Artists: David Krňanský and Martin Lukáč
Exhibition title: Everything is Nice / Bon Appétit
Venue: Ivan Gallery, Bucharest, Romania
Date: November 9, 2016 – January 12, 2017
Photography: Jan Kolský, all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and Ivan Gallery, Bucharest
Ivan Gallery presents for the first time in Romania a joint project by young artists David Krňanský & Martin Lukáč from Prague, Czech Republic. Born in late ‘80s, they share similar artistic paths, having both graduated from the studio of Jiri Černický and Marek Meduna at the Academy of Art, Architecture and Design in Prague and exhibited together in group shows or inside the group “Black Hole Generation”. Furthermore, working in intertwined studio spaces has put them into contact and information exchange regarding each other’s practice and artistic endeavour.
The exhibition features recent works – the artists experimenting mostly with the means of painting and drawing – in a site-specific installation conceived in the context of the relation artist-gallery. Using as a backdrop the markers specific to this relationship, the setting provides a more light approach to this highly complicated and rich in meanings topic, stressing on the mediation function of a contemporary art gallery:
“Gallery as an equivalent for a mediator who “serves” paintings. That is what we are making in bigger scale. Paintings served by Ivan Gallery.” (David Krňanský & Martin Lukáč)
David Krňanský (b. 1987, Czech Republic) graduated from the studio of Jiri Černický and Marek Meduna at the Academy of Art, Architecture and Design (UMPRUM). His work includes painting, drawing, collage, and site-specific installations. Throughout his work he explores minimalist motifs and repetition, which subtly hint at modernism yet aesthetically diverge and interact with forms in contemporary pop culture and music. Krňanský has most recently exhibited his works in the group shows “Paintings” in Galerie SVIT in Prague, “B.H.G: Black Hole Generation” in Gallery Leto in Warsaw, “AABBABBAACBC” in Nová Galerie in Prague, and “Czech Painting of the 21st Century in 10 Images” at Měsic ve dne Gallery, České Budejovice. His most recent solo exhibitions include “The Seven Handed Wizard” in FUTURA in Prague, and an upcoming exhibition in Nevan Contempo in Prague.
Martin Lukáč (b. 1989, Slovakia) has studied at the Technical University of Košice, Faculty of Fine Arts (BA) and graduated from the studio of Jiri Černický and Marek Meduna at the Academy of Art, Architecture and Design (UMPRUM) (MA). His artistic practice focuses mainly on the medium of painting and drawing in an expanded field, with neo-expressionist compositions more than often integrated into site-specific installations. Among Lukáč’s recent exhibitions are the group shows: “Dog.Piss.Protection.Attachments.”, I: Project space, Beijing, China, “Plot Thickens”, Kunstpodium T, Tiburg, Netherlands, 2016, “Generation Smart“, Galerie NTK, Prague, Czech Republic, “UMPRUM 2014“, National Gallery Prague, Czech Republic, 2015, and the solo shows “Two Hands and a Magnifying Glass at Fait Gallery”, Brno Czech Republic, “No Love all Hate”, 35M2 Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic, 2016.
