Bloom
Organic shapes in bloom, colourful structures and technological forms draw us into a situation where digital worlds blend with physical ones and intuition intertwines with sophisticated systems. Oil and acrylic instead of chlorophyll, pixels instead of cells. The dynamic environment hosts processes of transformation: it grows and evolves before our eyes. The seeds of the forms appear and disappear, transitioning from solid to liquid and from precisely defined to instinctively gestural. We can observe visual neoplasms with ambiguous functions, and fascinating hybrids with a retro-futuristic touch.
For the first time, the BLOOM exhibition project brings together the works of Tomáš Absolon and a Milan Vagač, creating a dialogue in which they jointly dissolve the boundary between the abstract and figurative positions of contemporary painting. The authors explore the possibilities of visual representation in paintings whose narrative is not direct but consists of visual abbreviations, geometric shapes, dynamic gestures, and imitations of materials that rely on our imagination or previous experience. The surface transforms into an object, the digital trace into a tangible record, and the physical painting takes on the character of a virtual image. Both find inspiration in various fields, whether it be nature, music, pop culture, new technologies, science fiction, or architecture. Fragments of the real world are reassembled into abstract-looking painterly compositions that bear traces of familiar moments or visions of future entities.
Both Vagač and Absolon work with the principles of repetition, while remaining faithful to variations on motifs from their own image databases. This tendency toward a serial nature of the work does not show any signs of boring sterility: quite the contrary, each composition has its own internal rhythm and dynamics, acknowledging painterly structures and gestural brushstrokes. Individual elements are organically transformed, updated, and find harmony in new constellations. We can observe evolutions of the forms, as well as a broader insight into the artists’ worlds. Distinctive aesthetics and painterly formalism gradually transform into an effort to understand what is actually happening in the paintings. These are the small moments of awareness when fragments of memories, flashes of visual memory, or déjà vu-s emerge from the layers of paint. It is not just an unsatisfactory feeling in which a thought is lost on the tip of the tongue. It is a moment when the image blossoms and opens up like a living (or sometimes technological) organism.
Tomáš Absolon, Milan Vagač
Tomáš Absolon (born 1987, Uherské Hradiště) lives and works in Prague. In his painting practice, he continuously develops the depicting qualities of the paintings, tending toward abstract strategies while also drawing on reduced fragments of the real world. His works are characterized by striking colours and energetic forms reminiscent of digital graphics, poster design, and gestural typography. Nevertheless, they are the result of a purely painterly gesture – an analogue approach to mixing colours and layering, working with stencils or dynamic brushstrokes and oil pastels. The artist’s work combines a number of pop culture references, film inspirations, and references to obscure corners of the music scene. His current work is exceptionally close to figurative painting. It features stylized forms that look like figures or living organisms. Imaginary microscopic views into plant cells intertwine with motifs of musicians. Figures that used to hold cigarettes now hold wind instruments instead. Each motif is at a certain stage of evolution: it transitions from one form to another, emphasizing the constant process of transformation and movement that is key to Absolon's work.
Milan Vagač (born 1987, Bratislava) is a Slovak visual artist living in Prague. In recent years, his work has focused on the intersection of painting, objects, and spatial installations, which he explores in the context of physical paintings influenced by technological and digital environments. His clear sense of system, his analogous variations and the modular structure of the individual elements contrasts with the organic shapes, the natural materials, and the raw texture of the surfaces. His paintings feature a smooth transition from abstraction to hints of figuration, with the viewer’s experience playing a significant role. Static geometric elements enter dialogue with fragments of living organisms, creating tension between the artificial and the living. Vagač creates an illusion of volume on the surface of the canvas, almost tempting the viewers to experience the paintings though touch. His characteristic morphology refers to design, architecture, and decorative elements, while at the same time leaving traces of organicity and respecting the rhythm of nature.