Fragility, vulnerability and the need to stop in today's fast-paced world. These are the main themes of the spring exhibition of painter Jitka Petrášová entitled Něžci. The unique space Galerie Výhybka, housed in a former cubist synagogue, will unveil the exhibition on Saturday, March 28. The evening will then seamlessly follow with a concert by singer-songwriter Cermaque at the Kamenáč club.

The constant pressure to perform and escape the accelerated world. This is the starting point of Jitka Petrášová's current exhibition. The artist, otherwise known for her generous and fierce canvases, has slowed down radically this time and created an intimate series Něžci. The impetus for the unexpected quieting of her work was a recent personal experience with the serious illness of a close friend. "What annoys me the most is that we can usually only stop when a major blow comes. We should be more in the here and now, because we really don't know how long we have this happiness," Petrášová explains. In her performance, the accelerated runners become calm figures captured on vulnerable paper. Moreover, as a powerful symbol of physical fragility, the artist has chosen an object that is rather silent - the ostomy bag. She strips it of its social taboo and transforms it into soft plush and plaster objects that engage in an unexpectedly close dialogue with the viewer.

The atmosphere of silence is perfectly enhanced by the space itself. Galerie Výhybka, which is run by husband and wife team Zdeňka and Marek Herout, has come a long way since its inception in 2022. From the original station pub, the project moved to the New Synagogue in Milevsko – an exceptional cubist building by the prominent Prague architect O. Tyl from the early 20th century. Today, contemporary art lives here in complete symbiosis with the prayer room of the Czechoslovak Hussite Church, thanks to the cooperation with the pastor of the local religious community, Vladimír Karbusický.

But the community outreach does not end there. 

Jitka Petrášová (1981) graduated from the Department of Art Education at the Pedagogical Faculty of the South Bohemian University in České Budějovice (2000-2008) and the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (2019-2025), where she defended her master's degree in June 2025 with the thesis Gardens Neglected Today. She passed through the studios of Robert Šalanda, Marek Meduna, Petr Dub and Anton Vidokl. In addition to painting, she is also an illustrator and co-owner of a small book publishing house, Knižnice Kodiak. 

Curator: Martina Fridrichová