Jiří Petrbok: Rainbow

Jiří Petrbok (b. 1962) has recently become one of the most striking personalities of contemporary Czech art. He not only held numerous solo exhibitions but his works are also part of almost every significant exhibition of contemporary Czech art. Some of you may still remember his most recent solo show (the Vernon Gallery, autumn 2008). The artist entitled it “Red” and, through his intrinsic irony and hyperbole, he decided to deal with the historical and content symbolic of the most aggressive color of the light spectrum which is usually linked with blood, fire, life and death in painting. The “Red” is now followed by no less provocative “Iridescent”. As says the curator of the two exhibitions, Petr Vaňous, iridescent color brings many content, symbolic and conceptual explanations which the artist can explore. Paintings by Jiří Petrbok populate gallery spaces by their characteristic prolonged figures on the verge of realistic painting and imagination. Their contents draw from the artist’s close surroundings, his family and friends, but also from the grey zone of the subconscious. Informal subjects are shifted to almost surreal position and viewers are often subjected to situations full of tense contents.