• "Art is a harmony parallel to Nature."
    - Paul Cézanne

  • The exhibition Harmony & Soul at Danysz Gallery traces the development of Czech artist Jan Kalab in recent years. Whether...
    The artist and his work Advanced Stage of Drop, 2021

    The exhibition Harmony & Soul at Danysz Gallery traces the development of Czech artist Jan Kalab in recent years.

    Whether round, oval, deformed, unstructured, stretched or multiplied, Jan Kalab plays with circles and their imperfections to represent endless variations around depth, time and movement. He himself creates his frames as autonomous forms, and thus offers himself an infinite field of possibilities. His work on curves gives rise to a constantly renewed dialogue between structure and perception.

    A graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, Jan Kalab is known for his abstract works in organic shapes. Initially present and active in the streets where he inscribes large lettering with angular lines, he has gradually transformed and enriched his visual language.

    It is in fluid forms with flexible lines that the full force of his talent is expressed. The geometry then seems transcended, and the colors reveal all their power. The tones are vibrant, they radiate. The artist excels in the art of gradation, subtle transitions or powerful contrasts. Its intense colors awaken the retina and trigger our emotions. Is Jan Kalab trying to show that despite all the theory of the physiology of color, the viewer's feeling remains something unique and instinctive? The only certainty: this beaming exhibition cannot leave you indifferent.

  • organic forms

    Jan Kalab, Growing Medusa 921, 2021, Acrylic on canvas stretched on hand-made wooden frame, 100 x 250 cm

    organic forms

    “I try to create things that don’t exist in this world yet.”

    - Jan Kalab

     

    Coming from an obsession with geometry, Jan Kalab has evolved toward organic shapes reminding you of amoebae, raindrops or flower petals. But if his paintings allude to the natural world, they remain decidedly abstract. “My paintings refer to the material world, but I’m not trying to capture anything concrete. I believe in - let’s call it 'universum' (…). If you looked at my older geometrical forms, it would maybe remind you of the macrocosmos. This is just form, which I changed along the way. To me, what is most important is how much of that universal essence the piece holds within itself.”

  • between painting and sculpture

    Jan Kalab, 12 Stages of Harmony, 2021, Acrylic on canvas stretched on hand-made wooden frame, 250 x 250 cm

    between painting and sculpture

    Originally a street artist, Jan Kalab went from elaborate calligraphy to studying the shapes of letters in and for themselves, to building 3D volumes inspired by these alphabetical shapes. A progression where the medium of sculpture became for the artist an extension of painting. “When I paint I tend to question painting itself (…). So in the end painting itself becomes the object of painting. When I go from the other end and start sculpting, I immediately begin to use colors to support the shape.” Out of this combination of 3D shapes and painted colors, a sort of natural symbiosis takes place, resulting in works that are stunningly lifelike.

  • a language of emotions

    Jan Kalab, Green Horizon 921, 2021, Acrylic on canvas stretched on hand-made wooden frame, 60 x 30 cm

    a language of emotions

    With abstraction comes a language that appeals to people in more ingenuous ways. “When you simplify the artistic language,” says Kalab, “there is no more room to tell stories. Your message should be emotion.” The Czech artist, who has been refining his artistic vocabulary for over 25 years and is an admirer of Frantisek Kupka, knows that he has arrived at a stage where words are superfluous. 

     

    “Isn’t emotion the most abstract form? My older works were more about thinking and describing. Now they are maybe more about vibrations.”

  • Jan Kalab's Journey

    Jan Kalab, Evolution of Success, 2021, Acrylic on canvas stretched on hand-made (made of 9 parts), 45 x 485 cm

    Jan Kalab's Journey

    Jan Kalab was born in Czechoslovakia in 1978 at a time when the Iron Curtain still separated Eastern Europe from Western Europe. Young, with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, he witnessed the rapid changes in his country: "My country then absorbed all the new Western influences after 40 years of isolation by the Iron Curtain."

    In 1993, as a teenager, he saw the peaceful split of his country into two: Czech Republic and Slovakia. As Prague opened up to foreigners, graffiti created by French and German tourists appeared around the city. It was at this point, aged 15, that he himself began graffiti and went on to become one of the most prolific Czech street artists of the time.

  • Through abstraction, Jan Kalab creates physical and imaginary spaces in which form and colors interact, immersing the viewer in a...

    Jan Kalab, Zone of Mystery, 2021, Installation 125 painted wood circles, nylon, 200 x 200 x 200 cm

    Through abstraction, Jan Kalab creates physical and imaginary spaces in which form and colors interact, immersing the viewer in a world of emotions.

  • In 2000, he traveled to New York with his early acolytes to paint walls and trains. He says he realized...

    In 2000, he traveled to New York with his early acolytes to paint walls and trains. He says he realized there that he could accomplish anything he wanted. An awareness symbolized by the words painted on a subway car "Go for your dreams / P.S. We did it". In a 2002 interview, he said he painted around 200 to 250 trains at that time.

    Its motto became "Continue, continue to invent new forms". This manifested in his artistic practice in the early 2000s as the artist turned to 3D graffiti by sculpting abstract letters deposited in various places in the city. No need for a spray can, or even a wall, to invade the urban landscape. At the same time, he continued his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, from which he graduated in 2006. From 2008, his experiences with sculpture and canvas gradually led him to abstraction.

  • In 2011, Jan Kalab said he wanted to simplify his style, reduce it drastically into cubes and circles. He made...

    Mural work on the facade of Alphonse Baudin school, commissioned by the Paris 11th arrondissement municipality, 2021

    In 2011, Jan Kalab said he wanted to simplify his style, reduce it drastically into cubes and circles. He made a fruitful transition from lettering to abstraction and explored subjects such as infinity, movement, depth, change.

    Then began a new phase of his artistic career where working with the abstract and the minimal inspired him and seemed to him a much more difficult challenge than having a specific theme or doing lettering. "I feel like I'm digging somewhere without knowing the right direction, in the hope of discovering something totally new. During this trip, I repeat the gesture and repeat it until the work gradually becomes different."

  • Meet Jan Kalab in his Studio in Prague

    Let's ride in Prague with Jan Kalab

  • Stay tuned for more

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