Vladimír Houdek

With his exhibition Shape and Depth at SPOT Gallery, Vladimír Houdek concludes his series of yellow paintings. This series, which he has presented at Prague's Kampa Museum, as well as galleries in Budapest, Berlin, and Bratislava, focuses on the movement of celestial bodies and reflects Houdek's long-standing interest in staratlases, cosmological maps, and the visual language of scientific illustration. The color yellow is not merely a formal choice, but carries the symbolism of solar energy and light and also refers to the artist's affinity for Impressionism—specifically Vincent van Gogh's iconic Sunflowers.

Houdek's work has long oscillated between concrete representation and geometric abstraction, while also partially referencing the tradition of graphic design and printmaking. He works in closed, technically and visually interconnected cycles with their own rules. The driving force behind the development of new visual elements and themes in his work is obsessive repetition. He uses his own work as a form of escape from reality or finitude.

The technique itself, which the author has developed and perfected over the years, also plays an important role—he applies layers of paint, which he then scratches through, revealing older layers. In this way, he deliberately disrupts the formal order and combines precision with destruction. It is this contrast that is fundamental to his entire oeuvre.