Anna Ročnová / Gerbera won't break

The exhibition sums up the last fifteen years of work of the Brno painter Petr Kvíčala. The artist returns to the post-industrial environment of the gallery where he presented a retrospective of the first two decades of his work in 2008. In the imaginary total of both exhibitions, we arrive at an impressive time span of more than thirty-five years, during which the mentioned "research" into the field of ornament has been taking place. At the turn of the 1980s and 1990s, Petr Kvíčala made a name for himself with an original synthesis of the language of geometry and postmodernism. This is how he approached the defence of ornament as both an issue of mathematical order and an aesthetic phenomenon of a fading reputation. Ornament was rehabilitated, and the red wavy line became Kvíčala's signature form.

Ornaments, along with the wavy line, most often in the shape of a crenellation or a zig-zag line, continue to permeate Kvíčala's paintings like a mycelium, sometimes hidden, sometimes explicit. This polarity is perhaps more distinct in the period covered by the current exhibition than in the previous stages of his work. On the one hand, there are paintings constructed by a fine ornamental network, as if "embroidered", from which geometrical bodies of delicate colours pop out; on the other, robust, almost rustic ornaments resulting from gestic strokes of a broad brush. In recent years, the dichotomy between subdued monochromy and festival colours has found a background in the artist's life, asymmetrically divided between the city and rural seclusion. The rediscovered closeness to nature brings back into Kvíčala's current situation reminiscences and updates of his artistic discoveries made more than three decades ago. Once again, woodworking comes into play, parallel to painting. Large wooden objects should be understood primarily as extensions of Kvíčala's painting into the third dimension, offering the viewer, among other things, an immersive experience of entering the "inside" of the painting.

Kvíčala continues to work in open cycles in which he explores, tests and exploits his artistic discoveries. The exhibition, tailor-made for the unique space of the Fait Gallery, is an opportunity for the audience and the artist himself to examine the results of this work. Petr Kvíčala has invited the artist Karíma Al-Mukhtarová to his exhibition as a special "guest". Intuitively, he feels a loose affinity with her work which he associates with a sensitivity close to the art of Eva Kmentová. If Kvíčala's construction principle of his paintings was named "manual geometry" in the early days, for Karíma Al-Mukhtarová, the manual approach is analogically vital - primarily the demanding work of embroidery, where the needle and cotton penetrate impenetrable materials such as glass or wooden beams. The hidden geometry principle, represented by the implied orthogonal structure that is inevitably present even in intimate handiwork such as obsessive embroidery, perhaps unsurprisingly meets the fundamental principle of Kvíčala's work, which is an interest in the order of nature and its disruption.

Ondřej Chrobák

Petr Kvíčala has created several artworks in the public space in Brno:

- a monumental painting on the glass frontage of the Passage Hotel (2019), Lidická Street 23,

- the frontage with figurative drawings on the new church of the Blessed Virgin Mary Restituta (2019), Nezvalova Street 13,

- the Zig Zag 3,2 sculpture (2014) next to the building of the Moravian Gallery in Brno, Husova Street 18,

- painting in the Festive Hall, a terrazzo floor and painting on the vaults in the Reduta Theatre (2005), Zelný trh 313.

Anna Ročnová / Gerbera won't break

22.05.2024 - 27.07.2024

Fait Gallery PREVIEW, Ve Vaňkovce 2, Brno

Curator: Lenka Vítková

Opening: 22nd May, 7 pm

LV: I am fascinated by the strange calmness that emanates from your work, the absence of any hint of moralizing. How has working in a flower shop changed your art practice?

AR: It's not a closed process. I was learning the floristry craft and was surprised by how many things I knew from my art work. My things are often infused with what I'm experiencing, for example, I was preparing the exhibition Mown Gooseberry in my late grandmother's house just before it was renovated, the garden was also undergoing a change, so I turned the trees and shrubs that my grandmother liked into objects. It's the same with floristry, I apply florist methods, materials to art and see how it manifests.

LV: In your studio I was really impressed by your respect for everything you handle, including the crude oil that the florist mats are made of, or the dark liquids that prevent decay in floristry. How do you work? Can you describe the process, and what is its goal?

AR: I usually start by surrounding myself with materials. I bring various kinds of wood, leaves, fruits, now I also visit florist shops, skewers, wire, dry materials, etc into the studio, I also work with more traditional sculptural materials, plaster, clay, and I like to use fabric.

I fold, glue and group, fill, cut, melt, dye, sew, burn. I may use an object I made years ago and revive it in a new constellation. The subsequent installation is just as important as the creation of each object. In the installation I create what we often see in nature. I think atmospherically it's the details of the landscape, the forest, and I'm also interested in interfaces, places on the outskirts of the city where wilderness stretches into the city, the edges of pavements, bits of concrete lost amng grass and overgrown bushes in which a colour microtene bag is caught.

I refer to the process of my work as "extended nature". And that is the goal of my work. The result is a whole that looks natural, as if it came into existence and grew by itself, just like it happens in nature. When I exhibit outdoors, the viewer doesn't have to be sure whether they are looking at a work of art or a work of nature.

What I also enjoy about working with naturalia is their emotionality, the process of birth and decline, growth and decay, rotting, drying. All these processes on the surface co-create the emotionality that my objects subsequently exude. Emotion is an important clue for me. And I think it is ultimately emotions that determine what the objects will look like.

LV: You also mentioned the need to set a kind of tension that your objects really hold for me - they make me wonder, they're not easily interpreted. Would you like to say more about that?

AR: I think the tension you're talking about is between the parts that make up my objects. Sometimes I modify them by reinforcing the emotion I want the object to emit, for example, by employing used engine oil, permanganate, or burning. My objects are characterized by fragility, I am interested in destruction which I perceive, like it is in nature, as part of a cycle, not as something catastrophic. But I'm also interested in other situations, like water running down a rock, the depth of observation from larger wholes to the tiniest detail.

LV: Acknowledging the possibility of destruction - for me it is also the acceptance of life and its cycles. But the usual requirement placed on a work of art is that it should be as durable as possible. How much do you think about this, is it a challenge for you?

AR: Actually, I have never asked myself this question during my work. Many objects are very resistant. I tested this when I exhibited outdoors. Some of the objects are still in place today and are gradually growing into their surroundings. Others have not changed their appearance at all after six months of exposure to the elements, and continue to permeate my other installations.

Fragile objects can be adjusted in glass boxes, following the example of natural exhibits. However, when installing and creating objects, I have little interest in the issue of durability and do not emphasize it in my choice of materials.

LV: What obstacles do you have to overcome in your work? Or do the flow and joy prevail?

AR: I really enjoy exploring the possibilities of new connections, the strange energy that is present during the process. Sometimes I can't communicate with the material. Then it helps to take it apart and put it back together again, to be able to touch it and connect with it in some way. I become a part of it and that makes it whole.

Interview with Anna Ročňová (AR) on the exhibition Gerbera Won't Break was led by Lenka Vítková (LV).

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