Jakub Nepraš

Jakub Nepraš (1981) entered the awareness of Czech fine art scene already while he was studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague which was primarily thanks to his specific use of new media – concretely his video montages, which enable the artist to view the issues of public space and urban context in general from a completely different and very distinctive perspective. While the artist’s early works can be classified as a form of disruption of the regular cycle of a big city, since 2005 the work of Jakub Nepraš has stabilized with a very specific artistic language, the objective of which, rather than disrupting this space, is an interest in the possibility for its processing, mirroring, as well as analyzing. The analysis offers a view of the complexity of the mechanisms and relations, which the urban context and city colossus not only form but also drive.  His video collages, typical for this period, accent the industrially mechanic interpretation of a big city, depicting a complex network of relations in a form that resembles a complex machine the product of which, similarly as in the case of the functioning of a neoliberal economy, is a never ceasing production. Realistic shots from the city life are interwoven here with detailed views of parts of an electric generator (Generator p-730, 2005), resembling, with its architectonic character, the landscape of a big city. Man is portrayed here as a miniature but inseparable part of this cycle: human individual not only participates on the functioning of the colossus with his existence, but thanks to his “desire for consumption”, he also further drives it and develops it.

His project Babylon Plant from 2006 can be perceived as the breaking point in Jakub Nepraš’s work. While the technical principles of a video collage remain in their essence similar to his preceding work, the content gains organic nature and emphasizes the rhizomatic character of the system, the functioning of which is specific for its organic branching, mutation, growth and energetic exchange between its parts, which imaginatively resemble a natural community – a world that is in many respects the opposite of a mechanical world, but simultaneously it is its modified prototype.

The picture element in the artist’s works becomes more complex with time and at first sight also more abstract. He not only uses more picture layers, but simultaneously starts to work with three-dimensional objects. Therefore, it is not a projection surface, but realistic spatial objects, which become animated by the projection (Magnetic Stone, 2011). The materials that the artist uses for his objects include various forms of modified plastics, resin, stones or wooden articles out of which he forms organic sculptures and complex structures. He accents not only the system, but also its community – the social and cultural level of society. We can encounter here the intermeshing of the living and the nonliving, the natural and the artificial. It is precisely this level that makes today’s work of Jakub Nepraš very current, especially in the context of today’s talked about post-humanistic discursus. His current work is actually not just an illustration of the phenomena of current life, but a form of analysis that makes it possible to get a glimpse of the processes and consequences, which influence current being. The information and virtual components that are part of today’s everyday reality penetrate to the front. Nepraš creates a theme of the influence of this reality on the cognitive bearings of the human mind (Brainstorming, 2007/ Reaktor, 2008), but also their influence on the homogenization of the cultural environment and human identity, which is, in the maze of the constant flow of information, subjugated to unceasing multiplication.

In spite of the strong visual aspect, which is symptomatic for the work of Jakub Nepraš, there is another element of his work of no less importance – the sound track, which accents the dynamic character of the portrayed and simultaneously enables the objects to further penetrate and merge with the space, which they are essentially an inseparable part of. Since 2010, we can observe in Nepraš’s work his inclination to give structure to his selected objects and at the same time his deeper interest in interconnecting them with a natural community (Moth, 2013 / Milestone, 2012). The organic component is not only an informational level of the actual projection, but it is also evident in his use and processing of material, which often appears as a nostalgic memory of the increasingly suppressed natural world, the residues of which can hardly win the battle with virtual reality of today and no less virtual tomorrows.

The work of Jakub Nepraš is represented in a number of world collections and it has been presented as a part of many international exhibitions of (not only) contemporary art. The topicality of his work should certainly not be reduced strictly to the topics that the artist works with, but it should be concentrated primarily on strategies and techniques, which Jakub Nepraš can speak to the viewer with – his combinatorics of a language is not only the key to grasp his work, but also an explanation why his work is so current today.

2002-2006 Live VJ video performances to music

1998-2006 The ordering of alternative forest parties

Art fairs:

2010

The Solo project Basel, “Reactor, Sediment Sphere, Trip”, Basel, Switzerland

2009

Art Vilnius 09, „Trip, Cultures”, Vilnius, Lithuania

2008

Next art fair, ”Ayahuasca, Trip”, Chicago, United States of America

Basel Art Fair, ”Trip, Brainstorming”, Basel, Switzerland

Art Fair, ”Trip, Brainstorming”, during Film Festival in Cannes, France

Personal Catalogue 2008

Texts by Jakub Nepraš, translations by Steven Rusling, Marek Tomin, designed by Jakub Nepraš, Jakub Sýkora, edited by Vernon gallery

Catalogues:

2011
SIART Biennale, catalogue of exhibition, La Paz, Bolivia

Spaceship earth, Centre of Contemporary Art Znaki Czasu, catalogue of exhibition, Torun, Poland

2010
Nanjing Biennale, catalogue of exhibition, Nanjing, China

ARS Electronica, catalogue of exhibition, Linz, Austria

Plan project 10, catalogue of exhibition, Köln, Germany

Gwangju Biennale – Digifesta 2, catalogue of exhibition, Gwangju City Museum, Korea

Po Sametu, catalogue of exhibition, City Gallery Prague – The Golden Ring House, Prague, CZ

2009
Po Sametu, catalogue of exhibition, City Gallery Prague – The Golden Ring House, Prague, CZ

Zlínský salon mladých, catalogue of exhibition, Zlín, CZ

Spectator novus, catalogue of exhibition, Palace Adria, Prague, CZ

Second Nature, catalogue of exhibition, Palace Adria, Prague, CZ

2008
Second nature, catalogue of exhibition, Východočeská gallery, Pardubice, CZ

Names, catalogue of graffiti and street art festival, Prague, CZ

Tina-B, catalogue of international festival, Prague, CZ

2007
“5+kk”, catalogue of exhibiton, Trafo gallery, Prague, CZ

Essl Award, catalogue of exhibition, Essl Museum, Klosterneuburg/Wienn, Austria

Museum Colecção Berardo, catalogue of exhibition, Lisbon, Portugal

International biennale Florence, “Liana”, 3. prize, Florence, Italy

Tina-B, catalogue of international festival, Prague, CZ

2006
Diploma work, “catalogue of diploma works from Academy of Fine Arts, National Gallery, Prague, CZ

2005
Essl Award, catalogue of exhibition, Essl Museum, Klosterneuburg/Wienn, Austria

Sedlák, Pavel: Nové umění z kráteru, A2 kulturní týdeník, 40/2008