For the second time the five finalists in the Jindřich Chalupecký Award, who in 2017 are Romana Drdová, Dominik Gajarský, Martin Kohout, Richard Loskot and Viktorie Valocká will present themselves in a group exhibition in the Pražák Palace of the Moravian Gallery in Brno. Although each of them is preparing an independent project for this occasion, we can take their individual statements together as a probe into the thoughts of the emerging generation of artists about the challenges of today's world: across the whole spectrum of media from painting via film to installation the finalists address themes such as emotional tension versus the opportunities and the limits of therapeutic and relaxing procedures, the impacts and consequences of night work, domestication in relation to futuristic visions and science, multi-sensory experiences bordering on the illegal, or the possibility of transferring the exotic to the local (and yet surreal) environment.
The finalists of this year's Jindřich Chalupecký Award have been selected by an international jury comprised of the art critic and curator Marek Pokorný, artistic director of the Ostrava City Gallery PLATO, the artist Jiří Kovanda, the art theorist and director of the Slovak National Gallery Alexandra Kusá, the curator Gunnar B. Kvaran from Iceland, the director of the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art in Oslo, the art theorist and curator Pavlína Morganová, and Marina Shcherbenko, the curator and special advisor at the Bottega Gallery and the Shcherbenko Art Centre in Kiev.
The laureate of the 27th year of the Award will be chosen by another set of jurors, who will take up this role for the next three-year period. The laureate of the Jindřich Chalupecký Award 2017 will be announced on 26/11/2017 at the Scala University Cinema in Brno broadcast live on the ČT Art channel.
For the second time the presentation of the finalists of the Jindřich Chalupecký Award will incorporate an exhibition of an invited guest from abroad. A new work for the Atrium of the Pražák Palace and an intervention in the Pernament Exhibition is being created by the internationally established German Artist Clemens von Wedemeyer.
Photo: Peter Fabo
Romana Drdová (1987) is a student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (Studio of New Media I/school of Tomáš Svoboda). She went on a number of study stays, including at the Korean National University in Seoul, the HfG in Karlsruhe (studio of Urs Lehni) or in the studios of visiting lecturers at the AVU, Florian Pumhösel and Nicole Wermers. An inherent element in her work, often in the medium of object, photography or installation, is the particular pure aesthetic of her own, frequently reaching the limits of opalescence, and work with light, mass and void in combination with specific materials and procedures, inspiration for which comes, apart from the visual art context, from the world of fashion, technology and design. She makes sensitive and metaphorical statements on the subject of perception and interpersonal interaction in a period of "data smog". She presented her work mostly in Czech independent institutions (solo exhibitions at the Prague centre of contemporary art - MeetFactory - and the Karlin Studios), as well as in the national Gallery in Prague and in the international context in Vienna, Berlin and Liège in Belgium
Dominik Gajarský (1986) graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (Studio of New Media II/school of Anna Daučíková). He also went on a study stay at the UdK in Berlin (studio of Josephine Pryde). In 2014 he was one of the finalists of the Leinemann Foundation Award. Gajarský expresses himself mainly through the medium of photography and moving pictures with a special feel for analogue technology including its history. He often makes formal references to modernist role-models, but simultaneously adopts a critical approach to the canons and hegemony of western culture, particularly in relation to post-colonial discourse, feminism and ecology. He regularly displays his work in solo and group exhibitions and shows in the Czech Republic and abroad, such as the Close-Up Cinema in London, the PAF in New York, the Czech Centre in Berlin or the National Gallery in Prague. He finished a residential stay within the EIB Artists' Development Programme in Luxembourg and at the Summer Academy in Salzburg. Alongside visual art he is also an active musician.
Martin Kohout (1984) graduated from the Film Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (Department of Cinematography) and the Städelschule in Frankfurt (studio of Simon Starling). He also studied for two years at the UdK in Berlin. His multimedia work is a response to various situations in life, the incomprehensibility of the contemporary world and the inability of an individual to orient him/herself in it. Kohout's principal theme is the medium of the internet and the self-reflection of man in global communication, which brings opposite experiences - togetherness and aggression, self-confidence and helplessness. Recently he presented his work in the Czech and international context in solo and group exhibitions, including New York, Beijing, Tokyo, Berlin, Paris and Sophia. In 2010 he was one of the finalists of the German Marler Video-Kunst-Preis award. In 2008 he won the Other Visions competition at the Festival of Film Animation in Olomouc and in 2014 he was the finalist of the Jindřich Chalupecký Award. He has been living in Berlin since 2008.
Richard Loskot (1984) is a graduate from the Faculty of Arts and Architecture of the Technical University in Liberec (Studio of Visual Communication). For two years he also studied at the Akademie der bildenden Künste in Munich (studio of Magdalena Jetelová). The work of Richard Loskot is based on processuality and creating situations and environments which thematise human perception itself. He uses sophisticated means and modern technologies whose final impact on the viewer may be that of an elaborate magician's trick. He regularly presents his works at solo exhibitions in the Czech and Slovak Republics (including the National Gallery in Prague, the Brno House of Arts and the City Gallery Prague) as well as group exhibitions at home and abroad (e.g. the Biennale Giovani Monza, the Rotor Gallery in Graz and the Astrup Fearnley Museet in Oslo). In 2013 he was one of the finalists of the Blumm Prize in Brussels. In 2007 he won the Exit competition (Galerie Emila Filly, Ústí nad Labem) and in 2012 and 2014 was the finalist of the Jindřich Chalupecký Award, when he received the People's Choice award.
Viktorie Valocká (1988) is a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (Studio of Painting II/school of Vladimír Skrepl). She went on a study stay at the Universidad Complutense, Faculdad de Bellas Artes in Madrid and spent two semesters in the studios of visiting lecturers at the AVU, Florian Pumhösel and Silke Otto Knapp. Valocká is primarily a painter, although she also works in the medium of collage, drawing and ceramics. Her often large-size paintings reveal clear inspiration by art at the beginning of the 20th century, in particular artificialism and poetism, rather than the latest trends on the international scene. Yet, the nearly abstract works by Valocká exhibit a very up-to-date idiom and mature brushwork. The artist presented her work mainly in the context of the Czech independent art scene, but she also exhibited in the National Gallery in Prague and the Sør-Troms Museum (Trastad Samlinger) in Norway. In 2016 she was a resident artist in Athens within the framework of Are-events.
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The Jindřich Chalupecký Award
This annual prize for young Czech artists up to 35 years of age was launched in 1990 on an impetus by the dramatist, writer and former Czech president Václav Havel, the artist Theodor Pištěk and the poet and artist Jiří Kolář. It is named to honour the leading Czech critic of fine art and literature, essayist and philosopher Jindřich Chalupecký. The prize is awarded for a body of work of exceptional merit in fine art. It is intended for the emerging generation of artists whose work has the potential to gain recognition in the context of the Czech and international art scenes and epitomises an extraordinary approach both in terms of content and form.
The Award has been organised by the Jindřich Chalupecký Society as a platform for Czech post-Velvet Revolution and contemporary art which it supports and presents in local and international contexts, residential stays of artists and curators, programmes for the public and research projects.
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