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Stanislav Podhrázský and friends
22. 10. 2023 — 04. 02. 2024

Stanislav Podhrázský and friends

In 2020, the centenary of the birth of one of the most distinctive Czech artists of the post-war generation, Stanislav Podhrázský (1920–1999), passed almost unnoticed – in part because of the limitations on cultural life resulting from the anti-Covid measures. According to Marie Klimešová, Podhrázský is one of just a few Czech artists who – had it not been for Communism – would undoubtedly have achieved European fame thanks to the unique and timeless nature of their work. His unusual lyrical form characterised by a distinctive sense of unease combines artistic trends of that period such as Surrealism, abstraction and New Figuration, while at the same time its spontaneous expression preserves Podhrázský’s characteristic personality.

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František Kupka – Biblioman
08. 10. 2023 — 14. 01. 2024

František Kupka – Biblioman

The title of the exhibition Biblioman (Bookworm) is a reference not only to František Kupka’s (1871–1957) eponymous crypto-self-portrait from the year 1897, but also to his lifelong searching and tireless and systematic study of science and the humanities, which influenced his progressive views of painting and his informed approach to illustrating historical texts. Kupka’s illustrations from the first half of the twentieth century and their place within the oeuvre of this ‘pioneer of abstraction’ form the main focus of this exhibition, which also presents an extensive set of fine press editions from the GASK collections within the context of works influenced by the classical tendencies found in his work in the first decade of the twentieth century.

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Threads of Resistance – Rufina Bazlova
08. 10. 2023 — 21. 01. 2024

Threads of Resistance – Rufina Bazlova

Rufina Bazlova (born in Hrodna, Belarus) is an artist, illustrator, and stage designer. She graduated from the Ladislav Sutnar Faculty of Design and Art at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen and Alternative and Puppet Theater at the Theater Department of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. She has been active in the Czech art scene for over a decade. She uses the traditional craft technique of embroidery, which she doesn’t employ decoratively, but as a medium of ironic expression in protesting against totalitarian power represented primarily by the ‘last European dictator’ Alexander Lukashenko. Currently, Rufina Bazlova is working on a social art project dedicated to political prisoners in Belarus called #FramedinBelarus. This project will be the focus of Bazlova’s exhibition at GASK, which she conceived in collaboration with curator Sofia Tocar.

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Santini through the Lens of Vladimír Uher
01. 10. 2023 — 14. 01. 2024

Santini through the Lens of Vladimír Uher

No publication on Baroque architecture in the Czech lands would be complete without the photographs of Vladimír Uher (1925–2016). Uher inherited his love for photography and a close relationship to nature and music from his father. Although his hopes and dreams for the future were initially tied to music, after the war his professional life would revolve around photography.

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Markéta Váradiová – DAILY DREAMING
10. 09. 2023 — 14. 01. 2024

Markéta Váradiová – DAILY DREAMING

Sculptor and multimedia artist Markéta Váradiová (born 1973) creates objects and installations in which she uses physical phenomena to produce a specific visuality that stimulates the viewer’s imagination and uncovers hidden layers of a space or place. For GASK’s Experimental Space, she has put together two unrelated installations whose common denominator is the concept of ambivalence: an ambiguous interpretation of the primary visual situation and its shifting meaning – a single theme explored in two places and in two different ways.

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Jaroslav Prokeš and Petra Vlachynská – Disposition
10. 09. 2023 — 14. 01. 2024

Jaroslav Prokeš and Petra Vlachynská – Disposition

Petra Vlachynská and Jaroslav Prokes’s joint exhibition project with the simple yet ambiguous title DISPOSITION works consequently with the specific layout of the ground floor spaces in the north wing of the Gallery of the Central Bohemian Region. Through the use of elementary forms, both installations respond to the spatial axes of the former Jesuit College. Petra Vlachynská works with a horizontal view down the north wing’s main corridor, while Jaroslav Prokeš responds to the glass areas to the left of the main entrance from Smíškova Street (Projectroom). In their work, both artists have taken into account the building’s cultural and spiritual history. Quietly and contemplatively, yet also sculpturally and as installations, their works emphatically transform the space and how it is perceived. Their works speak in a language of elemental forms, symbolic intersections and archetypes. A shared theme, one that adds an additional layer of meaning, relates to the phenomenon of attention and the possibilities of perception.

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František Štorm – Maldorör Disco
27. 08. 2023 — 28. 01. 2024

František Štorm – Maldorör Disco

Název nejnovějšího projektu typografa, malíře, grafika, zakladatele legendární Střešovické písmolijny, ale i hudebníka a textaře v jedné osobě Františka Štorma Maldorör Disco spojuje zdánlivě nespojitelné – zcela v duchu příslovečného „náhodného setkání šicího stroje a deštníku na pitevním stole“. Autor dovolí návštěvníkům nahlédnout do svého ateliéru, kde práce kvasí zároveň na několika frontách – paralelně s hudebními experimenty, společnými zkouškami a demonahrávkami vzniká série divoce barevných psychedelických maleb, které tvoří podklad pro Štormovu grafiku s výrazným podílem autorského písma.

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Jiřina Hankeová – Nonverbal Communication
25. 06. 2023 — 10. 09. 2023

Jiřina Hankeová – Nonverbal Communication

Photographer Jiřina Hankeová (*1948) lives and works in Kladno. Her work is based on a contemplative observation of the world around her and within her. She incorporates details and sections of reality observed this way into thematic series of interlinked compositions whose sensitive precision and symbolic transcendence bring to mind the words of the Jesuit mathematician and poet Tommaso Ceva: ‘Poetry is a dream dreamed in the presence of reason.’

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Uncensored – Polish independent art of the 1980s
28. 05. 2023 — 17. 09. 2023

Uncensored – Polish independent art of the 1980s

Uncensored is a unique exhibition providing an overview of independent Polish art of the 1980s. It presents the Polish equivalent of the post-1968 Czech unofficial art scene, which in Poland responded to the reality of Solidarity and the state of martial law proclaimed in 1981. Though deeply rooted in a historical context, this socially engaged art also has topical relevance to the present day. The Gallery of the Central Bohemian Region will be showing around 130 works (paintings, sculptures, installations, posters, photographs and films) by 60 artists who, out of protest against martial law, boycotted the cultural policies of the Communist functionaries of the Polish People’s Republic. The exhibition is being staged in collaboration between the Gallery of the Central Bohemian Region, Ujazdowski Castle – Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw, the Adam Mickiewicz Institute and the Polish Institute in Prague.

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Jiří Surůvka – Architects of war
02. 04. 2023 — 17. 09. 2023

Jiří Surůvka – Architects of war

Architects of War presents the work of the Ostrava artist, performer, photographer, curator and university teacher Jiří Surůvka, who is also a co-founder of the ‘Předkapela Lozinski’ (Opening Band Lozinski) performance group, the ‘Přirození’ (The Natural Ones, 1988–1992) art group and the ‘Návrat mistrů zábavy’ (Return of the Masters of Entertainment) cabaret. The gallery’s Printmaking Crossovers exhibition space will show not only Surůvka’s prints but also his paintings and object art. Working with his typical sense for sarcasm and hyperbole, Surůvka creates works critiquing society. His main targets are people’s narrow-mindedness and limitations in relation to ideology and political propaganda. The artist will present several performances as part of the exhibition.

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Kateřina Štenclová – On the Surface of Time
02. 04. 2023 — 17. 09. 2023

Kateřina Štenclová – On the Surface of Time

Colour plays the main role in the work of painter Kateřina Štenclová, who uses colour in an abstract form to express her relationship to space. Štenclová has long been interested in so-called ‘spatial painting’, which she explores in her art and in the use of painting in site-specific installations made with plastic bags that capture the immediate creative process. The selection of recent works, combined with in situ installations transforms Café Fatal into a uniform visual whole.

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LLEV – NATURALLISM
26. 03. 2023 — 20. 08. 2023

LLEV – NATURALLISM

The term NATURALLISM encompasses the creative processes and methods used by the LLEV studio, comprising creative and life partners Eva Mochalová and Marcel Mochal. This designer couple experiments with the development of new materials, which they then apply to their unique collections. The exhibition at the gallery’s Whitebox reflects their typical site-specific approach, which is defined by the architecture of the exhibition space. The exhibited products made of mycelium, glass, paper, wood and metal are presented in the form of a still life – i.e., a primary painting genre. But there are also other layers of meaning that reveal themselves.

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