22. 4. 2021 - 16. 5. 2021

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In his latest paintings, Uldrych elaborates on popular nature motifs symbolically connected through the sun's rays. Regular fractal patterns appear in the paintings, invisible webs of reality, similar to what is seen when psychedelic substances are ingested and akin to what we see when we look through narrowed eyelids at the sun. These are the same shapes that our ancestors used in rituals or as protective symbols on clothing. During deep meditation, it is in these regular ornaments that the surrounding chaos is formed. According to many mystics, it is geometrical symmetry that heals.

In his painting, form is important for Brázdil, not meaning. Colors are the basic building blocks. This approach allows him to capture the essence, which happens through reduction. The resulting form can sometimes seem strange or ordinary, sometimes abstract or realistic. However, it is this mutancy - which captures many positions in one form- that is the goal of Aleš Brázdil's painting expression. This mutancy gives the viewer free choice of how to interpret what he or she is looking at. Reality is completely denied and does not matter. Both painters are reunited at the Cosmos exhibition, where the shift from their original realistic painterly expression can be appreciated. Good contemporary "realistic" painters no longer present reality to the viewer, but its shifted form. It is aimed at the attentive, not lazy viewer. It forces the viewer to focus and to understand the image in its depth, whether semantic or formal. The common goal of Jan Uldrych and Aleš Brázdil is to capture the structural essence or the essence of content. At the same time, the paintings set a trap of apparent reality for the viewer. With these tools, they push the boundaries of realistic painterly expression far beyond its conventional understanding.

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curator: Petr Hájek