The gallery known as A. M. 180 belongs among the oldest well-functioning galleries in Prague which were founded from „below“ by artists themselves. Its existence is made conditional on A. M. 180 Collective – continually consisting of Štěpán Bolf and Anežka and Jakub Hošek who established the gallery in 2003. The exhibition space has been provided by the multifunctional club Utopia in Bělehradská 45 since 1997.
Although the gallery has to „compete“ with a number of other independent galleries that were founded after the year 2000, it has managed to maintain its characteristic profile and thanks to this it holds a specific place within the Czech art scene. Unlike a number of „off-spaces“ which declared that they would introduce the work of young artists, A. M. 180 Collective has never made any generation resolutions – the only criterion for the choice of artists who exhibit there is the subjective interest of the organizers. However, in the long run this „subjectivity“ approach has resulted in a well-balanced and good quality picture of the present art scene. The gallery presents the work of artists across generations, solo and group exhibitions and regularly organizes also exhibitions of foreign artists. The gallery does not lay excessive emphasis on the role of curators, on the contrary it stresses its multi-genre character, especially the relationship between music and visual arts. The same attention (in the eyes of the public perhaps even greater attention) is paid to concerts which form a natural part of the exhibition projects. An important feature of the gallery is the fact that until recently it has been financially autonomous, which is still true in case of the music production.
By the end of the year 2014 the gallery organized about two hundred exhibitions and at present a new series called Cut Club, focusing on art and fashion, is under way.
Tereza Jindrová
