The exhibition The Storm (Sturm) presents two key phases in the career of painter Martin Mainer (*1959) and highlights their surprising continuity.

The first part of the exhibition focuses on Mainer’s early works from the 1980s, some of which have never before been exhibited or published. These works can be placed within the broader context of New Expressionism, represented in Germany by the Neue Wilde group. In the Czech art scene, Mainer’s work signaled a marked and radical departure from previous trends and represented one of the key impulses of the emerging postmodern movement.

During the late socialist era, when Czechoslovak art—following the period of cultural liberalization in the 1960s—was once again significantly isolated from international developments, Mainer brought a new kind of energy, personal freedom, and expressiveness to painting. His paintings from that period provoked viewers with their intense colors, distorted figures, and grotesque—at times even eruptive—painterly gestures. It was precisely their immediacy, striking individuality, and treatment of the painting as an autonomous space that represented a fundamental shift in Czech art at the time.

The second part of the exhibition presents Mainer’s latest works from 2026. A comparison of his early works with his current paintings reveals that, although his painterly language has evolved over the decades, the fundamental principles of his work remain surprisingly vibrant. The exhibition thus not only creates a dialogue between two time periods but also reveals Mainer’s work as a continuous and internally interconnected whole, in which individual motifs, principles, and ways of thinking about painting reappear in new forms.

Storm is thus not merely a return to the early work of one of the leading figures of Czech painting in the 1980s. Above all, it is an opportunity to observe how the radical energy of Mainer’s early work transforms and continues in his current practice.

A bilingual catalog accompanies the exhibition.