Jan Uličný is currently focused on creating figurines. His figurines usually wear unusual clothing and, compared to their predecessors, appear more deprived and slightly more sullen. Jan Uličný’s body of work, of which this exhibition offers a cross-section, is highly diverse. The exhibition presents a selection of Uličný’s current works in juxtaposition with foreign yet thematically related elements. This allows the viewer to catch a glimpse of the artist’s work. As a whole, the exhibition is conceived to reveal the most intimate and subtle nuances that the artist himself is unable to convey through his work. 

The artist himself provokes the viewer, yet also holds them in some regard. The bravura and lightness of the shorthand used to depict sadness, resigned rage, and veiled and disguised malice are unprecedented. Jan is a master at creating characters and their stories, at shaping their personalities. He is a playwright, a painter-writer—like Čapek. If one has the patience to watch it, one might even discover a monkey within oneself—a monkey that is in control, empathetic, and praying to the very air it has exhaled. The exhibition aims to present Uličný’s work as a precisely drawn constellation. Or perhaps as a network of puppets playing their roles. 

Btw. Is Honza Chasník here somewhere!!!!

text: Rudolf Skopec

curators: Jakub Hrdlička and Rudolf Skopec