Přemysl Procházka: Events
6. 5. – 29. 5. 2022
opening: 5. 5. 2022 from 6 pm
curator: Ondřej Chrobák
Přemysl Procházka’s exhibition Events in Jelení Gallery is the fifth presentation of this artist in the context of the Prague art scene. I believe that he belongs among the rare category of artists that can be labeled, as a “curator’s discovery”. When most people view his work for the first time, they immediately get the impression that they are seeing something extraordinary and of high quality.
They immediately feel the need to do something for this newly discovered talent – ideally to introduce him to the wider public via an exhibition or a text study. I experienced this feeling after viewing a series of photographs from his painting performance in the Brno Galerie Mladych, where for a month he was coming to paint the soccer game Zbrojovka vs. Teplice. This process painting of the soccer match was so subversive with its theme as well as formal aspect, that I immediately started searching for more information about Přemysl and his work. I was gradually finding out that I am not the only one captivated by this student from the Painting Studio of Vasil Artmanov at the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Brno University of Technology.
Gallery Hunt Kastner exhibited his work in 2018 in the project room, following Katherine Kastner’s discovery of him at the “diploma exhibition” in Brno, where she was on the panel of judges. Michal Pěchouček exhibited him in the same year just a few streets over in Gallery 35m2. Viktor Čech wrote up Procházka’s profile in Art & Antiques magazine. This was followed by his participation in the 4+4 days in motion festival in 2020 and an exhibition in Gallery Stone Project. The exhibition in Jelení Gallery, which, with its respectable institutional tradition, is a place that has been exhibiting distinctive talents on the art scene for over two decades, will be the next in the “discovery” line of Přemysl Procházka.
It is still valid that Procházka’s paintings are a distinctive contribution to the genre “paintings about painting”. He addresses this task with an ostentatious literality, when he uses correlations between the materiality of colours and pigments, and realistic objects, models for painting. Naturally, the road on the painting “Section of frequent car accidents” is painted with asphalt and the traffic signs with metal sealant. He also literally surmises the function of topics, hence if he paints a camp with a campfire, you can be certain that the fire will burn at least during the opening, since the priming is done with non-flammable paint used by stove builders. The paintings will be changing throughout the exhibition.
The foundation that has already been painted will have the construction from ytongs added during the exhibition. In reference to advancement occurring in Procházka’s artistic experience, it is visible primarily in the depopulation of his paintings and limitation of the number of media of expression in his paintings. Figures purposely painted with a naïve stylization on older paintings, were the representatives of theses presented, or the bearers of the plot. With the absence of the human “anthill”, Procházka’s paintings have shifted in the direction of humorous monumentality and Zen visuality, known, for example, from the paintings of Marian Palla, who is one generation older.
Ondřej Chrobák
(transl. Vanda Krutsky)
Na Stojáka, Brno, May 2, 2020
The program of the Jeleni Gallery is possible through kind support of Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, Prague City Council, State Fund of Culture of the Czech Republic, City District Prague 7, GESTOR – The Union for the Protection of Authorship
Partners: Kostka stav
Media partners: ArtMap, jlbjlt.net, Náš REGION
and Mladý svět and UMA: You Make Art
