Jan Vičar is a solitary personality of the Czech visual arts and the recipient of numerous awards, including the Prize for Free Graphic Art from the French Academy (Institut de France, Académie des Beaux-Arts), the National Prize of Italy (1st Prize Premio Leonardo Sciascia Milano) and the Vladimír Boudník Prize. In the Centre of Contemporary Art EPO1 he presents his largest exhibition realized in the Czech Republic so far.

The artist’s approach to his work is purely organic and experimental. He uses graphic techniques, especially woodcut, linocut and woodblock printmaking, which draw on classical principles. A large-format press he built himself allows him to print monumental works, thus exceeding the usual technical limits of traditional printmaking. 

His work is known for its dark atmospheres and narrative structures. Individual works often blend reality with the surreal world, creating an ambiguous and specific atmosphere, leaving viewers in a state of some tension and uncertainty. Vičar’s woodcuts and linocuts, break the classical boundaries between the printed form and the final impression. This conscious shift makes the matrix itself the final work of art, underlining its unorthodox position in the field of contemporary printmaking.

Through his prints, full of strong emotions and stories, he brings refuge and creates works that are both enigmatic and emotionally compelling.

The exhibition project PARADISE LOST reflects the relationship to experience as a state of transformation through the works of four generations of artists. In their work, three male and one female painter address primarily how the perception of time changes in relation to objecthood and figuration. What plays a significant role here is the period of childhood, in which the foundations of the adult personality are formed. Something is irretrievably lost and sacrificed so that something else can emerge and continue to develop. Childhood is not only memories, but also the first social games, the first uncontrollable emotions and the different environments in which the child grows up and which stimulate them. The relationship to reality changes over time. The familiarity of the world with its certain illusions of security becomes cracked later in life. The reverse side of knowledge returns man to a different, alienated world, which is no longer as easy to navigate as it once was. All the more so does this ‘new’ world mirror the nature and character of the individual, whose roots can be traced back to childhood. The light-heartedness of games and the casual childlike verification of reality are transformed into a qualitatively different existence of varying intensity, sometimes even magically spectral. Life becomes denser, combing the undercurrents of doubt and melancholy. These then inscribe themselves in a differently set perception. The scepticism present in the works is occasionally intersected by irony, a sense of absurdity or dark humour.

Matyáš Chochola is the most prominent eclectic artist on the current Czech art scene, ranking among the top 25 contemporary Czech artists according to the J&T Art Index. In his project “The Virtues and Vices of Our Time / 300 Years Later”, he presents a distinctive reinterpretation of twelve allegories inspired by the iconic sculptures of Matthias Bernard Braun in Kuks. He uses modern technology, specifically concrete 3D printing, to create sculptures with a totemic and symbolic touch, which are linked to current issues of human values and their ambivalence, reflecting the chaos and disjointedness of our time. What may be a virtue for one may be a vice for another. The sculptures have no fixed definitions – their interpretation is left to the viewer, who can see in them archetypal references of different cultures and epochs, from antiquity to Cubism to Brutalism. Chochola layers not only matter, but also meanings. The diversity of the individual objects is underlined by their working: 3D printing is complemented by hand interventions, pigment staining and additional elements, adding to the authenticity of each sculpture. The exhibition is a temporary installation and the artist intends to find a place for the sculptures in the public space, where they would best interact with the surrounding environment. 

EPO1 Contemporary Art Centre invites you to the exhibition Fresh Power –⁠ motives and tendencies of the youngest generation of domestic sculpture.

One of the projects of the EPO1 Centre for Contemporary Art is the creation of the Fresh Power collection, which aims to map the work of the youngest generation of sculptors and artists coming out of Czech sculpture schools, graduating in 2018 and later. The title Fresh Power is also the title of the exhibition that forms the basis of this collection. In building the collection, we have avoided a selective approach, and our main concern is to capture not only the work of the artists, but also the diversity of artistic approaches and inspiration, to map a wide range of styles and materials used. We would like to capture the trends that appear in the work of authors from the first half of the 21st century who create their works on the territory of the Czech or Slovak Republic.