“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.”
Jan Kaláb became a prominent figure on the urban art scene after emerging from a former Eastern Bloc. In the 1990s he founded an iconic crew, the DSK, which proved instrumental to introducing graffiti in the Check Republic and beyond.
Today, Kaláb works across painting and sculpture. His language became minimal and mostly abstract; producing irregular curvilinear forms. Resembling bubbles, as in Dark Purpl Ameba (2019), these gravity-defying lightweight objects seem to move through the space, colliding with each other and changing shape. Kaláb’s works appear as blown up organic microcosms, coexisting seamlessly with their environment. The artist uses a visually impactful palette, often incorporating hues of neon blue, pink or orange. Conveying an architectural element, despite the bold colours, his works coexist with their environments without friction, which offers a different kind of visual experience.
Jan Kaláb lives and works in Prague, Czech Republic.