Martin Jech | Aaaah!
27/06/24–01/09/24

The concept of the historically focused collection exhibition How to Collect Art: the Karel Tutsch Story will be expanded by a series of exhibitions of the youngest generation of artists, current students or graduates from art school studios. In this way, the curators will revive Tutsch's basic strategy of discovering and presenting the works of previously unknown artists in a new context. Gallery Na bidýlku II will thus become a laboratory for new approaches to the traditional medium of painting and installation, whose transformations Tutsch has followed and supported for several decades.

Martin Jech (*1997) was born in Dobruška and began making art in childhood in the form of graffiti. He became interested in traditional art shortly before starting his studies at the Secondary School of Graphic Arts in Jihlava, which he nevertheless did not complete. After moving to Prague, he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts, where he is currently in his first year, studying in the Painting II studio headed by Milan Mikuláštík and Julius Reichel.

Jech primarily makes objects and produces paintings with a drawn foundation. His works explore the question of his own identity – his evolution and his failures. These difficult themes contrast with his grotesque style and choice of colours. Many of his works are made in series that complement one another, allowing him to create a narrative by which to elaborate a particular theme and to view it from multiple angles.

In terms of motifs, the predominant figures in his paintings are people and dogs, and although the depicted symbols are of existential significance, they often take the form of ordinary, seemingly banal objects. The multiple layers of meaning by which Jech expresses himself – especially when it comes to purely personal experiences – transform his compositionally and formally balanced works into compact autonomous units in which there is also room for humour or irony.

Jech’s paintings can also be understood as an account of inner transformation. The paintings’ figures are often enclosed in interiors with dominant elements such as parquet floors, tiles or ornamentation from the places he lives, which he uses to frame the story on the canvas. The depicted situations, which bring to mind a film frozen at the most important moment, give the work a sense of anticipation and tension.

In his work with object art, Jech finds the freedom to seek out and discover his own style, since he can work on these pieces even without knowledge of sculptural techniques. The creative process reminds him of the DIY home improvement trend or working with readymades. In his hands, found items are transformed into an impressive and effective means for shaping a situation. His objects are built around a wire framework that holds its shape and acts as a load-bearing element for cotton yarn, fine mesh and self-hardening material. Some of the works are further complemented by the addition of found items. The cotton yarn lends the difficult subject matter a softness and erases the gender-stereotypical boundaries associated with this material. The self-hardening material is not a typical sculptural material, and because it hardens without being fired it can be combined with yarn. Although it is more commonly associated with children’s art-making activities, in Jech’s hands the material is transformed into simple objects (such as a creature that is a cross between a beetle and a taser, or a series of wheelbarrows). The spontaneous yet simultaneously focused working of each detail creates an exciting scene.