An exhibition titled Memories will present a selection of work by Frank Kočí, an artist who was born in Czechoslovakia and worked in San Francisco. Although Frank Kočí painted more than 2,000 works, he went unnoticed in the art world. His work is now being exhibited at Vernon Gallery in a show that will run from 8 August to 15 September 2012. The pre-opening of the exhibition will take place on 7 August at 6pm. The gallery is open from Wednesdays to Saturdays between 1pm and 6:30pm. Admission is free.
‘Art isn’t about infinite harmony with the world, but about the infinite joy and sadness emanating from one's experience.’ - Frank Kočí
Frank Kočí (1904-1983) was a very active street painter in San Francisco. He left his native Czechoslovakia in 1921 when he was 17 years old. He decided to seek fortune and happiness in the United States, where he found work as a night guard in Hollywood movie art studios. There he managed to get into an art department and gain access to paint, and then he began to make his first paintings.
The faces in his images gaze back at the viewer with a disarming intensity. Kočí came back to his native Czechoslovakia in his works capturing polite Czech gentlemen with moustaches, which he remembered from his childhood. Most of Kočí’s work focused on the inhabitants of North Beach and on visitors walking through the streets. His works very often feature a downcast, hungry man.