About the project
CZEN
Artlist — Center for Contemporary Arts Prague

Ivan Vosecký

First Name
Ivan
Surname
Vosecký
Born
1963
Birth place
Hradec Králové
Place of work
Prague
Website
http://ivanvosecky.com
Keywords
CSU Library
↳ Find in the catalogue

About artist

Ivan Vosecký’s products are interesting in that they have a definite design. Or rather they react to a certain design, for example, graphically. This style is at once retrospective as well as timely, ironic and serious. The artist’s messages as such (read in a language code) can seem very banal and sometimes even arcane. In fact, their visual style is what indicates their shift toward conceptualism and political agitation. The language code here is not likely a fully adequate key „for their reading.“ We could notice shapes, lines and colours more. The artist often writes texts with sociological, political and/or culturally alternative content. These messages are born in the context of a public discourse. However they are extracted therefrom and transplanted into institutions with a different type of context. Art, galleries or museums represent institutions, whose nature is neither private nor public, but rather culturally- and socially-specific. Art is defined such that it cannot more or less penetrate the public space. Wherever works of art are placed, the public space ends and a closed cell of specific discourse appears. We are not speaking now of visual culture in general, but specifically about art. Public intervention is possibly done only on the assumption of a transformation of functions and roles, and in such a case barricading the art and activating its non-artistic meaning. At the tip of this paradox Ivan Vosecký balances a large part of his works. It concerns rather the public space’s intervention into art and not the other way around. Here, the public discourse becomes however mere material, attractive for its radicalness and provocative for its wornness. Generality, commonness, popularity – these are trumps he’s playing with here. It is not about the mass consumption culture as with pop art, but rather about a sufficiently-known and profaned alternative culture. Today the most common types of advertisement and presentation of goods no longer represent pop art. Contemporary mass culture offers the viewer a product – in its essence characterizable as „two for one“ – for quick, cheap and dumb consumption as well as for its own critical contemplation. Mass culture often makes fun of itself (and this on purpose). Vosecký reprints this feature of today’s culture into the artistic space. This exaggerated and ineffective engagement is a statement on the state of modern art, more specifically art from the post-Communist space. Here, artistic production constantly seeks out its societal role, its viewers, values and own power.

Author of the annotation
Václav Hájek

CV

1980-1987 Faculty of Architecture ČVUT, Prague

1990-1997 Academy of Finer arts in Prague, studios: M. Knížák, M. Bielický, M. Šejn, J. David, V. Skrepl

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions
2008
Illegal particip no. 1, Praha
Pop abstrakt-bolest v ráji, Wanieck gallery, Brno
Nigdo, Karlín Studios, (http://www.karlinstudios.cz/tiskovky/nigdo.htm)

2006
Prorok radosti - dělník umění, Karlín Studios

2000
Remixy, Galerie MXM Praha

1999
Die Kunst ist unser Leben, Veletržní palác, Národní galerie, Praha
THINK, U Pavouka Gallery, Ostrava

1998
Visions and Ilusions, Špálova Galerie, Praha

1997
Goldfinger, Galerie AVU, Praha (se Štěpánkou Šimlovou)

1995
Tak pravil Buddha, Galerie Velryby, Praha

1993
Kreutzberger Galerie, Berlin (s Ondřejem Lábrem)

1992
Galerie Obecní dům, Praha / s Ondřejem Lábrem /

1991
Galerie Cosmix Hamburg, Německo / s Ondřejem Lábrem /
Group exhibitions not included in ARTLIST.
2008
Text.cz, galerie Šternberk

2007
Safe, Karlin studios, Praha

2006
Shadows of humor 2, Moskva
Akné, galerie Rudolfinum, Praha
Shadows of humor 1, Wroclav

2004
Neutral, Dresden
Eastern Aliance, Berlin

2003
Blízká setkání třetího druhu, galerie NoD, Praha

2002
Ostensiv II, České centrum, Berlin

2001
Ostensiv I, Leipzig
Criss Cross, Broumov

2000
Uberlebenkunst,Berliner kunstverein, Berlin
Konfrontace ,české centrum, Londýn

1999
MAXISKLAD, Galerie Mánes, Praha
O lásce / About Love, Richterova vila, Praha
99 CZ – devadesátá léta / 99 CZ – The ninethies, Václavské naměstí, Praha
Vidiny / Visions, AD Gallery ROXY, Praha

1998
Snížený rozpočet / Limited Budget, Galerie Mánes, Praha
2000 – 2 Froté, AP Atelier, Praha
Den nezávislosti / Independence Day, Bořivojova 106, Praha 3
Squire Sanders & Dempsey, Praha
Strahovský klášter, výstava diplomantů
Mladí umělci /Young Artists, Národní galerie, Zlín
SS Galerie BUNKR, Praha

1997
Villa, Richterova vila, Praha

1996
Tajná vášeň / Secret Passsion, Galerie Velryba, Praha
Česká AbsraHce / Czech Abstract Art, Galerie Václava Špály, Praha
Okamźik zaostření / Moment of Focus Galerie MXM, Praha
4 umělci, Galerie MXM, Praha
Galerie Fiducia, Ostrava

1995
Zkušební provoz /Run Trial, Galerie Mánes, Praha
Hybernatus Galerie AVU, Praha

1994
Vybrané projekty / Selected Projects Karlovy Vary

1993
Obecní dům, Praha

1991
Galerie u Hybernů, Praha, školní výstava

1990
Galerie Blatiny, Praha
Galerie u Hybernů, Praha, školní výstava

Monography

Video

Photo

Center for Contemporary Arts Prague www.fcca.cz 2006–2024
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