, 2024

Hísek’s artistry began at the Academy of Arts, Architecture, and Design in Prague, where he specialized in typography and book illustration. Since completing his formal studies, Hísek has taken a multifaceted approach to artistic expression, exploring various rivulets that evoke inspiration. Today, the Czech artist is not only accredited for his poignant paintings, but is further applauded for his strides in printmaking and illustration. Hísek’s dexterity in fusing the individual components of painting, printmaking, and illustration is clearly exemplified by the meticulous nature of each painting that imparts a unique narrative for the viewer. Melting a palette of similar hues and shadows, each painting elicits an intense wave of emotions as spectators gaze into the ominous figures of a seemingly other-worldly realm. Though his creations may appear to depict figures of a different world, the emotions and inspirations of Hísek’s oeuvre are rooted within our natural experiences, allowing viewers to extract intimate emotions from each of his paintings.

The Amazement of the Wind

Lev v jeskyni

Snímek obrazovky 2024-03-07 v 14.18.37.png

Vejcežrout, 2000 - 2025

Jan Švankmajer (born 1934, Prague) is internationally renowned for his distinctive film work—directing puppet, animated, and live-action films that belong to the Czech avant-garde. Together with his wife, the painter Eva Švankmajerová, he became a member of the Surrealist Group of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic in 1970. Shortly thereafter, Švankmajer began creating striking collages and assemblages distinguished by their form, plasticity, and haptic qualities.
Throughout their lives, he and his wife worked side by side; after her death, he continues to engage in an ongoing dialogue with her. In Švankmajer’s artistic language—which visibly flowed into both his visual art and his expressive, hyperbolized film work—one can observe the influence of Max Ernst and René Magritte, as well as Hieronymus Bosch and Giuseppe Arcimboldo. What is unmistakable in his work, however, is a fascination with the haptic, with tactile art and an unconventional fusion of materials, which included, among other things, animal bones and fur. Švankmajer points to surrealism as a timeless movement that encourages endless imagination.

TEMPLE

_R5A8615 web.jpg

Untitled

Dokoupil‘s work is aligned with the Dadaism movement, so the artist refuses to accept a uniform, enforced style for his work. As a result, his work is full of various experimental techniques: he creates paintings using colored soap bubbles, candle soot, or single patches of film. The common characteristics of his work are expressionism and an erotic charge. His oeuvre contains over sixty series and more than one hundred unique techniques and styles, including his famous soap bubble, candle and tire paintings. As a founding member of Mülheimer Freiheit and the Junge Wilde art movement - and friend to notable figures including Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat - Dokoupil is yet another Czech artist who has made an impression on the global art world.

Leona's Choice

dokoupil-george-jiri.jpg

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.

Airmaxxx 62

petrbok-jiri.jpg

Scream

For Jiří Černický, art is not purely a conduit of expression, but further functions as an indispensable instrument of provocation and revolution. In 1986, Černický had no intention of pursuing a career as a renowned visual artist. Instead, he enrolled in a local teaching-training college program in Ústí nad Labem, Czechia where he nurtured his studies in the arts and Russian language. The rising proclamations and aspirations of the commencing 1989 Velvet Revolution captivated Černický’s attention. Galvanized by the avante-garde of the Russian revolution, Černický continued to explore art as an instrument of change. His canvases were any resource closest to him. Old tarpaulin and train carts carrying coal were slathered with one provocative demand: ‘Free Elections’. Following the end of the revolution and a period heading a mine brigade, Černický’s affinity for artistic expression was resurrected by his acceptance into the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in 1990, consecutively followed by his enrollment at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague in 1993. His dedication to art as a socio-political conduit continues to reverberate in his contemporary, inter-media oeuvre. Dancing between visual poetry, photography, video art, sculpture, painting, and other modes of mixed-media, Černický crafts immersive exhibitions that challenge viewers to confront the rotting underbelly of our socio-political climate.

cernicky-jiri.jpg

Untitled, 2015

Josef Bolf was born in 1971 in Prague. He has been active on the art scene since the late 1990s, when his approach to figurative drawing began to mature. His inspiration from reading comics and science fiction literature was evident early on. The typical protagonists of his paintings are children or adolescents. Sometimes half-animal, these figures are lonely and often suffering in a disrupted urban environment. He often draws on his experiences from a childhood spent on the Jižní město housing estate in Prague, which he projects into surreal-fantasy scenes or apocalyptic, destroyed landscapes with a gloomy atmosphere. His typical process involves scratching a motif in ink over a wax base. Bolf exhibited his first paintings where he used this technique at the Soft and Pink exhibition in 2006. For the first time, he also set his figures in a housing estate as the setting for unspecified disasters. Teenagers, wounded in every way, walked frantically among the burning houses, clutched the decapitated heads of people and animals in their arms, bled, hid fearfully under tables, or just watched patiently over the ubiquitous work of destruction.

Something Surreal: The Far Away Worlds of Yesterday and Tomorrow

Snímek obrazovky 2023-09-07 v 13.09.48.png

A brief walk through Krištof Kintera’s studio would bring spectators to a room akin to an industrial-sized electronic recycling center. The floor is concealed by mounds of doddering cardboard boxes, unceremoniously stacked and layered to accommodate for more space. Electronic hardware and dilapidated appliances threaten to overflow from their crude accommodations onto the studio floor. It is from this space that visual artist Krištof Kintera extracts the mediums for his innovative sculptures and assembles the images of his artistic vision. Fiber-optic cables are revived as a web of cervical vertebrae nerves. The cable of a colonoscope evolves into a winding serpent. The technological waste of the Czech metropolis is resuscitated into a new creation within the confines of Kintera’s studio, a space that he lightheartedly refers to as his laboratory. One of Kintera’s intentions is to diminish the necessity to explain the inspiration and denotation of his creations; each installation should justify its own existence. The visual art conceived from the confines of Kintera’s laboratory reflect the details of the anthropocene, or the current geological epoch in which mankind has had a significant impression on our ecosystems and environment. His installations seamlessly exemplify the kinship between biotic complexes and abiotic systems, intertwining each network to form a singular, neurological unit. The banal, discarded objects of our everyday existences are revitalized in each of Kintera’s installations, bringing new meaning to our shared synthetic and natural realities. 

kintera-kristof.jpg

Závrať, 2022

Zatím bez názvu I, 2023

Smutný kluk, 2022

Modré koncilium, 2022

Velké zrcadlení, 2022

Červený pláč, 2022

Mašinista, 2021

Čas se ohnul v pase

Manic energy radiates from the “abstract-technical” oil paintings of Czech artist Lubomír Typlt. The instantaneous convergence of pronounced, radiant pigments alongside exaggeratedly disconcerted faces of homogenous adolescents creates a canopy of urgency for the viewer. Typlt’s discovery of his artistic identity and dynamic methodology began with his acceptance into the University of Applied Arts in Prague where he submerged himself in drawing and illustrative techniques until 1997. The polarity of Typlt’s works continues through his thematic approach, where he explores the dichotomy between male and female figures in sequestered environments. A result of this isolation is the constraint on spectators to approach the piece without transplanting residual prejudices from the external world. Instead, viewers must confront the contrast of the painting, deciphering the vivacity and tension of the piece in isolation. Typlt is fascinated with doubling, doppelgängers, and cloning; however, he never duplicates figures mechanically, instead opting to hand paint each one, allowing the figures to retain their subtle individuality.

Vidím, co ty nevidíš, 2023, olej na plátně, 260x200 cm.jpg

Lubomír Typlt, Nezralé třešně, 2023

Adam Štech, Nude, 2024

Lubomír Typlt, Mnoho povyku pro nic, 2024 

Adam Štech, Hlava, 2024

Lubomír Typlt, Vidím, co ty nevidíš, 2023

Adam Štech, Mateřství I., 2024

Lubomír Typlt, Rozverná, 2023

Adam Štech, W. Dafoe as Jesus, 2024

Lubomír Typlt, Procitnutí, 2024

Adam Štech, Picasso, 2024

Adam Štech (1980) invites the viewer into an alternate reality where recognizable characters are stretched, reextended and reassembled into deformed images of their former selves. The Czech painter began his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague where he began to explore the techniques of Baroque,Expressionist and Cubist styles and combined them to create his own approach to modernist art. His distinctive approach is characterised by collaged and caricatured figures set in the humorous - and inevitably peculiar - circumstances of his alternative reality. In the last decade or more, Lubomír Typlt (1975) has become a quintessential figurationist who has abandoned the initial ambiguity of his painterly expression, originally dealing with machines and mechanical meta-constructions alongside his depiction of human figures. He was thus able to develop his own conception of the human being more consistently and emphatically, which he divided into gender-opposite positions, into paintings with women and paintings with men, among which no work has yet been produced in which both sexes appear together.

Sow Leashes & Reap Dogs

Snímek obrazovky 2024-05-07 v 13.53.46.png

Horizon of Autumn, 2025

Silent Horizon, 2025

Desert Horizon, 2025

2581 Pacific Ring of Fire: Liquifying Time Zones, 2017

Magdalena Jetelová (1946, Semily) One of the most significant contemporary Czech artists, renowned for her monumental installations, her work with light, landscape, and new media. After studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (graduated in 1971), she rose to prominence on the European scene when her installations were presented at the Tate Gallery, London (1983), followed by the Serpentine Gallery (1985) and MoMA, New York (1987). Since the 1990s, she has been experimenting with lasers and light interventions in the landscape (e.g. the Atlantic Wall series), which, alongside her pyrotechnic and smoke paintings, are a part of her most iconic works. Her works are represented in many major European and American collections, including the Musée National d’Art Moderne Centre Pompidou, Paris, Prague City Gallery, and the National Gallery Prague.

Snímek obrazovky 2025-12-12 v 16.19.01.png

Orange Still Life, 2023

Face (Abstract Bodies), 2023

Blooming, 2023

Torso (Abstract Bodies), 2023

Tall Vase, 2023

Flash I, 2021–⁠2023

Lady and Matador, 2023

Bursts of color erupting across canvases embody the bold and energetic creations of Czech painter Martin Krajc. From 2003 to 2009, Krajc studied at the Academy of Fine Arts before embarking on his residency at the La Facultad de Bellas Artes Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain, from 2007 to 2008. Krajc was not only immersed in the techniques of the Spanish Old Masters, but was additionally exposed to the experiences and figures that encompass Spanish culture. A result of this exposure was a notable transition from firm depictions of traditional, figurative art to the unbound, elastic imagery of abstract painting. El Sanfermin, more commonly referred to as the running of the bulls, had a noteworthy impression on Krajc. From this world-renowned tradition, Krajc has conceived an electric world of los matadores and defiant bulls dancing in an eruption of blazing pigments and passionate swaths of color. As the artist has continued to titrate inspiration from his surroundings into his works - including photography, magazines, and street art - his oeuvre continued to blossom. His abstract paintings have expanded to feature contemporary interiors, exotic fauna, and striking figures in pools of voltaic hues. Krajc’s passion for street art and graphic design is further exemplified by his contribution to several collaborative art groups including the painting collective Obr and the graphic design group known as Firma. Whether Krajc showcases his oeuvre in a solo exhibition or a collaborative project, his committed illustration of the vivacity and beauty of life is applauded throughout the Czech Republic and the expanse of the international community. 

Nymphae Perspicuae

Snímek obrazovky 2024-08-21 v 17.08.26.png

The Dying Slave II., 2023

Hannibal, 2023

The Boy II., 2023

Mercury, 2022

Theresa, 2022

Resting Hercules, 2022

Matouš Háša was born in 1992. He is a graduate of Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, and has also attended schools in Florence (Libera Accademia di Belle Arti Firenze) and London (Middlesex University London). In response to current cultural and social events, he uses the media of figurative sculptures, which he places in iconographic contexts reminiscent of symbolic or archetypal depictions. His work, stripped of context and interpretation, is a formal continuation of the tradition of Western sculpture inspired by a combination of classical sculpture and contemporary figurative artists. In his work, he consciously draws on the "roots" of Western culture, which he transfers into the form of a psychoanalytic portrait of a postmodern man. It deals with the question of identity, which the present has deprived of secrecy and privacy.

This young sculptor bases his expression on the contrast between the traditional and the contemporary. He observes a certain dualism caused by his instinctive inclination towards the classical form, in which his preference towards realism contrasts against a rational need to express himself consciously. He works according to the classical tradition. His themes, with which he usually reacts to local and global social and political phenomena, are based on the "changed behavior" of old, well-known and proven figures of the antique, renaissance, mannerist traditions. He grants them new gestures and puts new attributes in their hands. This decontextualization is behind the convincing contradiction with which he grasps the unclear present in its experiential and media movement. 

Anticon

image2.jpeg

Bez názvu

Milan Houser is an experimental painter and alumnus of the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, Studio of Monumental Art, where he completed his studies under the teachings of Czech sculptor, Aleš Veselý. The preponderance of these works revolves around his experimental use of varnish, pigments and gravity as a medium. Varnish - a solid, glossy surface created by an amalgamation of resin, solvents, and oils - has become such a crucial medium of Houser’s unmistakable artwork that the Czech artist has formulated his own varnish using a unique compound with properties resembling sculptural material and paint. Utilizing a layered technique, Houser pours varnish onto canvas, ensuring the preceding layer reaches a certain solidity before applying the next layer on the surface. He invites the molten varnish to expand across the canvas, languidly trickling down the peripheral of the circular canvas. The interplay between the internal chemical reactions and the external draw of gravity introduce a welcomed variable of unpredictability and spontaneity within the conception of a single composition. By scrutinizing a sliver of his paintings, viewers can dissect the intricacies of Houser’s methodology, becoming mesmerized by the undulations, cavities, and vesicles burgeoning from its core.

Melancholie

Houser_repro-1149up.jpg

Milan Knižák is a Czech artist, musician and performer, member of the international Fluxus movement. He was the rector of the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague and from 1999 to 2011 he was the director of the National Gallery in Prague. For over 20 years, he headed the Studio of Intermedia at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design. He has raised a number of important artists (e.g. Krištof Kintera, Milena Dopitová, Milan Mikuláštík, Jakub Špaňhel and others). He is exceptionally versatile - his activities include events, visual arts, architecture, design, fashion, poetry, photography and music.

He first exhibited in 1958 in Mariánské Lázně. In the early 1960s, he began to make his first activities - happenings, such as Ceremony in 1968 and Stone Ceremony in 1971, and continued to create objects. In 1965, Jindřich Chalupecký brought Knížák's activities to the attention of members of the Fluxus movement and mediated contact with its founding member George Maciunas, who appointed Milan Knížák to the position of Director Fluxus East. George Maciunas invited Knížák to the United States. There he realized his Lying Ceremony or The Difficult Ceremony. He returned to Czechoslovakia in 1970. He earned his living doing various jobs, selling his own paintings and restoring puppets. He lectured at the Hochschule für Bildende Kunst in Hamburg and UCLA in Los Angeles. As a professor he has worked at the International Sommerakademie in Salzburg, the Sommeracademie in Berlin, the Summerakademie Gomera in the Canary Islands and the Ecal école cantonale d'art de Lausanne in Switzerland.


Keep Together

IMG_1486.jpg

Giant steps, 2022

Norbert Stefan studied fine art in Cluj-Napoca, a city in the northwestern region of Romania. This strong connection to his Romanian heritage facilitated Stefan‘s correspondence with other Romanian artists, leading to Stefan assisting Adrian Ghenie in his Berlin-based studio. This granted him the opportunity to continue his studies much like a Renaissance apprentice. Recognition from the British curator Jane Neal facilitated Stefan's departure from Ghenie‘s studio in pursuit of his own artistic endeavors. Inspired by the ferocity and youthful decadence of contemporary Berlin, Stefan embraces pure abstraction, free association of layered colors, and decalcomania. Decalcomania, a printing technique that transfers engravings and prints to pottery and canvas, is a distinctive feature of Stefan's seemingly psychedelic works. In his atmospheric paintings Norbert Stefan uses blurry details and abstract fragments. The layers of paint evoke the strata of stone, soil, and sand unearthed by archeologists to unravel the shape of history. He draws from psychoanalysis and constructs a whole cosmos through his color prints.

DSC_0196.jpg

Cifra, 2022

Čas minulosti, 2022

Čas na čas, 2022

Čas nadobro, 2022

Čas podle Ernsta, 2022

Čas večera, 2022

Čas života, 2022

Kyvadlo

Pavla Malinová was born in 1985 in Vsetín and now lives and works in Prague. She graduated from the Faculty of Arts of the University of Ostrava, where she studied in the painting studio of František Kowolowski. After her studies, she decided to devote herself mostly to painting, her work featuring robust figures playing ambiguous games. Although she is in one of the youngest generations of Czech artists, we have been able to see her work in a number of domestic and international institutions. At the same time, her works are part of many private collections. Since last year, her works have also started to appear at international art fairs. She gained greater notoriety in 2019 as a finalist for the Jindřich Chalupecký Prize, when she was awarded for paintings presenting "a complex aesthetic that traverses a wide range of historical references with ease, without narcissistically wallowing in a self-referential relationship to the classical medium." Working with contemporary and archetypal symbolism, she is also characterized by a refined color palette and an ever-present touch of light that underscores her paintings' specific notion of inner spirituality. The themes of spirituality and physical and psychological peace still represent one of the key motifs of her work.

Cuckoos

Cifra, 180x145, olej na platnō, 2022, 195 000 kü.jpg

Lovers

relief

Breathe

Richard Štipl is regarded by many as one of the most innovative sculptors to emerge on the international contemporary art scene. Štipl's seemingly infinite search for identity is exemplified by the compositions of his oeuvre; his hyper-realistic figures function as a chronicle or "diary" of his ever-changing psychological states. So, to achieve these results, Štilp uses himself as an archetype for his works. Though the artist emigrated from Czechoslovakia to Canada in 1979, his art is not of the New World but of the Old. Using predominantly wood and cast metals, Štipl's meticulous craftsmanship hints at distinct Gothic and Baroque techniques that distinguishes Old World Europe from today's New World. The figurative influence of Old Masters, including German-Austrian sculptor Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch, and German painter Tilman Riemenschneider, is used to create surface paintings in oil or ink of a far more recent vintage. By carving tattoos and consumerist symbols onto the naked skin of his creations, the interior is materialized on the exterior. In an act of incarnation, Štipl denotes the symbols by how society chooses to represent itself. Ancient techniques with postmodern symbols, self-reflection with self-mutilation, and faces contorted in extreme facial expressions are all at the forefront of Štipl's work. Consequently, Štipl inhabits parallel worlds, underscoring the profound desire to examine the act of artistic becoming.

Incarnation

 DSC - Rony Plesl a Richard Stipl-14-web.jpg

Clear Egg V 6/6, 2022

Half Black Egg II, 2021

Green Halfspheres, 2019

Red Halfspheres, 2019

Couple of Yellow Hemispheres, 2020

Pink Horizon I., 4/6, 2020

Squared Cylinder with curved surfaces 1/6

Cylinder with Two Lences III. 2020

Red Half Egg 1/6, 2023

Tilted Column, 2018

Václav Cígler and Michal Motyčka have taken parallel approaches that reflect and refract their individual, artistic aspirations. Václav began his studies at the Secondary and Apprentice Glass School in Nový Bor before continuing his training at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague in 1951. On the other hand, Michal began his studies at the Faculty of Architecture Czech Technical University before continuing his training at the Glass Studio in Architecture, which was taught by Marian Karel, at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in 1995. While Cígler and Motyčkaboth began their artistic training at different times, their similar passions for contemporary art, design, and architecture facilitated the start of their collaborative projects in 1999. Cígler Václav‘s works are most recognizable by his use of glass optics to manipulate the surroundings of his pieces. He employs light, water and shape to fabricate a new reality. A glimpse through one of Václav‘s glass works exhibits his mastery of optical glass to curve its surrounding environment, distorting nature‘s original state. Václav's use of staggered glass creates additional idiosyncratic images of the same environment, as each panel refracts a different angle of its surroundings. Vaclav’s glassworks are intended to provide a commentary on man’s relation to their urban and natural environment, encouraging viewers to find serenity and harmony within our shared landscapes. The Czech artists' seemingly insurmountable use of glass optics has breached the international contemporary art industry and crafted a fresh mode of artistic expression.

Ab Ovo

cigler-vaclav-motycka-michal.jpg

Local