Oskár Čepan

STUDIES: 2019 – 2020: Städelschule, Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Frankfurt am Main, /DE/ 2015 – 2017: MFA – Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm, /SE/ 2003 – 2008: MFA – Academy of Fine Art and Design, Bratislava, /SK/ 2016: Kunno exchange program at /Is/ Academy of the Arts, Reykjavík, /Is/

SOLO EXHIBITIONS: 2020: – Silent Immediacy, Knoll Gallery, Budapest, Hungary 2019: – Correlation, Temporary Parapet, Bratislava, /SK/; – Movement Shapes the Distance, Distance Shapes the Present, Knoll Gallery, Wien, Austria; – Limits of Navigations, The Youth Gallery, Nitra, /SK/ 2018: – Shared Memory, Műtő Gallery, Budapest, Hungary; – Moving Towards the Present, Gallery Snerk, Tromsø, /NOR/; – Tactile Looking, all the doubts, Mossutställningar, Stockholm, /SE/ 2017: – Choice of Perception, Gallery 35m2, Prague, /CZ/; – Reversion, Galleri Mejan, Stockholm, /SE/; – Tactile Looking, Object Thinking, Centrifug Konstahll C, Stockholm, /SE/ 2016: –Neighborhood, Gallery Buňka, Ústí nad Labem, /CZ/; – The Weight of Time, Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm, /SE/; – Shaping, Galleri Fisk, Bergen, /NOR/ 2015: – Shaping, Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm, /SE/; – Between Us, HotDock Gallery, Bratislava, /SK/ 2015: – Only then I Realized that 3,000 Years have Passed, since I First Wanted to Eat an Orange, Berlins Model, Prague, /CZ/ 2014: – Room M, 4D Gallery Magdalena, Bratislava, /SK/

GROUP EXHIBITIONS: 2020:

– Rundgang 2020, Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main, /DE/ 2019: – Fast Kotzen, Pilotenkueche AIR, Leipzig, /DE/; – Unfinished Hase, Alte Handelsschule, Leipzig, /DE/ 2018: – Emotional GOLD, Espace 0 in, Brussels, /BE/; – Sustainable Memories, Industra Gallery, Brno, /CZ/; – By Fire By Force, Allkonstrummet, Stockholm, /SE/ 2017: – Masters Salon Painting 2017, Antwerp, /BE/; – I am thinking that I might be an Object, René Holms Atelier, Esbjerg, Denmark; – Gone Fishing, Gävle Konstcentrum, Gävle, /SE/; – SEART, NOR Picnic, Stockholm, /SE/; – Kungl. Konsthögskolans Vårutställningar 2017, Tomteboda Stockholm, /SE/; – Rundgång RIA, Stockholm, /SE/ 2016: – “So Much, NOR More”, SIM Gallery, Reykjavik, /Is/; – SEART, NOR Picnic, Stockholm, /SE/; – Discussing Modernism, Circuits and Currents, Athens, Greece; – Young Slovak Art in Milan, Gallerie D´Italia, Milan, Italy; – 59.3241, 18.0828 The Exhibition, Galleri Project Room, Helsinky, /FIN/; – Bitch Club Intimate, Galleri Mejan, Stockholm, /SE/ 2015: – 10 Years of the Painting, Bratislava Castle, Bratislava; Middle Slovak Gallery, Banská Bystrica, /SK/ 2014: – “Fridge” Fridge Gallery, Ludmila Hrachovinova and Roman Bicek, Prague, /CZ/ 2013: – Endless Vacation, 4D Gallery Galanta, /SK/; – Art Critics Award – exhibition of nominated artists of Art Critics Award, The Gallery of Art Critics, Prague, /CZ/ 2012: – VUB Painting 2012, nominated into finalist group, Hall of the Ministry of Culture, Bratislava, /SK/ 2011: – “Time is Right for Something New” Museum of Vojtech Loffler, Košice, /SK/ 2010: – Painting After Painting, Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava, /SK/; – VUB Painting 2010, nominated into finalist group, Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava, /SK/;

RESIDENCES 2019: – Cité Internationale des Arts Paris, Paris, France; – Pilotenkueche Internantional Artist Residence, Leipzig, /DE/ 2017: – Rejmyre Art LAB – Rural Resistance workshop, Rejmyre, /SE/ 2016: – SÍM residency, Korpúlfsstadir Reykjavík, /Is/

Statement

I work with the medium of painting, installation and performance. In my spatial installations of paintings I focus on the relationship between spectator and image and the possibilities of its manipulation. The often used unorthodox placement of the painting is a way in which I redefine the relationship to the medium and its existing historical and social ties. The resulting concept is ultimately formed only by the actual situation itself of the work being on display and in interaction with the spectator. In my projects I also explore how we can rediscover own presence and existence in the present time and in environmental, socio-political structures. For example as being controlled vs. being free, being active vs. being passive, being close vs. being distant (participation vs absence, individual vs general). My abstract paintings are a sort of transcription and a section extracted from the outside reality, data selected and rewritten based on one’s own internal principles. The depicted elements and shapes are often in movement and rotation. I am interested in relationships and the tension between them.

Curatorial statement

Ludmila Hrachovinová (1984) is primarily a painter, a crucial moment of her work is nevertheless formed by continuous placement of the medium in relation to broader issues in contemporary art. The monumental character of most of her paintings is related not only to their format, but also to the corporally felt dimensions of the forms depicted. These are conceived in the artist’s present paintings as a thoroughly abstracted dialog between masses of color, yet their relation to the spectators is felt as figurative. The creator sees a painting as not merely a passive object neutrally placed somewhere in a gallery, on the contrary, it becomes an active player in custom made spatial installations which place the spectator in the role of a participant in the dialog. The artist’s interest in physical relations between painting and the human body has in her recent works culminated in involvement of performers whose activities are directed mainly towards accentuation of corporal sharing between the image spaces of paintings and the physical dimensions of the space between them.

Viktor Čech