The exhibition by Erika Pfeifferová presents two series by the artist, comprising works from the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The paintings Light, Gate, Lake I, Lake II and In Yellow were created during a period she herself associates with finding a new foundation and with the question of what can be retained from previous experience. Her thinking at the time revolved around the concept of a floor plan, architecture, and inner light. This motif took on the significance of self-exploration: it denoted the inner space of the human being, within which one can seek “a point from which to move forward.”

Pfeiffer articulated these ideas through spatial and geometric arrangements. The floor plan defines the whole and determines its basic structure. Boundaries, passages, surfaces, and light create a structure in which the individual elements are mutually dependent. The artist herself associates the apparent simplicity of geometric shapes with a sense of complex and demanding interrelationships. Geometry gives them a visual form without confining them to a single interpretation.

The works were created on hardboard. Looking back on her work from the 1980s, Pfeiffer emphasizes the rigidity of this substrate and the openness of its surface. This can be understood in relation to the possibilities that arise during the creative process. She describes her approach as “collaboration with the surface.” This expression shifts the focus from the material itself to the artist’s relationship with it and to the process of creating the image.

Light is a significant element in these paintings. It enters their composition as a variable element and disrupts its fixed arrangement. The exhibition is accompanied by a later text by the artist devoted to silence, a theme that recurs in her work in connection with concentration and inner space.

In the nine-part series Drawings with Bast from 1992, her interest in line, surface, and material is developed through a different approach. Pfeiffer applies lines made of bast fiber to light-colored handmade paper; these lines protrude from the surface, creating a delicate relief texture. The joint exhibition with her paintings allows viewers to observe how the artist works with space through geometric relationships and light, and how she shapes it in her drawings simply by having the lines protrude above the surface of the paper. The bast fiber drawings were acquired by the Gallery of Modern Art in Hradec Králové in 2025 for its collection, and Erika Pfeifferová’s work is now also featured in the gallery’s permanent exhibition.

The work of Erika Pfeifferová (*1956) straddles the boundaries between drawing, painting, and relief structure. From 1976 to 1982, she studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague in Jan Smetana’s studio of monumental painting. Gradually, her work came to reflect an interest in the composition of the painting, its materials and surface, as well as the relationships that can arise between line, plane, and space.

Curator: Jan Florentýn Báchor