The Swirling Dust exhibition features sculptor Richard Kočí’s most recent work, which in recent years has been moving away from monumental wooden sculptures dominated by architectural rationality, towards shapes distinguished by playful colours and organic polymorphism.

Richard Kočí (1954) left Czechoslovakia in 1967 for the USA, where he studied art at North Texas State University, and then later moved to Spain, where in Madrid he continued his studies in sculpture and printmaking, specifically gravure printing. For several years, he initially devoted himself to classical academic sculpture. As time went on, his style developed and figurative influences gave way to the greater openness, represented at that time by abstract art and a patient effort to familiarize himself with various materials such as wood, marble, and bronze.

Upon his return to the Czech Republic in the mid-1990s, he began creating his first monumental wooden sculptures, which became typical for him for some time, even though he continued to devote himself to painting and printmaking.

The objects that Richard Kočí has created in recent years are quite different from his previous work. Though a tortuous line remains as the foundation of shape, this sculptures are brightly coloured, wood has been replaced by polyester resin, and rationality by looseness and playfulness.