Vladimír Skrepl: Pliant Skin

One of the most influential Czech artists and educators of the last thirty years presents a completely new series of works called Pliant Skin in the main gallery of MeetFactory. Spanning over four decades, Vladimír Skrepl's artistic output ranges from painting to object installations and is characterized by vivid, rough expression combined with cartoonish deformation and the involvement of crude gestural painting. The starting point is Skrepl's deep learning from the painting tradition and his own artistic experience, which, however, leads in the end to a deliberate contradiction. Thus, the viewer sees beings, figures, and appearances peering out of the paintings that distort our visual experience. Vladimír Skrepl's work thus defies any kind of agenda and contradicts all conformity in art with brutality and irony.

Vladimír Skrepl (*1955) became one of the most progressive curators of the Prague City Gallery in the 1980s after studying art history and ethnography at Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Brno. Without a traditional art education, he then participated as an artist in a number of key exhibitions of the 1990s, such as Česká Abstra(H)ce (1996), To, co zbývá (1993), Zkušební provoz (1995), Snížený rozpočet (1997), and exhibitions at Béhémot and MXM galleries. Between 1994 and 2022, he was the head of the Painting II studio at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, where some of the most important artists of the following years studied under him. His work, ranging from painting to installation, is characterized by harsh expression, cartoonish distortion and the involvement of crude gestural painting. Vladimír Skrepl's work defies any kind of agenda and contradicts all conformity in art with brutality and irony.
 

Vladimír Skrepl: Pliant Skin

Opening: 14. 2. 2024, 19:00
Date: 15. 2. 2024 – 14. 4. 2024
Curator: Ján Gajdušek
Production: Petra Widžová
Graphic: Matúš Buranovský, Jiří Macků

Photo: Vladimír Skrepl, Untitled, acrylic on canvas, 200 x 145 cm | photo caption: courtesy of Vladimír Skrepl and Artefin Gallery

Installation photos by Jan Kolský 

Additional programme: 
26. 03. Exhibition guided tour (free) 

Admission: 
100 CZK 
>>> valid for MeetFactory Gallery and Kostka Gallery; available for purchase at the bar (cash and card payment possible)
>>> opening of exhibitions is free of charge

Opening hours:
Monday–Sunday 13:00–20:00