Alan Ket presents Art in Public, a new project by Jan Kaláb. The exhibition showcases the multi-disciplinary artist’s recent paintings created while residing as a visiting artist in New York City.
Jan Kaláb’s minimalist geometric paintings are bombastic, colorful, and energetic evoking the warmth, sounds, and excitement that have been his recent experience in New York. To see his paintings is to witness the depth of loneliness, color, transience, and power that exists in New York City at any given moment. Painting has been long at the core of Jan’s practice and here we see how he captures our city’s whimsy and life.
Challenged with presenting his work in the vast art landscape of New York City the artist chose to take his paintings outside, documenting their brief and temporary existence outside of his studio walls. The new paintings stand out as vibrant beacons among the huge skyscrapers and gray streets of the city. These art actions further pushed the artist’s engagement with the city as he enlisted strangers to assist in the photo documentation of his paintings.
Art in Public was chosen as an ironic statement since the artists comes from a graffiti background where years ago everybody painted outside in the streets and the gallery world didn’t exist for the graffiti writers while today graffiti artists and artists in general solely seem to care about the galleries and sales. As a reaction the artist chose to take his paintings outside again.
Jan Kaláb belongs to the oldest active generation of graffiti writers in the Czech Republic. Not only does he engage in classic graffiti, with a talent for dynamic, colorful and playful compositions with the nickname CAKES but he also creates many objects and sculptures of various formats in public spaces with the pseudonym POINT. He does not fear experimentation and thus successfully pushes the boundaries of the field. On canvas he has reduced his sweeping graffiti style to a concentrated minimalist geometry. This is signed by his civilian name KALAB.
In recent years Jan Kaláb has repeatedly garnered attention thanks to his astonishing works and public murals. He has exhibited internationally with solo shows in Buenos Aires, Bucharest, Prague, Sofia, and Opava in the Czech Republic.
Jan Kaláb, born 1978 and living in Prague, presents his first solo exhibition in New York City at 103 Allen Street on June 26th, 2014.
www.jankalab.com
www.onepoint.cz
One Night Pop Up Show curated by Alan Ket
June 26, 6-9pm at 103 Allen Street, LES
