Meanwhile, in the forest

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Adam Kašpar

Adam Kašpar is a student of Martin Mainer’s Painting Studio IV at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. He has held several individual exhibitions and participated in a number of group exhibitions. His works are gradually becoming a very distinct phenomenon of the Czech art scene.
Nature is the dominant theme of Kašpar’s works. He captures it in a meticulous, realistic technique. The painting itself is preceded by a series of preparatory sketches, photographs and systematic observation, yet his approach is nothing but documentary. Kašpar studies nature as a phenomenon inseparably related with humans and society in a time of debates over the reduction of national parks and ruthless destruction of the wild. If there is man or architecture present in his painting, they always present a negligible ephemeral trace contrasting with the dominating eternal nature. The artist does not take interest in a general theme, but prefers to choose a specific place the unique character of which he embodies in his work. The specific landscape is brought back to life enhanced with the painter’s artistic interpretation. He draws inspiration from landscape painting of the renaissance era as well as of the 19th century and combines it with his strong subjective attitude to nature creating unusually appealing artwork. His paintings deliver a lively message of our ephemerality, of our roots and the phenomenon that surpasses us so much and that we often tend to ignore it: our pettiness in comparison with the magnificence of nature.

Jan Rybníček

Jan Rybníček started his studies at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Brno, continued with an internship in Lisbon and now he studies painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich under the guidance of professor Oehlen.
His works stem from emotional and aesthetic experience. In these, he attempts to work with imagination and the present moment in a relaxed authentic manner. Lines gradually become areas and areas turn into space or spatial decoration. The artist corrects this process only partially – emotion is crucial. Through associations Rybníček imparts more concrete shapes to originally abstract ones and gradually arrives at the final painting through the process itself. The painter often draws inspiration from old sketches of animals, architecture or landscapes and then transforms them through his own free style into impressive images. He claims that the silent faces of animals charged with emotion appeal to his introverted nature. Painting is a medium which, in his interpretation, allows for honest expression and opening his inner world outwards without having to confront society during the creative process as such. The overall expression, line, colour and composition are only tools that the young painter uses to reach this higher purpose.

Josef Köstlbacher

Josef Köstlbacher is a student at professor Oehlen’s Painting Studio at the academy of Fine Arts in Munich.
The cornerstone of Köstlbacher’s work is surrealist painting based on his own life experience and dreams. The painter looks for a new true expression of the life of today’s young generation through inspiration in subjectively perceived reality and in the virtual world of computer games. In this process he does not stick to one technique or style, on the contrary, he keeps on exploring new possibilities of expression and updating his painting style. In his paintings he therefore combines oils, sprays and acrylics using them to create surrealist scenes of “daily life” filled with emotions and memories captured on the canvas. At the same time, he is not afraid to look back and draw inspiration from the German expressionist tradition and surrealism of the 1st half of the 20th century. The artist is also quite familiar with working with symbols and the symbolic meanings of colours. Köstlbacher’s work thus presents a young, sensitive person’s innovative expression based on the traditions of modern painting.

Martin Mainer

Martin Mainer is a professor of painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague in Painting Studio IV and his work and educational activities place him among the most important personalities of contemporary Czech Art.
The roots of Mainer’s work can be found in the 1980s when he presented a series of unofficial exhibitions entitled Konfrontace organised by students of the Academy of Fine Arts. Gradually, a new wave of the 80s generation emerged and played an important part in forming the art scene after the decline of the communist regime following the Velvet revolution. Inspiration for the artist’s early work can be found in the Czech Baroque tradition and its expressive painting. Mainer’s work abroad also had substantial effect on his artwork. After having won the Prize of Jindřich Chalupecký, Mainer participated in an internship in California where he met philosopher Richard Alpert alias Ram Dass. Philosophical problems, religious themes and the search for answers to spiritual questions about his inner worlds have interlaced the artist’s works up to this day. Besides traditional painting the artist works with secondary usage of photographs, calendars and other objects to which he adds new layers of fantastic expressive themes in sharp contrast with the banality of the original pictures. Martin Mainer’s paintings are existential in their essence. They are also means for sharing spiritual tension, artistic expression of religious and philosophical subjects as well as offering a glimpse of the soul of one of the fundamental personalities in contemporary painting.

Samuel Paučo

Samuel Paučo graduated from Martin Mainer’s Painting Studio at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Brno where he soon started working as an assistant and now carries on in this position at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague.
Paučo combines a range of seemingly contradictory factors in his works. In his paintings he uses methods generally associated with abstract and expressionist painting: large monolithic areas, imprints and structures or sweeping expressive brush strokes with a thick layer of paint. However, the final results are landscapes, specific objects, portraits or combinations of all of these. The expressive style, contrasting colour schemes and the absence of light and shade modelling infuse his artwork with strong life pulsating with energy. Yet, beyond the energy infused layer of painting there is another, more thoughtful one which shows that the artist works both spontaneously and conceptually. The dynamic compositions in his paintings are always based on exploring shapes, area ratios, tonal values and lines which all lead to a unified, (dis)harmonic whole.

Meanwhile, in the FOREST

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