Vojtech Kovarik at Galerie Derouillon

Artist: Vojtech Kovarik

Exhibition title: Destinies of Stone Faces

Venue: Galerie Derouillon, Paris, France

Date: March 3 – April 16, 2022

Photography: Grégory Copitet / all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Galerie Derouillon, Paris

Born in 1993 in Czech Republic, he carries the multiple legacies of a generation born after the fall of the USSR with independence and open- ness to a globalized Western culture.

Kovarik’s large canvases reflect his deep knowledge of art history: schematic figures evoke Picasso, expressive colors summon Matisse and Gauguin while the work on volume lets us see Léger’s influence. But his approach to bodies is also deeply influenced by the Soviet sculptures of propaganda he was surrounded by during his childhood in Eastern Eu- rope.

Kovarik tackles the figure of the mythical hero who legitimates painting since the Classical Age. He interrogates the other side of the heroes, their intimate torments, and depicts these men (according to most of the stories) regaining their humanity. Kovarik’s characters are gender flu- id, assuming their bodies are like vessels for the secular story they carry. Like if the artist focuses more on the personal experience of the character than the well-known Greek mythology largely depicted in classical painting over the centuries. Why do these myths persist through the centuries and in our Western visual culture?

Vojtech Kovarik is trying to address this question by updating our perception of these figures with new narratives. This is where his work shines: by marrying those different types of storytelling, the mythological one, the political propaganda one, the contemporary imagery one, Kovarik gives birth to a painting that bears the figurative tradition, yet opening a path for an open-ended future.

Vojtech Kovarik, Destinies of Stone Faces, 2022, exhibition view, Galerie Derouillon, Paris

Vojtech Kovarik, Somewhere in The Greenery, Nearby The River, Pan is Looking for Hollow Reeds To Create a Musical Instrument Bearing The Name of his Beloved Syrinx, 2022, Acrylic on canvas, 350 x 280 cm, 137 3/4 x 110 1/4 inches

Vojtech Kovarik, Erebus Reduces the Glow, 2021-2022, Acrylic and sand on canvas, 300 x 200 cm, 118 1/8 x 78 3/4 inches

Vojtech Kovarik, Hemera Keeps Daylight, 2022, Acrylic and sand on canvas, 300 x 200 cm, 118 1/8 x 78 3/4 inches

Vojtech Kovarik, Alexander The Great and His Horse Bucephalus, 2022, Ceramic and sand on wood, 70 x 60 cm, 27 1/2 x 23 5/8 inches

Vojtech Kovarik, Adonis and Kupris Pedion (Venus’s Foot), 2021-2022, Acrylic on canvas, 200 x 200 cm, 78 3/4 x 78 3/4 inches

Vojtech Kovarik, Philoctetes on The Island of Lemnos, 2022, Acrylic and sand on canvas, 100 x 80 cm, 39 3/8 x 31 1/2 inches

Vojtech Kovarik, Thinker, 2022, Acrylic on canvas, 240 x 220 cm, 94 1/2 x 86 5/8 inches

Vojtech Kovarik, Dionysus Descended Into The Underworld To Free His Mother, 2022, Acrylic and sand on canvas, 220 x 200 cm, 86 5/8 x 78 3/4 inches

Vojtech Kovarik, Alexander The Great (I), 2021, Ceramic and sand on wood, 60 x 45 cm, 23 5/8 x 17 3/4 inches

Vojtech Kovarik, Bellerophon With Pegasus, 2022, Acrylic on canvas, 300 x 240 cm, 118 1/8 x 94 1/2 inches

Vojtech Kovarik, Apollo and Daphne, 2022, Acrylic on canvas, 220 x 200 cm, 86 5/8 x 78 3/4 inches

Vojtech Kovarik, Alexander The Great (II), 2021, Sand and glue on wood, 50 x 55 cm, 19 3/4 x 21 5/8 inches

Vojtech Kovarik, Medusa Head, 2021, Sand and pigments on ceramic, 43 x 40 x 10 cm, 16 7/8 x 15 3/4 x 4 inches

Vojtech Kovarik, Fatal Grape, 2021-2022, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 70 x 70 cm, 27 1/2 x 27 1/2 inches

Vojtech Kovarik, In The Abyss, 2021-2022, Acrylic on canvas, 160 x 140 cm, 63 x 55 1/8 inches