2023
IVANA LOMOVÁ (b. 1959 in Prague)
She studied architecture and switched from drawing, illustration and comics to painting in the 1990s. Regarding her gradual departure from the style of the so-called Czech grotesque and irony, she says: “this kind of humour and irony just gradually no longer seemed important to me. Painting the world as I feel it, without mockery, invention or any other frills, now seems much more interesting to me. I want to paint those fleeting feelings that suddenly and unexpectedly come over us. These moments when we touch our life for a moment and we experience some kind of "truth" in our existence. A picture can be much more appropriate than words for moments like this. Sometimes simply something like a piece of a railway carriage will do. And because I want to be as precise and 'true' as possible, and don´t want to get poetic, use grand gestures or exaggerate, I find a way in perhaps strictly realistic pictures.” Seriousness, nostalgia and the beauty of the everyday appear in Ivana Lomová's paintings. It is a strong emotional encounter with the reality that surrounds her, which is often only processed years later, e.g. a bundle of photographs serves as a sketch and the artist's imagination mixes in targeted interventions. Despite the use of realistic painting, her paintings are strangely dreamlike and recall Schiele's paintings of Krumlov in their love for the town (but also for the town's missing residents). Curators: Hana Jirmusová Lazarowitz, Ingeborg Habereder, Ivana Lomová
Janz Franz (1946 - 2017)
An extreme crossover artist - fed by infinity and the abyss.
The Austrian painter and
draftsman Janz Franz wanted to become the "number one" in Austrian
fine art, an aspiration that he recorded in his artistic signatures. Born in Graz in 1946, Janz,
initially did an apprenticeship in a building materials store in the city with
his childhood friend Arnold Schwarzenegger, waited tables here and there, moved
to Salzburg, got to know the art scene and in 1990 decided to become an artist
himself. As a painter and draftsman, Janz entered his beloved world of rock
music, exploring big themes, ghosts, demons, strange animal creatures - and of
course his multifaceted and unique view of women. His intense, challenging life
and work took their toll. His lifestyle and an operation forced Janz into a
wheelchair. "The demons have caught up with me," he tearfully confessed.
Arnold Schwarzenegger gave him the wheelchair. Janz died in Salzburg in 2017.
He left behind an oeuvre of thousands of canvases, drawings and a number of
"painting actions". (Ferdinand Altnoeder) More about Janz: at https://www.galerie-altnoeder.com/janz.html