Adam Štech moves on the edge between distance and fascination. The systematic exploitation of historical painting does not stem from the need for deconstruction, but from a kind of Frankenstein’s desire to (re) construct his body. Štech probably wants to stand in the eyes of ancestors (more precisely in front of his own knowledge of their mastery), but simply can not paint like them. The distinct seams on his paintings, from the view of the process – unmasked effects of the use of collages as drafts or sketches, become constitutive elements that demonstrate the impossibility of repeating specific patterns in the entirety, more metaphorically – the scars after stitching this body, which again and again creates an unsightly monster.
He can face the past with his own painting, he does not follow his old patterns, and at the same time, he faced us (and himself) to the “dull impression” of inappropriateness, felt in the face of expression so close to our real-life measures. The tensions that arise between his painting skills and their application in a seemingly non-original way give us the potential to experience the essence (and eventually to rationally observe the background) of our relationship to a repetition, that is socially acceptable but perhaps not so welcome, or vice versa: welcome but not reflected.
– Jiří Ptáček
Adam Štech graduated from the Secondary School of Graphic Arts in Jihlava and the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague in the professors’ workshops of Jiří Sopka and Vladimír Skrepl. In 2011 he became the winner of the 4th Prize for Criticism for Young Painting, awarded by the Association of Art Critics and Theorists of the Czech Republic. He lives and works in Prague.