"Time is urgent, let's slow down..."

Bayo Akomolafe

Our civilization is in a deep crisis today. We feel that we need to respond to this crisis in a more creative way than we have been doing so far. In the subtext of the paintings and drawings of the four artists represented in this exhibition – Jan Pražan, Roman Hudziec, Mark Rohel and Jakub Doubrava – we encounter a countercultural pilgrim an attitude that encourages us to slow down our lives. To stop and listen more to nature and the world around us; to realize that we are part of larger patterns that connect us to the mysterious depths of nature and the universe; that we are an integral part of the autopoietic miracle of the “river of life” in which we are immersed and in which we flow like waves,

Artists who do not deny the romantic spirit within them encourage us to step out of the binary mode of thinking and “drink tea, do nothing and start flowing with the world” (Marek Rohel); to “meditate, stand in a circle by the fire and open ourselves to the story of the universe” (Jan Pražan), to “listen to the wisdom of the forest” (Roman Hudziec), to “not be afraid to let go of established patterns and open ourselves to transformation” (Jakub Doubrava). To instead observe the cracks in reality, look the absurdity of our crises in the eye and learn to dance and flow with uncertainty.

George Zemanek

Jan Prazan (born 1979), painter and illustrator. He studied at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Brno (2006-2012) in the painting studio of Martin Mainer. In 2008, he completed an internship at the Facultad Bellas Artes in Cuenca, Spain. He works in free-form and mural painting, as well as book illustration. His visionary work was influenced by psychedelic experience. The Prague native's imaginative, strongly coloristic paintings are characterized by trust in the creative process and his spontaneous inner self-direction, as well as a holistic awareness of the interconnectedness of all life. He lives in Prštice near Brno.

Roman Hudziec (1968), painter and musician. He graduated from the Academy of Applied Arts in the studio of Prof. Pavel Nešleha (1987-1993); in 1995 he worked as a visiting teacher at Sherbone Boys School in England and from 1995 to 2003 he was a teaching assistant in the painting studio at the University of Applied Arts UPRUM in Prague. He is engaged in free painting and the creation of large-format scenic paintings for the animal pavilions of the Prague Zoo. His main inspiration is the forest, or rather the wild forest landscape. Important inspirational topos for him are the Mionší forest in the Beskydy Mountains and the floodplain forest in the Oupor nature reserve at the confluence of the Elbe and Vltava rivers below Mělník. He lives in Korycany near Mělník.

Mark Rohel (1985), Czech-English painter, draftsman, action artist and tea lover. He studied in the painting studio at the Umprum University of Applied Sciences in Prague (prof. Jiří Černický and Marek Meduna), from which he graduated in 2015; in 2014 he studied for one semester at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. In his impressive figurative drawings, he reflects the existential situation of man in our late times – on the one hand, his loneliness in the world of computers and, at the same time, the desire for connection with nature, with the mythical home within us, with the deep dimension of the world. He currently lives in Copenhagen.

Jakub Doubrava (1979), actor, reciter, medical clown, musician, radio director, organizer of cultural events and artist, son of the famous South Bohemian sculptor Milan Doubrava. He graduated from DAMU in Prague, majoring in acting, at the Department of Alternative and Puppet Theatre. He founded the Kajbar Cabaret and the experimental theatre group TEArTR RAJDO. He is the author of the public programmes Četba na přání (České Budějovice) and Cafe Jednorožec (Klatovy) and has been organising UBU Camp – Woodstock ŠUMava every year for ten years. He played the main role in the television film A piece of heaven (director Petr Nikolaev) and as director of Czech Radio in Pilsen, he focuses mainly on literary programs. He lives in Mlázovy near Sušice.

Author of the exhibition concept and curator: Jiří Zemánek