Viktor Valášek

As an obsessive traveller, I comment on the changing surrounding in my paintings, focusing on each region’s sociopolitical issues such as abuse of power and cultural stereotypes. What I value the most is the osmotic connection with the culture where I get immersed into, interacting with people in daily lives and incorporating found materials as well as invisible elements of a foreign culture into my creative project. 

I strive to communicate with the locals by placing myself within the context as one of “them”, and depicting people’s unheard stories pushed aside from the History. The mural series set in diverse regions as well as Mountain paintings bring forth the question of discourse and power in History—the absurd glorification of authority figures as opposed to the brutal forgetfulness evident in the case of local lives. 

The gesture of adding layers onto the existing surface of a wall or a used canvas, the practice I call “recycling,” shows that my interest in the mixture of different identities is necessarily put before the establishment of the artist’s ego as the autonomous self. 

As I strenuously experiment with the traditional media of painting and drawing, I refrain myself from setting any limits in terms of style, varying from realistic depiction brimming with minute details of a figure to highly textural visualization of abstract forms.  

http://viktorvalasek.com/