TETRADEKAGON/ THE SELECTION FROM THE FAIT GALLERY COLLECTION FOCUSED ON THE YOUNGEST GENERATION

In a distinctive visual style rooted in his personal memory, Jan Merta transforms real-world subjects into specific projections of his own experiences. This unusually sincere approach is in its intensity and truthfulness towards the viewer remarkably transferrable and communicative. In most cases, the artist chooses as the subject matter of his paintngs, drawings and objects things and situations on the edge of ordinary attention that, however, are personally highly important for him. By removing them from their original context and by their free processing he fills them with new contents. The pure essence of seemingly ordinary objects demonstrated on a monumental scale with the use of unconventional; spatial structures provides Merta’s paintings with a strange tension, which is in some works even intensified by the refined employment of light and the atypically approached relationship between object and area when an accentuated background creates an illusory perspective.

All of Jan Merta’s works have their own raison d’etre in particular stories, and his art is so closely linked with personal experiences that it could be understood as the artist’s diary records of events, experiences, memories and reminiscences of people, objects and places. Every new painting is for him a return in thoughts, and it is therefore hardly surprising that he has chosen this word for the exhibition title. However, it should be viewed at several levels of meaning: apart from the tite of a sculpture, the motif of return also refers to the show itself, organised in exhibition rooms to which Jan Merta returns with his new project after eight years. First and foremost, it refers to regular returns to the artist’s key theme circles, as well as to particular motifs which are, nonetheless, always approached in a different way.

Within the Return exhibition, sections such as Liberec are important; the artist returns in it to the places associated with his childhood and has worked on it, on and off, for several years, as is the subject of civilization threats and cultural codes as homage to Old Masters and specific works of art. One example is Goya’s painting Third of May 1808 (1814) from which Merta borrowed the motif of a lamp. The lamp as a source of light is a vital element of the picture, not only in its form but also in its content, and Merta has utilised it several times. Last but not least, the exhibition presents works referring to the artist’s penchant for Eastern philosophy. In 2010 and 2013 Jan Merta designed the book Laozi translated by Oldřich Král, and his close friendship with this extraordinary figure reinforced his interest in Chinese philosophy. In the Fait Gallery exhibition project this leading sinologist agreed to incorporate into the LAOZI installation his sound recording of the book accompanied by Merta;s paintings with fragments of cups and saucers. These symbolize clay vessels: according to the teaching of the Tao, the meaning and purpose of their internal parts only come from emptiness.

TETRADEKAGON/ THE SELECTION FROM THE FAIT GALLERY COLLECTION FOCUSED ON THE YOUNGEST GENERATION

07.02.2013 - 27.03.2013

Fait Gallery
Božetěchova Street 1 (entrance from Metodějova Street), Brno
7/2 – 27/3/2013
Opening: 7/2/2013 at 7pm
Curators: Denisa Kujelová and Martin Nytra

The already third » Selection « from the collection of Fait Gallery is this time dedicated entirely to the most recent work of the youngest generation of artists who have just entered in the art scene. The exhibition presents some key work of young artists as well as works indicating their future direction. Chronologically, it directly follows the previous two exhibitions which focused on the Czechoslovak modernism and the art of the second half of the 20th century.

This exhibition, among other things, tries to present the direction in which the contemporary art practice is going. Therefore, the selection of works is not limited thematically or by a medium.

There are classical media, painting, drawing and photography and media quite already common in art profession, such as video art, installations and light installations. The spectrum of approaches is also wide; it ranges from concentrated search of original language in the tradition of abstract painting, conceptual examination of options and nature of drawing, to more literary contents and sensitive exploration of shared intimacy, the relationship between culture, images and memories, to the works that deal with the actual functions of art and semantic shifts thorough time. Art may rely on traditional themes of landscape, figure and space and reformulate the neglected or reveal the paradox of contemporary perspectives of perception and understanding these symbols. The depth and diversity of the spectrum that the contemporary art scene has to offer are represented here, necessarily, fragmentally and incompletely, nevertheless, the selection represents sufficiently a specific range of views and procedures that are discussed and formulated in contemporary art. The unifying element is therefore the time the works were created, our present on which the authors are based and which they reflect, although each in quite peculiar way.

The exhibition presents individual works / collection of works by following artists:
Jan Brož, Katarína Hládeková,
Vendula Knopová, Martin Kocourek, Ondřej Kotrč, Petr Krátký,
Kamila Maliňáková, Pavla Naďová,
Martin Nytra, Johana Pošová,
Adéla Sobotková, Teri Varhol,
Michaela Vrbková & Diana Wink

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