PR - JOSEF ACHRER / BACKSTORIES
3rd December 2015 – 28th January 2016
Fait Gallery MEM
Božetěchova 1, Brno
Vernissage: 2nd December 2015 at 7pm
Curator: Martin Nytra
Josef Achrer (*1982) graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague and is a former member of the group Fig., whose members aim to deal with the image and the medium of painting. During his studies, he completed internships at the San Francisco Art Institute and the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. In 2012, he received the Critics Award for Young Painters. From his solo exhibitions we can mention: Landscape no. 22, GASK - Gallery of the Central Bohemian Region (Kutná Hora), ... ffffrom the Earth, Gallery of Art Critics (Prague), Opening Studio, Zdeněk Sklenář Gallery Studio, CCC (Beijing), Push the Leaks, Wannieck Gallery - Gallery on the Bridge (Brno) or ACHRER, Zdeněk Sklenář Gallery Chambre à part (Prague). Out of the number of participations in group exhibitions and shows we can mention: Czech Painting of Generation Y, Wannieck Gallery (Brno), Pets, Bredgade Kunsthandel (Copenhagen), or Up- Youth Times Art Museum (Beijing). Josef Achrer is represented, for example, in the collections of Times Art Museum (Beijing), Bloomage International Investments (Beijing), Zdeněk Sklenář Gallery (Prague), Wannieck Gallery (Brno), Fait Gallery (Brno), or Miroslav Kubík Gallery (Litomyšl).
Josef Achrer’s art work has gradually evolved from the figurative phase affected by "neo-primitivist" painting of the 80s, through the theme of landscapes, where his approach clearly shows the reflection of the medium of painting and the image itself, and there is a gradual conceptual refinement and reduction of formal means. In his work from the recent years, we can also find a clear reminiscence of minimalism and conceptual tendencies. The fundamental theme of the author’s art work over the last few years is the relationship between geometry and landscape. Achrer talks about a rationalised landscape, or even about our materialistic relationship to it. On the other side, the way he works is concurrently on the level that resembles a mythical and idealised landscape. From that the author gets to the more general issue of displaying and the technology related to that (eg. work from the series DATA) and the very essence of the picture, to its function and historical forms.
For the MEM gallery space Josef Achrer prepares an exhibition that, despite its seductive looking obviousness, in many respects goes further behind the theme of picture and painting techniques themselves. At the same time the exhibition rediscovers a series of relationships and implications that have traditionally shaped the statute of painting and its perception. However, there are moments entering this confirmative loop that can lead us out of this debate to wider reflection on the phenomena of our current present.
Martin Nytra, curator
