“As time went by, I developed my visual language step by step, and new genres popped up along the way like street art and later, Urban Art. So, I only recently fitted into the street art ‘box’; to many I am just considered a contemporary artist.”
Born in 1978 in Prague, Czechoslovakia, Jan Kaláb is one of the country’s most notable contemporary artists today. A founding pioneer of the Prague underground graffiti and street art scene, formerly known as Cakes, he used to paint everywhere in the city with his crew, The DSK.
After years of graffiti writing, a trip to New York enabled him to discover the American scene, the birthplace of the movement, where he painted over two hundred whole cars. Then back to Prague, he graduated from the Prague Academy of Fine Arts in 2006.
His practice progressively moved from the streets to his workshop, without severing ties with urban art. Jan’s work evolved into 3-D graffiti, light-suspended installations, paintings, sculptures or recently animated NFTs.
His paintings teeter on the edge of sculpture, and his sculptures are mostly painted. Shape and color are the main characters of his work, which he pushes and blends together to exaggerate or minimize forms. Sometimes Jan’s work may resemble a particular shape, but it is never his intention to capture or replicate an existing image or narrative. Rather, he seeks universal beauty in an unseen and novel perspective, redirecting the known into the unknown; into a new dimension. The sensation of déjà vu, like when remembering a special moment or melody, is the ultimate feeling Jan strives to achieve and wishes to resonate with his audience.
Jan Kalab had his first solo exhibition shortly thereafter his graduation, in 2008 at the acclaimed Trafo Gallery, an exclusive art space known for showcasing outstanding artists with limited shows of six per year. Since then, Jan Kalab has exhibited in high-profile galleries around the world, including New York, Miami, London, Paris, Shanghai, and Rio de Janeiro.
Today, Kaláb continues his exploration of forms, abstraction, and colors that formed the basis of his graffiti work as a teenager. His experimentation has gradually focused on circular forms: the circle, as deformed as possible, flat, in volume, sometimes full, sometimes empty. His latest works are both paintings and sculptures: voluminous canvases, with frames he builds himself, on which he paints subtle color gradations, playing with light variations and volume effects to blur the line between full and hollow.
Born in 1978 in Tchecoslovaquia, Jan Kaláb is a graduate of the Prague Academy of Fine Arts where he had his first solo show in 2008. Other solo and group shows have since followed in many countries, accompanying the artist’s international recognition. His work has been exhibited in museums such as the Albin Polasek Museum (Florida, US), the National Czech & Slovaque Museum (West Cedars, US), the MAXXI Museum (Rome, Italy) and the Museu de Arte Moderna (São Paulo, Brasil). He lives and works in Prague.