Vojtěch Kovařík

How much more is there to say about mythology with all its muscles by means of painting, and especially figurative painting? The example of Vojtěch Kovařík’s work proves that the motif, repenting somewhere in a mouldy junk room, can still be a sensation. The classic theme, juxtaposed with a very fresh treatment of form and violation of the convention, thrills with its unpretentiousness. Sizzling with absurd strength, the men burst the frames of the picture, becoming caricature versions of archetypes of masculinity. Kovařík’s ancient heroes transmute from lofty figures to empty fitness eggshells; the more they grin and flex their colourful bodies, the more their whole terror creaks at the seams, together with the cult of strength founded on it. They get pacified when reaching maximum tension – the airbrushed network of veins becomes a drawing of cracks in their statuesque bodies. All that is left of the hyper-male is a wet spot (of paint).

Aleksy Wójtowicz

www.vojtechkovarik.com

Education

2016 – 2019 Master’s degree at the Faculty of Arts of the Ostrava University(CZ), Drawing Studio
2017 Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw (PL), Department of Painting (study abroad)
2013 – 2016 Bachelor’s degree at the Faculty of Arts of the Ostrava University(CZ), Drawing Studio
2009 – 2013 Secondary school of Applied Arts in Uherské Hradiště (CZ), Department of Ceramic Design