Jan Soumar (*1995, Prague) is the one who examines the status quo of the figure the most. By deformation and fragmentation, he decomposes it into another level of situational visuality and thus changes the genetic code of the figural narrative itself, which "tells" about the media transformation of the image in the digital culture era.

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The key to Jan Soumar’s paintings is exemplified in the painting Back Into The Reality (2021). The reality of painting is a place for visual and semantic reassessment. The author refers to fragments of figures and landscapes from memory, which he collages into new, modernist creations. These creations replace unambiguous illusory space and transform it into an abstract, emotional, or, in contemporary language, experiential environment. The painting of fragments “from memory” leads to the repetition of certain schemes and points to the “world of forms” latently present in the author’s subconscious. These are subliminal moments of memory, which, both consciously as well as involuntarily become part of the picture. These fragments are washed-out remnants of narratives, with scattered context. Sometimes, realistic moments and total deformations of the figures in the flow of floating pure forms are deliberately irritating (Untitled, 2021; Deformed Figure, 2021; Shoelaces, 2021). Elsewhere, the whole composition dematerializes and changes into a new, artificial reality with mere flashbacks to the now non-existent world in question (Limbs, 2021). The most vigorous paintings are those with the contrast of both spheres of expression (Look At This!, 2021; X boy, 2021), paintings that ironize traditional painterly iconographic scheme (Group Conversation, 2021), or the modernist trend of concrete paintings - which is already a thing of the past ( Color Field, 2021).

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Petr Vaňous