Exciting new exhibitions coming soon!
The National Gallery Prague will enter the autumn art season with a series of new exhibitions at the Trade Fair Palace. Open to the general public, NGP Opening 2023 will take place on 21/9 2023 at 7 pm and will launch the exhibitions Watercolour between Prague and Vienna and the Fotograf Festival HYPERTENSION23. It will also feature the official launch of the Prague Art Week festival.
Watercolour between Prague and Vienna (22/9 2023 – 7/1 2024)
Watercolour is an artistic technique based on working with water-soluble paints. It is characterised by its lightness, use of colour, and luminosity – but also virtuosity and mastery. Watercolour reached its high point in the 19th century when it was used in the representation of vedute and landscapes, in small-scale portraiture and in interior depictions. It was an extremely versatile technique used by all artists. Watercolour also contributed significantly to the interaction between different media which influenced and complemented each other – i.e., printmaking, painting, architecture, and photography. The exhibition displays 19th century art in an engaging way and introduces viewers to a subject that has never been presented as a whole before. It demonstrates that the popularity of watercolour lasted throughout the 19th century and the technique was used in a wide range of styles and expressions.
Exhibition creator: Petr Šámal
Exhibition curator: Petra Kolářová
Exhibition creator: Petr Šámal
Exhibition curator: Petra Kolářová
Graphic Arts Cabinet – Pravoslav Novák: The Loudness of Silence (21/9 – 10/12 2023)
The permanent exhibition 1939–2021: The End of the Black and White Era will welcome a new artist to the Graphic Arts Cabinet. Pravoslav Sovák (1926–2022) was one of the most significant European graphic artists of his generation. During his lifetime, he produced more than 330 prints, in which he explored and developed the possibilities of drypoint with an unusual emphasis on technique. The exhibition will present works from the 1950s to the 1970s that constitute the core of Sovák’s intaglio printing experiments. The uniqueness of Pravoslav Sovák and his work lies above all in his keen sensitivity to conception and construction.
Curator: Anna Strnadlová
Curator: Anna Strnadlová
#hypertension23 Fotograf Festival (22/9 2023 – 11/2 2024)
The exhibition HYPERTENSION23 features works from the last decade reflecting our new virtual selves that transcend the boundaries of cyberspace and the mutability of human identity in the digital fluidity.
We are living in a time of transformation of the human body into a liquid digital mass, affecting every aspect of our lives. Our digital entities roam cyberspace and create their own enclaves where each virtual self constantly yearns to present itself well. We become the subjects of embodied fantasies in which we can be someone else entirely – forever, for a time, or just for a post.
We are living in a time of transformation of the human body into a liquid digital mass, affecting every aspect of our lives. Our digital entities roam cyberspace and create their own enclaves where each virtual self constantly yearns to present itself well. We become the subjects of embodied fantasies in which we can be someone else entirely – forever, for a time, or just for a post.
OPENING 2023 PROGRAMME:
7 pm
Launch of the exhibition Watercolour between Prague and Vienna
Launch of the exhibition The Extreme Self: Age of You
7 pm
Launch of the exhibition Watercolour between Prague and Vienna
Launch of the exhibition The Extreme Self: Age of You
Exhibiting artists: Shumon Basar, Douglas Coupland, Hans Ulrich Obrist
The Extreme Self is a graphic novel about the transformation of personality in the contemporary world with all its extremes. Has individuality changed, first through digital technology and then as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic? The Extreme Self becomes a book of memes combining visual material by contemporary artists with content freely available on the Internet and various slogan texts. The project was created by Shumon Basar, Douglas Coupland and Hans Ulrich Obrist in collaboration with graphic designer Wan Daly. At the Fotograf Festival, the project is divided into two exhibition parts, which are placed in the public space (i.e., the Trade Fair Palace and the Můstek metro entrance hall, line B). The visual essay thus coexists with the surrounding space of the city.
7:45 pm Atlas Performance Tomáš Vaněk: PARTICIP No. 227
Without realising it, we carry with us a shape that delineates our personal view of the world around us. We do not perceive this shape and do not attach any meaning to it. We don’t know about it, and we don’t care about it. Vaněk wants to discover this individual shape and how it differs from others through a simple interactive drawing event. He invites people to a corner of the room, fixes them in a certain position and draws their personal fields of vision. The starting position is the same for everyone, but each shape is different. By layering and overlapping them, a comparative map is created, determined by the situation and the number of people invited.
8 pm the #hypertension23 exhibition,
5th floor
Performance: Stef Van Looveren, Sower, Performance at the ONUS object in the HYPERTENSION23 exhibition.
8:30 pm Small Hall, Trade Fair Palace
Performance Michele Rizzo: Higher xtn.
The performance will take place in collaboration with the National Gallery Prague, the Lunchmeat Festival, and Prague Art Week.
For the first time ever in the Czech Republic, Italian artist and choreographer Michele Rizzo will present his performance Higher xtn. The piece explores dance in the context of the state of flow and transcendence. Rizzo’s work examines the cathartic and transformative power of techno music, whose repetitive rhythms can temporarily blur the perceived boundaries of the body. The performance will take place in the Small Hall of the Trade Fair Palace at 8:30 pm, in collaboration with the National Gallery Prague, Prague Art Week and the Lunchmeat Festival, which will be held at the Trade Fair Palace a week later.
For the first time ever in the Czech Republic, Italian artist and choreographer Michele Rizzo will present his performance Higher xtn. The piece explores dance in the context of the state of flow and transcendence. Rizzo’s work examines the cathartic and transformative power of techno music, whose repetitive rhythms can temporarily blur the perceived boundaries of the body. The performance will take place in the Small Hall of the Trade Fair Palace at 8:30 pm, in collaboration with the National Gallery Prague, Prague Art Week and the Lunchmeat Festival, which will be held at the Trade Fair Palace a week later.
