Adam Štech, a recent graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, shows a new series of paintings in his first solo exhibition. As with his previous work, he draws on the influences and references that he finds in classical painting.
He deconstructs reproductions of historical paintings, as well as stills from film classics, dissecting and reconfiguring the selected components into new works. The resulting pieces are vibrant, bold, Frankenstein-esque, grotesque portraits that possess a romantic nobility and eerie familiarity.
The seven smaller oil portraits in the show take works by well-known portrait painters such as Holbein, Raphael, Titian, as well as the neo-German expressionist Vampire from the film Dracula by Francis Ford Coppola, as their initial starting point.
