Robert
Šalanda is taking part in a six months residential stay under the new exchange
program between AIR Antwerpen and MeetFactory Prague. Robert already spent the
first three months in AIR Antwerpen, followed now by his three months at the MeetFactory
Prague.
In his
work, Robert makes use of an imaginary database composed of abstract visual or
language symbols. He finds his inspiration in the whole arsenal of digital
images and scenes of everyday life. Typical of his work is quotation – a motif
once found reappears usually in other works of his in a number of unexpected
connections and contexts. Robert approaches his creation in two ways: one is
prevailingly intellectual, based on an almost scientific work with the supply
of symbols and signs; his intuitive approach is mainly traceable in the way the
painting medium us used (and its occasional overlap into the third dimension) and
in the often surprising or seemingly irrational combinations of diverse visual elements
of variegated contents. The other way lies in the artist’s lightened styling
based on his obsession with trashy language and pictorial culture. Both these
directions in their results permeate each other constituting an organic whole,
despite one of them usually dominating the other. As if Robert’s minimized
abstraction was laughing in secret, its intelligence expressing admiration for
(human) simplicity. Hackneyed visual elements are assembled in a well-devised,
rhythmical composition, the right place being found even for the most banal of
them all.
Robert
Šalanda graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts, Prague (1995 – 2002). In the
year 2000 he paid a study visit to Facultad de Bellas Artes Cuenca in Spain. In
2008 a professional stay in Berlin and residential stay at Egon Schiele Centre
in Český Krumlov followed. In 2011 Robert took part at a ISCP residential stay
in New York and in 2016 at AIR Antwerp in Belgium. Rober Šalanda was a
co-founder of SPZ Gallery in 2011 and takes part in designing the gallery’s
curatorial concept (
www.galeriespz.com). Since 2012 he has been teacher of the
Painting Studio, at Scholastika School of Contemporary Art.
Examples of
exhibitions:
One night
show (2016, AIR Antwerp), I Told You So (2015, Pavilon Gallery, Prague), Czech
Dream (2015, Czech Center New York), Fragments of Sets (2015, Fait Gallery,
Brno), I Recommend (2014, 35m2 Gallery, Prague), Treasures (2014, Entrance
Gallery, Prague), 7 New Zlín Salon (2014, Zlín), Word for Word (2013, MeetFactory
Gallery), The Stowaway (2012, 207 Gallery, Prague), Czech Painting of the Zero
Generation (2011, Wennieck Gallery, Brno), Fundaments and Sediments (2011,
GHMP, Municipal Library, Prague), Morse (2011, St. Garden/ WinterSpace, New
York), After Velvet (2009 GHMP Gallery, the Golden Ring House, Prague), Prague
Biennale 4 (2009, Prague), Acne (2006, Rudolfinum Gallery, Prague).
http://www.robertsalanda.com/