Artists:
Zac Yeates
Cesc Abad
Juan Narowé
Adam Štech
Zac Yeates
Zac Yeates’s work strives for a connection with the viewer, exploring personification and human forms using mixed media, mainly gouache and oil pastels, to reveal color-intensive portraits. In his artwork, the artist builds atmospheric worlds that have a sense of familiarity but give the viewer a feeling of uncanniness. Through such an approach, he wants to capture figures who seem out of place in our society but have a belonging to the world in the artwork. Fascinated by ordinary life and elements of pop culture, Yeates evokes a parallel between the absurd and the comedic, a contradiction between the familiar and the strange, and a relationship between the artist and the viewer. These contrasting elements are accentuated with his collage-like technique which as the final objective has the mutual understanding expressed through a knowing smile.
Zac Yeates was born in Western Australia and after studying at Catalyst, Institute for Creative Arts and Technology in Berlin, he is continuing his artistic and life journey in Vilnius, Berlin, and Prague. His work has been presented in Barcelona, New York, Lithuania, France, and Japan.
ZAC YEATES
Flower Carer
Oil pastel, acrylic and gouache
on canvas
80 x 60 cm
2022
Zac Yeates
Just Did It
Oil pastel, acrylic and gouache
on canvas
80 x 60 cm
2022
Zac Yeates
You Lift Me Up
Oil pastel and acrylic on canvas
80 x 70 cm
2022
Adam Štech
For more than a decade, Adam Štech has been on a mission to amplify the canonical art beauty through deconstruction and development of deviant dichotomy It’s the paintings we see in art history books, in auction headlines, and in major institutional collections, that the Czech painter is looking at with admiration and an urge to tear them apart and rebuild, often by synthesizing Cubism and realism. And such a mix of respect and mockery, of appreciation of the old and thirst for the new, fuels the exhaustive practice comprising drawing, collage, painting, mosaic, and sculpture, techniques that sometimes work together on getting the best out of a convincing motif or a composition.
“I think the basic iconic, canonical exact image is kind of dead,” Štech states with great respect for painterly tradition while talking about the influence of masterpieces on his practice. Such a definite attitude removes the pressure of having to fill the shoes of Picasso, Condo, Goya, Van Dyck, Rembrandt, Velazquez, Delacroix, Van Gogh, Beckman, Dix, Neel, etc, and allows for much more unconcerned, spontaneous approach. This is why he often starts with very personal subjects such as his wife, children, or self- portraits, and develops the work further based on particular interests and affinities, choosing subjects like a pop artist. And from there, the list continues with Anothony Hopkins who played Picasso, or more personal heroes like Slavoj Žižek or Michel Houellebecq. Informed by books, movies, biopics, etc. In the end, both the focus on his family and the unusual context of the subject selection process places Štech outside of the box in which contemporary artists tend to operate. The unorthodox way of operating is certainly a quality that he is holding onto dearly, habitually stepping off the beaten path of tradition to discover new ways of dealing with the intriguing elements of his practice.
“I perceive Cubism as a breakthrough in visualizing, almost at the level of discovering linear perspective,” the artist mentions when explaining the influence of the iconic avant-garde art movement. And this sincere appreciation seeps into all layers of his creative process, from the overlaying or collaging drawings in the preparatory phase, resorting to Cubism-founded approaches in painting or applying them to realistic sculpture, all the way to employing cube-based mosaic technique or using the cube-defying circles to distort the image.
– Saša Bogojev
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.Recent exhibitions include The Curators Room Amsterdam and Ascaso Gallery Miami.
Adam Štech
Picasso
Bronze
30 x 40 x 46 cm
Edition of 5 + 1 AP
2023
Adam Štech
Basquiat with a Cat
Oil on canvas
160 x 120 cm
2023
Adam Štech
Self-portrait with Maya
Oil on canvas
120 x 90 cm
2023
Adam Štech
Head
Oil on canvas
90 x 70 cm
2023
CESC ABAD (Barcelona 1973)
Lives and works in Terrassa (Barcelona)
Cesc Abad is a self-taught, multidisciplinary artist. His works are directly related to nature, especially to the landscape of the Catalan Pyrenees, and, despite being figurative, they all carry a strong conceptual meaning which goes beyond the limits of utopia to enter a dystopian world. The ease with which he covers different disciplines leads him to work with ceramics in a very personal and identifiable manner. He manages to merge painting and sculpture to reflect on man’s relationship with nature, and the relationship of human beings with their passions, their fears and their hopes.
Recent solo exhibitions include Simchowitz gallery LA, US ; The Curators Room, Amsterdam, NL, Caelis gallery, Shanghai and Galeria Mayoral, Barcelona / Paris.
Cesc Abad
Charlie
Oil On Canvas
200 x 200 cm
2023
Cesc Abad
Star Wars
Oil On Canvas
200 x 200 cm
2023
Cesc Abad
Time man
Oil On Canvas
81 x 65 cm
2023
Cesc Abad
light man
Oil On Canvas
65 x 54 cm
2023
Cesc Abad
Man hug
Oil On Canvas
61 x 50 cm
2023
Cesc Abad
builder man
Oil on Canvas
81 x 65 cm
2023
CESC ABAD
The Divine
Clay
120 x 50 cm
CESC ABAD
Forest Man II
Clay, oil paint
57 x 45 x 45 cm
2023
Juan Narowé
Inspired by different artistic disciplines, from literature to cinema, Juan Narowé works across different media in ever changing paintings that oscillate between old and new. Often adding or erasing layers to his works, taking already existing fragments and modifying them, Narowé creates material palimpsests: the trace encounters the new, in an interplay of timeframes. The formal language of the works is simple, almost childish, pure in intention and style. The naivity of the subjects, portrayed while walking or simply sitting, is sweet: there is a sense of intimacy to the protagonists, as if the artists is able to enter their private thoughts and dreams and deliver them onto linen or paper.
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The density of the paint and the thickness of the line make the contrast surface-drawing even stronger, enforcing this sense of closeness between the viewer and the subject matter.
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Juan Narowé (Brazil, 1993) is an artist based in Barcelona. His work ranges from drawing and painting to graphic art, digital art, books and other media. Recent exhibitions include The Curators Room (Amsterdam / Barcelona), Ana Mas (Barcelona), DI gallery (Sevilla) and MOYA (Museum of Young Art, The Netherlands)
Juan narowé
‘Untitled (The garden series)’
Oil on canvas
162 x 130 cm
2023
Juan Narowé
‘Untitled (The garden series)’
Oil on canvas
60 x 50 cm
2023