Jakub JANOVSKY: Ground / Luca PATAKI: Can't see the forest for the trees

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Jakub JANOVSKÝ: Ground

Luca PATAKI:
Can't see the forest
for the trees

16 September - 4 November 2026

Jakub JANOVSKÝ: Ground

The works selected for the exhibition by Czech artist Jakub Janovský feature chairs. This object – which at first glance appears simple and ordinary – gradually transforms into something else over the course of the exhibition, and this transformation is best understood through the lens of the post-socialist period. In his slightly unsettling still lifes, these everyday chairs appear as remnants of a bygone world, standing alone without their users. Having almost lost their function, they lie around like props, as if waiting for someone to finally put them to use. Their forms may be familiar from school classrooms, hallways, or even university seminar rooms: their similarity to one another can also be interpreted as a critique of frontal, non-individualized education.

In certain paintings, various constructions are built from these chairs – we can only guess whether what emerges from them is a sculpture, a monument, or simply some kind of strange platform. Here, the artist has also begun to take an interest in the anthropomorphization of objects: the old chairs interact with one another as if they were human bodies, evoking the monumental human pyramids seen at mass gatherings and sporting events in former socialist countries. However, the chair structures do not reflect the collectivism and seemingly stable atmosphere of these festive spectacles; rather, they suggest a sense of uncertainty and fragility. This is underscored by the fact that Janovský often depicts them in a damaged state: with broken chair legs, peeling wood, or tilted and toppled over, they create an increasingly disturbing effect.

All of this is emphasized by the artist’s palette of brownish, gray, and off-white tones, from which only occasional flashes of more vivid red, blue, or yellow appear. Janovský’s paintings embody both the contemporary Western European figurative painting aesthetis – as represented by Luc Tuymans, along with its existentialist worldview – and the style of Eastern European movements, such as the small-town lethargy of the Cluj School. At the same time, his works create a unique visual world that serves as a memorial to the forgotten everyday life of the former Eastern Bloc countries.

Luca PATAKI: Can't see the forest for the trees

Trees whose roots come to life on their own. Trees that set out on their own; trees that transform into humans. Roots, hands, eyes. Luca Pataki’s dynamic drawings and paintings focus on the myriad layers of meaning associated with trees: she is interested in the processes of putting down roots, growth, transformation, or even hiding. In her works, personal experiences intertwine with universal themes such as the search for home, the experience of returning there, or the journey of finding one’s own path. Her figures sometimes wander lost in a forest full of secrets, and at other times transform into trees themselves, much like Daphne from Greek mythology; whether fleeing from an external force or from themselves.

In the folk tales and myths that strongly inspire Pataki, the forest serves as the setting for inner transformation and various trials. It marks the boundary between the safe world and the unknown: as a result of the experiences there, the hero may return to his familiar surroundings as a different person. At the same time, the artist is not interested in linear storytelling or the hero’s triumph, but rather in the very process of transformation that takes place in the dark forest – a process that posits absence, mystery, and uncertainty as fundamental experiences of existence. In her current exhibition, Pataki reflects on these situations and moods through her site-specific thinking within the framework of this exhibition.

Site-specificity and an engagement with space were already characteristic of Luca Pataki’s earlier works. The gallery’s lower space is divided into two parts: the outdoor area is dominated by the artist’s expressive drawings, which introduce the visitor to her thinking – inspired by the various myths mentioned above – on cyclicality, transformation, and, not least, the pivotal role that creation and drawing play in the artist’s life. This stands in contrast to the interior space, which can be interpreted as a dark forest or a cave. No light penetrates here; our eyes must adjust to the dim light and to the change in our vision within a new environment. In this dark installation – which evokes both the subconscious and the act of inward reflection – the artist’s large-scale paintings appear through tiny slits like cave paintings, presenting works built from a similar set of motifs from a perspective entirely different from that of the outdoor space.

While the artist invites visitors to observe their own altered perceptions, the installation is further enhanced by another element: sound. Excerpts and fragments – both in English and Hungarian – from the publication made for the occasion of this exhibition are played within the interior space, evoking a sort of “stream of consciousness” that offers a glimpse into the artist’s sense of humor, her relationship to language, storytelling and her self-reflective working method. In her drawings and paintings, which excitingly blend image and text, it is not concrete answers and interpretations that arise, but rather a multitude of questions that often reflect on the act of creation itself and the role of art. Pataki is interested in the tensions between outside and inside, dark and light, emptiness and fullness, and these themes run through the various levels of her new site-specific installation as well.

JAKUB JANOVSKÝ

Jakub Janovský (1984, Jihlava, Czech Republic) is a Czech artist whose practice is primarily rooted in painting and drawing, complemented by installations and spatial interventions. His work explores the uneasy territory between the familiar and the strange, bringing together figures, interiors, architectural fragments, and imagined situations to create psychologically charged worlds. Janovský’s paintings often evoke feelings of isolation, vulnerability, boredom, and uncertainty, while at the same time leaving space for play, absurdity, and dark humor. Rather than presenting clearly defined narratives, he constructs ambiguous scenes in which memory, imagination, and everyday experience intersect.

A recurring interest in Janovský’s work is the relationship between people and the spaces they inhabit. Interiors, abandoned places, playgrounds, games, and various forms of structure become settings for situations that can feel both intimate and unsettling. His installations expand this approach into physical space, allowing individual works, objects, and architectural elements to form environments that the viewer can enter and experience. Across both painting and installation, Janovský is interested in the tension between order and instability, protection and confinement, innocence and threat.

Janovský studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague in the Studio of Drawing led by Jitka Svobodová. His work has been presented extensively in the Czech Republic and internationally, including exhibitions at the National Gallery Prague, City Gallery of Prague, GASK in Kutná Hora, Václav Špála Gallery in Prague, Kunstverein Pforzheim, Torula in Győr and the Ostrale Biennale in Dresden. He is a recipient of the NG 333 Award and the 2024 Sport in Art Award for Painting. His works are held in the collections of the National Gallery in Prague, City Gallery of Prague, GASK, and private collections in Europe and the United States.

LUCA PATAKI

Luca Pataki (1999, Budapest) lives and works in Dresden and Budapest. She graduated from the painting program at the Hungarian University of Fine Arts in 2022. During her university years, she explored the boundaries of the pictorial plane, gradually incorporating elements of drawing, digital media, and installation into her work. In recent years, she studied at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Dresden on an Erasmus scholarship (2020–21) and then completed an Erasmus+ internship in Berlin (2022–23). In 2022, she served as a coordinator and instructor for the documenta fifteen project titled “CAMP Notes on Education,” which she joined in connection with Tímea Pók’s project “Blossom,” focused on raising social awareness. In 2023, after winning a DAAD scholarship, she returned to the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Dresden to complete a postgraduate program, where she had numerous opportunities to build international professional connections.

Since 2022, she has been a member of the Association of Young Visual Artists’ Studios (FKSE) and has organized and participated in numerous other projects, including the EU4ART international collaboration. In 2021, she won the Ludwig Foundation Award, and in 2018, the Barcsay Award.

Her works are inspired by self-examination, the exploration of the subconscious, and the labyrinth motif, through which she addresses personal and universal questions. Her works are often based on his so-called “five-minute drawings,” which form a complex web of ideas consisting of more than a thousand sketches. Her themes include automatism, duality, enigmatic qualities, and struggle, which she explores through an intuitive and conceptual approach.

She regularly participates in solo and group exhibitions, and in recent years has been exhibiting abroad with increasing frequency. In 2024, his first solo exhibition abroad, titled *Idea*, opened at the Galerie Goldene Pforté in Dresden. In 2025, he was awarded the Robert-Sterl-Preis; in connection with this award, her next solo exhibition will open in late October 2025.