Tallová & Kvetan & Šakový

The exhibition brings together the worlds of two male artists and one female artist who live in parallel, yet exist independently. Intersecting at certain points, occasionally meeting, and diverging at others. Together, they form three authentic perspectives, each autonomous, inherently unique, and driven by a distinct dynamic. 

Although each artist employs different artistic strategies, specific processing, and diverse media rooted in their long-developed artistic programmes, we can detect shared moments and mutual intersections in their work. These can be perceived on the level of an intuitive connection, as well as through the atmosphere, energy, poetics, associations, and the communication of individual works through related motifs, contents, and references.

Visually similar motifs or materially identical points of foundations are typically accompanied by divergent modes of thought, perspectives, and contexts of creation. Ultimately, these artists represent two distinct generations. Marek Kvetan entered the art scene in the late 1990s, while Lucia Tallová and Adam Šakový emerged more than twenty years later, in the new millennium. While Kvetan established himself as an intermedia artist from the very beginning, painting remained the primary medium for Tallová and Šakový for many years, with their transitions toward three-dimensional objects and installations developing gradually. What unites these individual artists is a combination of direct and mediated experience, internal perception, the coupling of psyche and body, reflections on human relationships, and an engagement with memory and time that references the past, present, and future. They address themes such as fragility and vulnerability, temporality and ephemerality, as well as resilience and vitality.

The exhibition features recent works by the artists, primarily from the 2020s, with the earliest piece being Marek Kvetan’s 2016 object Big Plates. The intention was not to present comprehensive individual portfolios, but rather to identify works that exhibit certain formal and semantic affinities. This concept also shapes the exhibition’s curatorial framework. By juxtaposing the works of Lucia Tallová, Marek Kvetan, and Adam Šakový, the exhibition aims to unfold a fluid, permeating, and boundary-crossing narrative rather than imposing a rigid concept confined within rigid boundaries.