Parallel Scenarios
5. 8. 2021 - 12. 9. 2021
The exhibition of three studying authors of the Prague Academy of Fine Arts - Laura Limbourg (*1996), Annemari Vardanyan (*1994) and Jan Soumar (*1995) - is a case probe into the expressive and reflexive transformation of the youngest figural painting and a relatively new phenomenon on the Czech art scene - its internationalization.
While the narrative of the figure is a connecting moment of the presented works, the title of the exhibition PARALLEL SCENARIOS clearly defines the originality and autonomy of individual painting approaches. Although these are authors of a generation born in the 1990s, the motivation for figural painting always manifests itself differently here. This also follows from the fact that the project simultaneously connects three different cultural backgrounds represented by the authors, and with these backgrounds the basic setting and natural sensitivity to other thematic areas of painting change. Laura Limbourg, originally from Belgium, is approached against the background of ancient local cultures by the difficult, global or post-colonial themes she encountered while traveling to the exotic countries of Southeast Asia. Annemari Vardanyan hails from Armenia and her theme is rather introverted to the broad family community and her sustained life rituals in the new cultural environment, but she is also sensitive to adopting the "Western" cultural canon with its attributes of representation and patterns of behavior. Jan Soumar, a Central European born in Prague, probably examines the status quo of the figure the most, which by deformation and fragmentation decomposes 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.
PARALLEL SCENARIOS present the possibilities offered to the current medium of painting for evaluation, and at the same time reshape and change the proven ways of painterly visual communication. The image with the generation of the 90s changes its social situation. It is more engaged, more authorially interferes in the course of things or openly (critically) reflects on them. And this gesture of intervention, evoked by social conditions, strong experiences, life circumstances or inner necessity, is imprinted in how each of the authors deals with the means of expression and stabilizes them in the resulting forms, which then mirrors these essential and founding reasons. Even in the field of contemporary painting, parallel scenarios are created, which inextricably belong to a democratic society based on pluralism of opinion and mutual tolerance.
text: Jan Kudrna