Discover the latest works from the studios of the most prominent contemporary Czech artists featured in the J&T Banka Art Index.
Don’t miss four days full of art and a unique atmosphere — all at the exceptional space that is the Bellevue Palace.
Paintings, sculptures, photographs, installations, and video art. Stop by!
A Neo-Renaissance building with a striking brick façade now stands where the people of Prague once sought refreshment at the Papoušek Baths. Since the late 19th century, this structure, designed by architect Konstantin Mráček, has borne the fitting name “Bellevue” – meaning “beautiful view”. And it is this very view, overlooking the panorama of Prague Castle, that seems to have defined the building’s fate – one closely intertwined with the visual arts.
On the top floor was an artist’s studio, once inhabited by the renowned Austrian painter Oskar Kokoschka. The views from his window served as inspiration for some of his most significant works. Kokoschka’s spirit did not linger here alone – moving in shortly after his departure, the artist Jiří Trnka worked there for the next thirty years.
This is the tradition we seek to honour with our exhibition, which is also the fourth edition of the J&T Banka Art Index Pop-up. It offers – both literally and figuratively – a beautiful view of some of the most compelling works from today’s Czech art scene.
For four days, Bellevue transforms into a living organism, animated by the works of 50 selected artists, chosen according to the J&T Banka Art Index – a ranking that maps out the most prominent figures in contemporary Czech art. The Index serves as a guide for the wider public as well as collectors and investors, helping them navigate the dynamic landscape of the Czech art world. The exhibition shares this ambition, which is why it is pulling the proverbial curtain aside and inviting visitors to reflect on what art truly means, what forms it takes, how it is created, and what it communicates to us, its audience.
Throughout history, the role of art has continually evolved. It has served faith, education, political power, and representation. Today, in an age oversaturated with images and information, contemporary art can at times find itself on the margins of understanding – perhaps precisely because its role is now less clear-cut but all the more essential.
Contemporary art is not mere decoration. It is a language that gives voice to what often cannot be said in any other way. It is a diary, a commentary, a question mark – both reflection and vision. It has the power to capture the subtle shades of daily life as well as the outlines of global phenomena. It provides space for contemplation, emotion, and personal interpretation. It opens up new horizons and unexpected perspectives – from the most intimate, personal moments to the universal questions of our world.
Welcome to Bellevue. Discover art – and enjoy the beautiful view.
Valérie Horváth
Exhibition Curator
(b. 1982)
The conceptual artist Eva Koťátková shows what it feels like to be someone else. Whether she expresses herself through collage or, at other times, a theatre play, her work is always recognisable for its challenging themes – from Kafkaesque justice and various human pathologies to the naïve world of childhood or the perspective of those living with mental illness.
Koťátková studied at Prague’s Academy of Fine Arts (AVU) and completed her doctoral studies at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design (UMPRUM). At just 25, she became a laureate of the Jindřich Chalupecký Award; in the same year, she also received the Josef Hlávka Award, and in 2014, the Dorothea von Stetten Kunstpreis.
She was invited to take part in the prestigious curated section of the famous Venice Biennale and has exhibited in group shows in cities such as Sydney, Moscow, Palermo, and Paris. Her work has been presented at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and at the Pirelli HangarBicocca in Milan. Last year, she represented the Czech Republic at the Venice Biennale with her project The Heart of a Giraffe in Captivity is 12 Kilos Lighter.
Thanks to her success on the international art scene, Eva Koťátková regularly ranks at the top of the J&T Banka Art Index.
(b. 1977)
The artist Kateřina Šedá openly admits that she has always been fascinated by normal life. Her conceptual projects are most often interventions set within the normality and routine of everyday existence. She frequently works with large groups of ordinary people without any prior connection to art. Her work rarely ends up confined to gallery walls; instead, it often results in real change, with a tangible impact on individuals and communities.
At the 2018 Venice Biennale, for example, she presented her project UNES-CO, in which she hired Czech families from across the country to temporarily move into the tourist centre of Český Krumlov and carry out typical domestic activities there. She is currently developing the National Collection of Bad Habits.
Šedá studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (AVU), in the studio of Vladimír Kokolia. She has received numerous awards – some in surprising fields. For example, she won the Magnesia Litera for journalism and the Architect of the Year Award, despite not being an architect. She is also the recipient of the British Contemporary Art Society Award, the German Fluxus Award, the Austrian Essl Award, and the Jindřich Chalupecký Award.
She consistently ranks in second or third place in the J&T Banka Art Index.
(b. 1984)
The sculptures of Anna Hulačová are instantly recognisable by their distinctive, simplified forms that evoke Czech folk traditions, as well as primitive totems or objects of worship found in Eastern cultures. She works in a traditional, artisanal way, favouring natural materials such as wood, wax, wicker, and even honeycombs made by the bees that she has living and working inside her sculptures. Recently, she has been experimenting with new, more brutalist materials – especially concrete – though the signature feel of her work remains unchanged.
Her themes explore ecofeminism, water, agriculture, mutation, species decline, and also social equality – not only between men and women but also between humans and animals.
She studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (AVU), in the intermedia studio led by Jiří Příhoda. Alongside the Jindřich Chalupecký Award, she is also a recipient of the Central European ESSL Award CEE. In recent years, she has gained particular recognition abroad, with her works exhibited by prestigious institutions such as the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, and London galleries Kunstraum and Edel Assanti. Her work is held in the collection of the National Gallery in Prague and will be shown later this year in Dornbirn, Austria.
She has ranked in the top ten of the J&T Banka Art Index for the past four years.
(b. 1973)
Krištof Kintera most often works with the medium of sculpture, which he approaches broadly – ranging from small-scale objects to kinetic or interactive sculptures of monumental proportions. He skilfully employs a wide variety of materials, creating both minimalist and highly complex technological projects. For several years now, he has also been producing works he calls “drawings” – typically objects of everyday use attached to panels, often accompanied by handwritten texts. Common threads across his diverse body of work include visible humour and irony, alongside an in-depth understanding of and intelligent references to art history.
Kintera graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (AVU) in the studio of Milan Knížák and has completed several international residencies. He is one of the most active Czech artists, exhibiting regularly both at home and abroad. He is currently working on the surroundings of the new Dvorecký Bridge in Prague where – instead of planting flowers or trees – he is “planting” street lamps collected from around the world.
He consistently ranks in the top ten of the J&T Banka Art Index.
(b. 1973)
Zbyněk Baladrán is a visual artist and curator. In addition to studying at several studios at Prague’s Academy of Fine Arts (AVU), he also studied art history – a scholarly background that is clearly reflected in his artistic practice and likely also informs interest in discovering, selecting and interpreting various materials – whether textual documents, audio recordings, or found objects. His work is usually presented as video projections, almost sculptural installations, or a combination of the two. He engages with the contradictions of the contemporary world and explores how art can help us understand them.
Baladrán is a four-time finalist of the Jindřich Chalupecký Award and was nominated for the international contemporary art biennial Manifesta in 2004. He frequently exhibits abroad, with recent solo exhibitions held in Paris, Trieste, and Chemnitz.
(b. 1974)
In his early work, painter Jaromír Novotný was inspired by architecture, but he gradually developed his now-signature abstract style. His monochrome paintings are characterised by pastel colours, delicate materials, and an overall sense of fragility. Rather than using traditional canvas, Novotný opts for synthetic organza, through which the structure of the frame is visible. The individual sections of fabric are deliberately sewn together in plain sight. In his most recent works, he has been focusing on the colour yellow.
After graduating from the drawing studio at Prague’s Academy of Arts (AVU), Novotný has exhibited widely in both Czech and international institutions and galleries. Most recently, his paintings have been shown in Vienna, Brussels, Berlin, as well as Brno and Prague.
Over the years, his position in the J&T Banka Art Index has steadily risen – this year marks the fourth time he has claimed sixth place.
(b. 1978)
Jan Kaláb is one of the most prominent artists to emerge from the rich Czech graffiti scene of the post-revolution years. He is especially admired for his technical precision and distinctive, abstract geometric aesthetic, which makes his work instantly recognisable. In his practice, he embraces large-scale formats, 3D objects, and digital art.
Kaláb studied at Prague’s Academy of Fine Arts (AVU), in the drawing studio of Jitka Svobodová and co-founded the Trafačka and Trafo Gallery. He exhibits extensively both in the Czech Republic and internationally – just last year, he presented his work in Venice, Paris, London, and Rio de Janeiro.
Thanks to his international success, he has secured a top ten position in the J&T Banka Art Index for the third year running.
(b. 1971)
Painter Josef Bolf is considered one of the most important Czech artists of his generation, though his work stands apart from that of his peers. His paintings depict strange, hybrid figures with semi-animal features, moving through bleak, urban landscapes. Although they may resemble beloved children’s cartoon characters at first glance, they often appear in scenes that border on the horrific. Bolf juxtaposes the theme of childhood with a harsh world filled with dark thoughts, anxiety, loneliness, perversion, and violence. His works are also recognisable by their unique colour palette – motifs in pink, purple, red, or green are “scratched” into black backgrounds.
Bolf attended Prague’s Academy of Fine Arts (AVU), studying under Jiří Načeradský, Vladimír Kokolia, and Vladimír Skrepl. His work has been exhibited across the globe, from New York to Zurich, and is held in major private and public collections, including the National Gallery in Prague, the Moravian Gallery in Brno, as well as collections in Italy and the United States.
(b. 1984)
Vladimír Houdek works with traditional painting and collage techniques, yet he approaches them in a distinctly contemporary way, making his artistic signature instantly recognisable. His work is characterised by muted colours, systematic compositions, structurally rich backgrounds with a patinated feel, in stark contrast with hyperrealist surfaces in the foreground.
His fascination with the circle, which featured prominently in his earlier work, is now more subtly present in repetitions and the machine-like symmetry of shapes.
Houdek studied under Vladimír Skrepl at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (AVU). His work has earned him the Critics’ Prize for Young Painting and the Jindřich Chalupecký Award, and it is also part of J&T Banka’s Magnus Art Collection. Last year, he held solo exhibitions at Museum Kampa and Polansky Gallery, as well as in Berlin and Budapest.
(b. 1966)
Conceptual artist Jiří Černický’s work addresses socio-political issues, selecting the most fitting medium for each piece. His artistic repertoire includes video projections, performances, drawings, objects, sculptures, paintings and 3D models – all of which were brought together in his large-scale 2016 exhibition Wild Dreams at Galerie Rudolfinum.
Černický works with various materials and doesn’t shy away from unorthodox art solutions, such as contacting the Czech Police in order to obtain a small quantity of confiscated drugs, out of which he created Ecstasy – a small sculpture parody of the Venus de Milo. Ecstasy was shown alongside the official documentation detailing his correspondence with the authorities.
He studied at Prague’s Academy of Fine Arts (AVU) under Miloš Šejn and Jiří David. He received the Soros Foundation Prize in 1996 and won the Jindřich Chalupecký Award in 1998. He later led the painting studio at UMPRUM for several years. Last year, among other projects, he created a memorial to composer Viktor Ullmann in Ústí nad Labem.
(b. 1977)
Photographer Jiří Thýn leans towards conceptual art, exploring the nature of photography, different techniques, and the relationship between images and the space around them. His series often reflect themes that are personally relevant and increasingly shaped by global issues. He also paints onto photographs or adds text, surgical cuts, and layers to them. In recent works, he focuses on raw emotion, attempting to imprint fleeting moods onto digital images through spontaneous, gestural expression.
Thýn studied photography at UMPRUM and completed a residency at Prague’s Academy of Fine Arts (AVU) in Vladimír Skrepl’s studio. He is a founding member of the Ládví art collective, which operates at the intersection of art and public engagement. His work is well known to Czech audiences, as it has been shown at major institutions such as the National Gallery in Prague, the House of Arts in Brno, Futura, Fait Gallery, and many more.
(b. 1985)
Intermedia artist Adéla Součková is best known for her drawings, but she increasingly works with painting, video, performance, and spatial installations. She draws inspiration from folk culture, explores national identity, and examines the relationship between text and image, symbols and metaphors, as well as ecological issues. She is based in the Czech Republic and Germany, with each environment offering different influences on her creative process.
She studied at Prague’s Academy of Fine Arts (AVU), attending the studios of Jiří Sopko, Jitka Svobodová, and Vladimír Skrepl. She also attended the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Dresden under Ulrike Grossarth. In 2018, she was a finalist for the Jindřich Chalupecký Award.
Jiří Franta (b. 1978) & David Böhm (b. 1982)
Jiří Franta and David Böhm have been working as an artist duo since 2006. Their collaborative practice spans drawing and illustration, performance, interventions in public and gallery spaces, and various art experiments.
Their comics and illustrations are well known to art book enthusiasts, and have recently appeared in publications such as A City for Everyone and ADHD. You’ll also encounter them on gallery walls – quite literally. For their 2016 exhibition at the Moravian Gallery in Brno, they created reproductions of works from the permanent collection, painting them directly onto the exhibition space walls.
They usually work on their art pieces together, either simultaneously or by taking turns, and maintaining an impressive unity of style. They place great emphasis on the creative process, best described in their own words: they don’t create drawings together – they just draw.
David Böhm studied under Vladimír Skrepl and Vladimír Kokolia at Prague’s Academy of Fine Arts (AVU), and completed residencies in Berlin, Vienna, and New York. Jiří Franta also studied under Vladimír Skrepl at AVU and is a member of the Rafani collective. In recent years, the duo have created a spatial drawing installation for Motol Hospital and exhibited at the City Gallery Prague’s House of Photography.
(b. 1980)
Sculptor Pavla Sceranková has developed her own artistic language in the Duchampian tradition of ready-mades and modernist kinetic sculpture. By experimenting with various materials and media, she fluidly crosses their boundaries: photography becomes sculpture, sculpture becomes video, and through engagement with her installations, the viewer becomes part of an intimate performance.
Minimalism, playful exaggeration, clever conceptual twists, and the elevation of mundane objects into noble artistic forms are all hallmarks of Sceranková’s practice.
Sceranková studied in the studios of Miloš Šejn and Milan Knížák at Prague’s Academy of Fine Arts (AVU), where she now leads the intermedia studio. She is the recipient of the Václav Chad Award from the 5th Zlín Salon of Young Artists, and of the AVU Rector’s Prize.
(b. 1989)
Painter Martin Lukáč is known for his expressive and spontaneous style. Often working in cycles, he combines oil painting with drawing to create distinctive transitions of form into space. He explores figurative motifs and experiments with abstraction, his works teeming with energy and dynamism. He uses grids to build tension and symbolic resonance.
In recent cycles, he has reimagined classical still lifes using a modern visual language dense with neon symbols evoking the city at night.
Lukáč studied at the Faculty of Arts at the Technical University in Košice under Adam Szentpétery and continued at Prague’s UMPRUM in the studios of Jiří Černický and Marek Meduna.
In 2016, he received the Critics’ Prize for Young Painting, with the jury praising his unruly painterly vitality that surpasses traditional technique and embraces expressive gesture and figural abstraction.
(b. 1972)
Jan Šerých focuses on abstract minimalist work across media such as painting, drawing, installation, video, and object. His distinctive vocabulary includes typographic signs, slogans, code systems, and geometry, all becoming his visual signature. He investigates the challenges of encoding and translating between different modes of communication – particularly analogue and digital media. It’s the viewers’ call to decide whether to simply look at his works or to read them.
At ANE, his 2024 exhibition at Hunt Kastner Gallery, he revealed how human imagination intersects with artificial intelligence. He also examined what happens when technology attempts to replicate the human point of view, and how it informs our perception.
Šerých studied at Prague’s Academy of Fine Arts (AVU) under Jiří Lindovský, Michal Bielický, and Vladimír Skrepl, and completed residencies in New York and Bern. He was part of the Bezhlavý jezdec collective (English: The Headless Horseman) along with Tomáš Vaněk, Ján Mančuška, and Josef Bolf. He is a two-time finalist of the prestigious Jindřich Chalupecký Award. Alongside his fine art practice, he works in graphic design.
(b. 1986)
Roman Štětina is one of the few Czech artists to engage with a purely non-visual theme: sound. His fascination is the radio: its technology, history, the architecture of broadcast studios, and its social significance over time. His work is a commentary on the modern world, viewed through the lens of this seemingly outdated medium. Instead of employing traditional art techniques, he works at the intersection of film, installation, and audiovisual intervention.
Štětina studied at the Faculty of Art and Design in Plzeň, the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (AVU), and the Frankfurt Academy of Fine Arts. He has received the Jindřich Chalupecký Award, the Central European ESSL Art Award CEE, and the Film Preis. This year, he earned his doctoral degree at AVU.
(b. 1981)
Jakub Nepraš stands out on the Czech art scene in his choice of both theme and medium. His video installations range from static to kinetic, but are always captivating with their bold animation, which is projected onto sculptures. Through meticulous work with scientific data, philosophical knowledge, and intuition, Nepraš examines natural principles and how they clash with civilisation.
A typical Nepraš installation invites two modes of engagement: from a distance of several metres, we take in the sculpture as a whole but without the details; up close, we see the frenetic motion and shuffling of animations but lose the bigger picture.
Nepraš studied new media at Prague’s Academy of Fine Arts (AVU). Now a household name in art circles, he has had numerous solo shows and participated in key international art fairs, both home and abroad. He participated in the Czech pavilion at Expo 2010 in Shanghai. His newest work was presented at VOLTA Basel 2025 by Prague’s Trafo Gallery.
(b. 1991)
Marie Lukáčová works with video installations and drawing. Her art is rooted in political activism and feminism, drawing inspiration from mythology and rap music. She presents the human body as economic potential, which is an asset within the capitalist system. She describes herself as someone who rejects authority and the system, and this sense of directness and defiance is strongly reflected in her work. Her current practice uses culinary metaphors to visually explore emotional experiences and interpersonal relationships.
Lukáčová earned her BA in Painting in Brno, though she spent a portion of her studies in Germany, and later continued in the Supermedia studio at Prague’s UMPRUM. She has completed artist residencies in Ljubljana, Wrocław, Chișinău, and on the Greek island of Nisyros. In 2019, she was a finalist for the Jindřich Chalupecký Award. She is also a co-founder of the Čtvrtá vlna collective (English: The Fourth Wave), which raises awareness about sexism at universities and gender inequality.
(b. 1977)
There’s a waiting list for Daniel Pitín’s paintings – for both Czech and foreign collectors. He belongs to a generation of artists who continue the tradition of figurative painting while also pushing its boundaries. His works are characterised by muted, earthy tones, an almost industrial aesthetic, and a distinct sense of melancholia. They often resemble theatrical scenes or frozen film stills. Film is crucial to Pitín’s practice, be it particular film scenes, the genre as a whole, or video as a tool.
Pitín studied classical painting under Zdeněk Beran and later conceptual media with Miloš Šejn. His work is regularly exhibited across the globe, from the United States to China, which may be the reason he has easily stayed in the top twenty of the J&T Banka Art Index since the beginning. Over the previous year alone, he’s had several shows in Los Angeles and New York.
(b. 1984)
Richard Loskot is best known on the contemporary art scene for his unique work with artificial intelligence and his immersive, site-specific environments, designed to provide an extraordinary sensory experience.
In his installations, he juxtaposes virtual reality with tangible objects, simulating sunlight using artificial lighting and with recorded natural sounds. In doing so, he blurs the line between reality and fiction. At first, this feels romantic and enchanting, but takes a chilling turn once the viewer becomes aware of the artificial engineering of emotional responses – a commentary on the futuristic scaling of technologisation across all planetary processes.
Loskot graduated from the visual communication studio led by Stanislav Zippe at the Faculty of Art and Architecture of the Technical University in Liberec, where he now teaches. He lives in Ústí nad Labem, where he founded the Studio Richard Loskot as an artists’ collective. He is also involved in local politics. He has been a three-time finalist for the Jindřich Chalupecký Award. In 2022, he unveiled a memorial in Liberec dedicated to fallen police officers.
(b. 1986)
Matyáš Chochola combines sculpture, installation, and performance art, where he often takes on the role of a shaman or alchemist. His work explores mysticism, ritual, and subcultures, frequently referencing pop culture. He works with a wide range of materials from ceramics and wood to glass and neon, crafting a kind of harmonious chaos by merging abstract forms with everyday objects or juxtaposing organic curves with geometric shapes.
Chochola studied sculpture in the studio of Michal Gabriel at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Brno, as well as through residencies in Germany, Poland, and Austria, and later with Vladimír Skrepl at Prague’s Academy of Fine Arts (AVU). In 2016, he was awarded the Jindřich Chalupecký Award.
(b. 1980)
For Dominik Lang, sculpture is a living art form which responds to the present moment and the space for which it is intended. An internationally recognised artist, he has exhibited across Europe as well as in the United States and Australia.
His breakthrough came with the East West project, for which he received the Jindřich Chalupecký Award. The piece involved two openings cut into the plywood structure of the National Gallery’s elevated gallery on both sides, allowing sunlight to briefly illuminate the exhibition space from east to west, creating a symbolic connection.
Although Lang studied in several different studios at Prague’s Academy of Fine Arts (AVU), he now serves as an associate professor at UMPRUM. He achieved notable success with his installation in the Czech Pavilion at the Venice Biennale and with his exhibition at the renowned Vienna Secession.
(b. 1985)
In recent years, painting has become the dominant medium in Pavla Malinová’s artistic practice, although her earlier work also included drawing, video art, and even performing in a band called Like She.
Her paintings reference antiquity, Cubism, and Surrealism. She creates magical worlds populated by robust figures who play specific roles within each composition: swimmers’ heads emerging in a crawl stroke from a pool’s surface in a clear and recognizable manner, or bodies placed in much more indeterminate settings with open meanings. As the artist herself notes, she enjoys finding humour, playfulness, and irony in art.
Malinová studied painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Ostrava in the studio of František Kowolowský. In 2013, she won the Rudolf Schlattauer Prize, and in 2019 she was a finalist for the Jindřich Chalupecký Award.
(b. 1976)
Artist, writer, and educator Jiří Skála focuses on photography, performance, and video, but also writes essays and short stories. He uses a variety of media and engages directly with text and gallery space. His work reflects on the social and cultural conditions of contemporary society, such as the transformation of paid and unpaid labour in Eastern Europe, modern forms of exploitation and dehumanisation, and themes of recreation and leisure. He seeks modes of resisting and strong metaphors. His exhibitions often invite viewer participation.
Skála studied at AVU under Jiří David and Vladimír Skrepl, and completed a residency in Paris. In 2004, he co-founded the Prague gallery etc. with Jiří Franta, and was a member of the art collective PAS (acronym for Production of Activities of the Present) with Vít Havránek and Tomáš Vaněk. He won the Jindřich Chalupecký Award in 2009 and is currently an associate professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts at Brno University of Technology.
(b. 1973)
In her paintings and drawings, Veronika Holcová employs intuition to straddle reality and fantasy. Her works are visual diaries where she records feelings, memories, experiences, imaginings, and dreams, keeping them open to viewers’ interpretations. Her works are poetic and delicate, featuring meticulous detail and a meditative, dreamlike quality. They are the product of an extended process and intense concentration. Her aim is not to faithfully depict visible reality, but to express its essence.
Holcová studied drawing under Jitka Svobodová, painting under Bedřich Dlouhý and Vladimír Skrepl, and printmaking with Vladimír Kokolia at the Academy of Fine Arts (AVU) in Prague.
(b. 1981)
Julius Reichel interrogates and deconstructs the traditional wall-mounted painting, often resulting in object-paintings, created with acrylics, spray paint, pastels, and textiles. He is drawn to both hand-made aesthetics and the visual culture of the internet. Early on, he painted expressive, colourful works on unstretched canvas, layering them with nails on the wall like fabric samples. Influenced by trash aesthetics, he later began painting on old sweaters and clothing. Recently, he has returned to conventional formats while maintaining his signature vivid palette, playful spirit, and use of symbols, text, and numbers.
He studied at Prague’s Academy of Fine Arts (AVU) and later at UMPRUM in the studio of Jiří David. He exhibits both solo and as part of the collective Black Hole Generation, alongside David Krňanský and Martin Lukáč. He currently leads the painting studio at AVU.
(b. 1976)
Petr Dub doesn’t explore the world around him, but rather art itself. His works include paintings that do away with the canvas altogether – they’re nailed to the wall, or stretched over irregular structures made from scrap materials or found objects, which turns them into reliefs. He avoids the traditional rectangular canvas, preferring circles or rings, using either saturated colour or subdued metallic tones. Dub often accompanies his projects with explanatory texts, firmly believing that art should not only entertain, but also challenge its audience.
Dub studied painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts at Brno University of Technology under Petr Kvíčala, Martin Mainer, and Petr Veselý, and later completed a PhD in intermedia led by Václav Stratil. Today, he co-leads one of the painting studios at AVU in Prague alongside Marek Meduna.
(b. 1994)
Multimedia artist Marie Tučková, who performs as Ursula Uwe, creates installations and performances that focus on text and sound, despite her background in photography. Her projects often incorporate drawing and even choral singing. Her work explores the politics of listening, the hierarchy of voices, various forms of collaboration, and the overlap between political and poetic language. She addresses themes such as relationships and emotional experiences in the digital age, and interhuman communication, often drawing from personal experience.
Tučková studied photography at UMPRUM under Aleksandra Vajd, Hynek Alt, Vjera Borozan, and Martin Kohout, and went on to complete a Master’s in Art Praxis at the Dutch Art Institute in the Netherlands. In 2020, she became a laureate of the Jindřich Chalupecký Award. The jury praised her deep engagement with the psychology of individuals in a world shaped by new technologies and social media. She is a member of the music-performance duo Cloudy Babies and the folk choir Lada.
(b. 1995)
Jakub Choma has gradually shifted from painting to more complex spatial installations, assemblages, objects, and sculptural environments. His practice often resembles laboratory experiments with materials such as cork, plexiglass, or aluminium. The aesthetics of digital waste and DIY culture play a significant role in his work. He also draws inspiration from digital visual culture, including video games.
Choma studied painting at UMPRUM under Jiří Černický and Michal Novotný. In 2020, he received the Jindřich Chalupecký Award. In 2022, he participated in the group exhibition Flower Union with his Non-Accidental Connections as part of the Czech Presidency programme at the European Council in Brussels. There, he transformed a waiting room into an installation featuring a “meeting stone” – a virtual monolithic object found in a computer game. This year, he also held a major solo exhibition in Heidelberg, Germany.
(b. 1987)
David Krňanský is a multimedia artist and painter. Originally involved in street art, he has since transitioned to gallery and private collection work. His geometric paintings explore colour and composition. He produces extensive cycles of paintings, each one focused on solving a specific painting challenge. For example, his Not Def (2017) series examines principles of abstraction through the use of empty rectangles – the symbols of a computer’s inability to render certain fonts, creating a metaphor for failed communication.
He studied performance art at the Faculty of Art and Design at the University of Jan Evangelista Purkyně in Ústí nad Labem (UJEP) under Jiří Kovanda, later pursued painting at UMPRUM with Jiří Černický and Marek Meduna. Along with classmates Julius Reichel and Roman Výborný (a.k.a. Namor Ynrobyv), he co-founded the art collective B.H.G. (Black Hole Generation), which uses visual culture as a critical tool to reflect on the state of the world.
(b. 1985)
Jan Vytiska is a painter and musician known for his provocative and distinctive art voice. His work fuses folklore, mysticism, horror, and brutality. Strongly influenced by the Moravian Wallachia region – particularly Rožnov pod Radhoštěm and the Wallachian Open-Air Museum – as well as by film, his large-scale canvases often feature bizarre characters inhabiting post-apocalyptic landscapes that strongly evoke the Beskydy Mountains.
Vytiska studied New Media at the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music at the University of Ostrava. During his studies, he was nominated by his school for the international Start Point competition for fine arts graduates. In 2011, he won the Art Prague prize for artists under 30. The following year, he became a finalist for the Critics’ Award for Young Painting. In 2023, the DOX Centre for Contemporary Art in Prague hosted his major solo exhibition The Ritual of Cursed Hearts.
Julia Gryboś (b. 1988) & Barbora Zentková (b. 1986)
Polish-born Julia Gryboś and Slovak-born Barbora Zentková now live and work in Berlin after studying in the Czech Republic. Their collaborative work is always site-specific and responsive to current events. Their installations are rich in textile-based objects and often feature sound or live music performances. Material origin is key to their process; they frequently use discarded textiles and revive traditional craft techniques. Their works embed social and political critique, particularly of the symptoms of capitalism: stress, overwork, digital overload, and the mass production of cheap goods.
The duo studied painting at the University of Ostrava and continued their joint practice at the Faculty of Fine Arts at Brno University of Technology (FaVU VUT) under Luděk Rathouský and Jiří Franta, where they also completed doctoral studies. In Brno, they founded Galerie Tvar, a platform for emerging artists and cultural events. They are recipients of the Oskár Čepan Award and now exhibit widely across Europe, including at the current group show Palace (of Leisure) Time at the Troja Château in Prague.
(b. 1985)
Sculptor and visual artist Anna Ročňová explores nature, its processes, and the products of civilisation. She surrounds herself with natural materials, experimenting with them to discover new forms, surfaces, and states of matter. The result is a series of installations composed of fragile objects and collages in muted tones, aiming to evoke the emotional essence of nature as it permeates the urban gallery space.
Ročňová studied sculpture at UMPRUM under Edith Jeřábková and Dominik Lang, and completed a study placement in Vienna as well as a residency with Vladimír Skrepl at AVU. In 2021, she was awarded the Jindřich Chalupecký Award. Last year, she had solo exhibitions at Fait Gallery in Brno and Plato Gallery in Ostrava. Ročňová often exhibits alongside artist Jan Boháč.
(b. 1994)
Valentýna Janů is a multimedia artist creating site-specific installations that combine video, textiles, and a range of materials or found objects. Her performances, which often involve dancers, explore the interaction between the viewer and the space. Her work addresses themes of identity, corporeality, digital culture, and the impact of patriarchy and climate change on both existential questions and everyday concerns. Her practice is at once critical, yet playful, infused with irony and a sense of hope.
Janů graduated in photography from the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU) and studied Intermedia at the Academy of Fine Arts (AVU). In 2021, she became a laureate of the Jindřich Chalupecký Award. She currently heads the Intermedia Studio at FaVU in Brno and is a doctoral student at UMPRUM.
(b. 1988)
Igor Hosnedl specialises in large-scale paintings featuring fragmented human forms, gestures, and headless or organ-less figures that seem neither fully alive nor entirely dead, caught in the process of forming or decomposing. These bodies are placed in settings reminiscent of workshops or operating theatres. His work is inspired by psychoanalysis, the subconscious, and deep-rooted archetypes. His distinctive technique involves producing his own pigments using crushed pastel blended with glue, resulting in saturated, sometimes neon-like colours.
Hosnedl studied painting at Prague’s Academy of Fine Arts (AVU) under Vladimír Skrepl and Jiří Kovanda, as well as drawing with Jitka Svobodová. In 2020, he completed an artist residency in London. In recent years, he has exhibited extensively in Berlin, where he lives, as well as at Kunsthalle Bratislava and Art Basel Miami.
(b. 1962)
Jiří Petrbok is a Czech painter and devoted figurative artist whose works are instantly recognisable: tall canvases featuring elongated figures. His practice is infused with irony and the grotesque, where the imaginary merges with reality. His paintings depict surreal scenes of strange encounters between figures, objects, or flora. Petrbok, who is vegetarian, often includes vegetables as recurring motifs.
His paintings frequently carry a strong social commentary and address societal issues, often including erotic elements, latex-clad figures, and various fetish objects – possibly reflecting his former job in the 1990s as a clerk in a sex shop.
Petrbok studied at Prague’s Academy of Fine Arts (AVU) under Radomír Kolář and Jiří Sopko, and today leads the Drawing Studio there. This year alone, he has exhibited at the Gallery of Modern Art in Roudnice nad Labem, Prostor 228 in Liberec, and Hidden Gallery in Prague’s Žižkov district.
(b. 1980)
Adam Štech is a painter and sculptor of self-portraits, friends, family, as well as celebrities and politicians. He often revisits a single topic across different formats and colour palettes, always with a distinctive and recognisable style. His work draws on various historical periods, from the Baroque to Cubism, using vivid colours to create hybrid compositions that blend different eras and settings.
Štech studied painting at AVU with Jiří Sopko and Vladimír Skrepl, and completed an artist residency at Bellas Artes in Portugal.
(b. 1987)
Romana Drdová creates objects, photographs, and installations, drawing inspiration from visual art, fashion, technology, and design. Her work often features materials and objects with reflective or glossy surfaces. The motifs of mirroring and image multiplication serve as a metaphor for the world we inhabit. She combines effects of transparency and reflection, treating light as a sculptural material.
Since childhood, she has been fascinated by laboratories and drawn to the smells, glassware, and sense of experimentation. Her work explores the relationship between the human body and surrounding materials, delving into themes of identity and alienation.
Drdová graduated from the New Media Studio at Prague’s Academy of Fine Arts (AVU) under Tomáš Svoboda and completed study placements in Seoul and Karlsruhe. In 2017, she was a finalist for the prestigious Jindřich Chalupecký Award.
(b. 1989)
Jakub Jansa is an artist who works across media, combining film, installation, and live performance. He uses fiction, humour, and elements of the grotesque to narrate stories that comment on contemporary social issues. His exhibitions treat architectural space like a stage set, drawing on film and television aesthetics.
His ongoing exhibition series Club of Opportunities centres on a hybrid human-vegetable character to explore class, hierarchy, and cultural dynamics. The unlikely protagonist is a celery stalk who, despite the disdain of the elite avocado class, rises from working-class vegetable status to celebrity. The eighth episode was created for Flower Union, an exhibition by the National Gallery Prague for the Czech EU Council Presidency in 2022. This year, he presented the ninth episode, Pumpkinville, at Neue Galerie Graz in Austria. He is currently preparing the Czech and Slovak Pavilion for the 2026 Venice Biennale, in collaboration with artist duo Selmeci Kocka Jusko and curator Peter Sit.
Jansa studied at the Supermedia Studio at UMPRUM in Prague and completed residencies in Basel and New York. In 2021, he received the Jindřich Chalupecký Award. He currently co-leads the Performance Studio at FaVU VUT in Brno with Julie Béna.
(b. 1985)
Multimedia artist Miroslava Večeřová works primarily with photography, but also with video performance, objects, and painting. Her practice explores time, transformation in nature, and the relationship between humans, landscapes, and other forms of life from animals and plants to minerals. Her recent work focuses on places where earth, water, and sky meet. She is drawn to how shapes in these landscapes blend, disappear, and shift. Through this lens, she examines imagination, bodily experience, and both conscious and subconscious emotional states. Her art invites quiet contemplation and a reconnection with nature, offering a moment of stillness and a sensitive relationship to the world around us.
Večeřová studied fine art at Camberwell College of Arts in London and photography under Aleksandra Vajd and Hynek Alt at UMPRUM. She now lives in the UK and has exhibited at events such as Every Woman Biennial in London and Art Basel Hong Kong. She occasionally collaborates with painter Pavel Příkaský.
(b. 1962)
Tomáš Císařovský is a painter renowned for his colourful figurative works and portraits. He adheres to traditional academic techniques, primarily painting in oils. His subject matter includes historical figures, landscapes, and personal narratives, often developed in themed series – each with its own colour palette, symbolism, and atmosphere. In recent years, he has also taken up watercolour painting.
Císařovský studied painting at Prague’s Academy of Fine Arts (AVU) under Professors Paderlík and Ptáček. His key series include From the Diary of My Grandfather, the Legionnaire, chronicling the Czechoslovak Legion’s journey through Russia; Without Horses, a cycle of post-restitution portraits of the Czech nobility; a late 1990s series portraying people with disabilities; Beyond the Statute of Limitations, depicting pop stars of the normalisation era; and Havel, a large-scale biographical drawing project.
(b. 1962)
Artist and curator Michal Škoda creates drawings, paintings, and sculptures consistently investigates space, both urban and natural. His abstract drawings and objects are intentionally open to interpretation. By reducing forms and colour, he seeks a sense of timelessness in the everyday. He distils the complexity of reality into geometric structures and limits his palette mainly to shades of grey. He prioritizes intensive lifelong self-education across a broad range of subjects from contemporary art and architecture to poetry, music, and dance.
Škoda is a self-taught artist. Since 1998, he has directed the Gallery of Contemporary Art and Architecture at the House of Art in České Budějovice.
(b. 1966)
Tomáš Vaněk is a conceptual artist and educator best known for his Particip works – site-specific images spray-painted through stencils directly onto walls. Each is numbered and accompanied by the artist’s commentary. Rather than traditional artworks, they create participatory situations where meaning emerges through the viewer’s involvement.
While studying at AVU, Vaněk co-founded the art group BJ (Bezhlavý jezdec, or, The Headless Horseman) along with Josef Bolf, Ján Mančuška, and Jan Šerých. He has led the Intermedia 3 Studio at AVU for over 15 years, where he also earned his professorship and served as rector from 2014 to 2022. Vaněk is a member of the art collective PAS (Production of Current Activities) and won the Jindřich Chalupecký Award in 2001. He exhibited at Manifesta 8, the European biennial of contemporary art.
(b. 1990)
Filip Dvořák combines painting with found materials such as plastic scraps, wood pieces, and insulation foam. He creates harmonious object-paintings, designed to engage the viewer physically and mentally. His work explores art from multiple perspectives and is grounded in a belief in its transformative potential. Spiritual and historical motifs are reinterpreted through a contemporary lens.
Dvořák studied under Jiří Černický and Marek Meduna at UMPRUM and completed a residency at the Glasgow School of Art. In 2015, he won the ESSL Art Award CEE, a prize for emerging artists from Central and Eastern Europe, presenting a witty video projection of himself painting in extreme weather conditions.
Johana Pošová (b. 1988) & Barbora Fastrová (b. 1985)
The collaborative partnership between Barbora Fastrová and Johana Pošová began over a decade ago at an exhibition at Berlínskej Model in Prague. Their joint work explores the reciprocal relationship of Western society to nature, and vice versa. They are also drawn to pagan rituals and folk magic. Their choice of medium is flexible and project-specific.
Both artists graduated in photography from UMPRUM and completed international residencies: Pošová in Valencia, and Fastrová in Lima, where she studied sculpture. For Flower Union, an exhibition marking the Czech EU Council Presidency, they created a series of handwoven tapestries made from textile waste.
(b. 1985)
Painter Pavel Příkaský deliberately pushes the boundaries of the painting medium. His works often extend beyond the canvas, spilling onto gallery walls with dripping gel or added fringes. His practice addresses environmental issues and mythology, while also drawing on the world of contemporary science. His imagery blends animal figures with abstract forms.
Příkraský studied painting under Vladimír Kokolia at AVU. Since 2016, he has occasionally collaborated with conceptual artist Miroslava Večeřová.
September 4–7, 2025
Thu, Fri 10:00 - 19:00
Sat, Sun 10:00 - 21:00
Free Admission
Visitor Regulations
