Jan Kaláb

A founding member of the generation of Czech ‘writers’, whose work is rooted in graffiti and street art, Kaláb gradually transferred this visual culture from the street into prestigious gallery spaces around the world. Street facades and experimental art have been replaced by homemade canvases of varying shapes. His art is characterized by permanent experimentation with new techniques and structures. Through the vocabulary of geometry, acrylic painting and layered surfaces, Kaláb strives to analyse space within the framework of traditional painting, overcoming genre barriers.

Kaláb is a member of an artist's group called FIRMA, as well as Karel Štědrý (lot 34), Michal Cimala (lot 42), Pasta Oner (lot 43), Martin Krajc (lot 44), Matěj Olmer (lot 45) and Michal Škapa (lot 46). The group’s name reflects its manifesto and at its core is the awareness that artists in the 2020s have been strongly relativized. They believe many factors have contributed to the weakening of the status of the artist. The aim is to be taken seriously by society at large and become equal partners in the debate regarding the conditions of their existence. FIRMA is working towards reversing the need to be ‘businessmen’ and managers of their own success, instead rather, to be ‘pure artists’. Artists in the group do not share form or concept but an agreement regarding their view of the status, possibilities and needs of the artist in the present society.