opening: 28. 4. 2016, 6 p.m.
duration: April 29, 2016 - May 29, 2016
curator: Pavel Urban
East Slovak Gallery, Hlavná 27
The exhibition with the economical title Behind presents the current work of the young artist Adam Šakový (1987), who, despite his age, has already become one of the prominent representatives of contemporary Slovak painting and its expansive possibilities. In his plastic paintings in the spirit of "trompe-l'oeil" he imitates real reality, which at the same time specifies his own authorial techniques. These often intersect with each other as they gradually come to the fore during the painting process, which is dominated by light alchemy and an almost methodical successive approach. Deciphering individual plans and objects in the field of key visual information becomes for Šakový a central artistic problem and at the same time a moment that draws the viewer to directly participate in the creation, resp. interpretation of the image.
With the chosen motifs, he creates, as if visual aporias, which seduce the audience to a certain degree of uncertainty, otherwise perfect illusory paintings. However, the apparent inclination to Baroque aesthetics is not stylized in the first place, but has an exclusively historical accent, as the objects on the canvases are scenes tied to the past, whether in a social or private context, which generate a certain sensation from previous expectations . A similar line stretches on canvases dedicated to inanimate animals, respectively. preparations that either still exist but are no longer alive or are faithfully portrayed as seemingly alive and are already extinct. An essential element of the exhibition are the variations of still lifes, a kind of parable of the natural values of man through the depiction of seven virtues - humility, generosity, benevolence, patience, chastity, sobriety, activity, through seemingly identical and empty vessels with a solution archiving the value. It is ephemerally present in the background somewhere "behind" and can always be made visible by some negative human intervention, resp. degrade to its opposite pole as in the case of the central diptych of oversized vessels evoking the preservation of otherwise procedural twists - love and hate.
The cycle of paintings, stylized mainly as hanging maps under the collective title Education, creates a kind of multi-meaning glosses with visual layering, which are played with spectator attention and a certain degree of ambiguity. legends. Namely, the only fire linking all the exhibited works here is a non-violent effort to possibly rearrange the usual standards in the process of directing attention to a painting faithfully captured object, which is exposed to visual confrontation with the viewer.
Adam Šakový studied painting and other media in the studio of Doc. Klaudie Kosziby at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava, while becoming known to the professional public as a two-time semifinalist of the international Strabag Art Award competition from 2010 and 2011, but especially in 2013, when he became a finalist in the prestigious Essl Art Award for young artists. He has exhibited in various alternative and official galleries of contemporary art in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland and Italy.
