17.09.2018
Martin Salajka presents his latest works dedicated to the contrasts of the dark urban environment and nature at the exhibition LIGHTS, to be seen until 31.8. at Industra gallery in Brno. The curator of the exhibition is Martina Vaverová.
Exhibition LIGHTS of Martin Salajka presents for the first time new painting cycles, which had come into existence during the past years. On Salajka's canvases, two main motives meet: city and nature. Two seemingly different worlds linked by the painter's perception. Salajka views the city from the position of an individual, to whom this environment is not entirely natural. He grew up in a restless nature around Uherské Hradiště and had to break through Prague's "jungle" later. Thanks to this experience, he found that very similar elements mingle in both worlds: raging energy, beasts and prey, animal "lights" (eyes), the cycle of life and death.
Salajka's painting are accompanied by inspiration with huge abbreviations and children's artistic expression of Alén Diviš, spontaneous drawings by Jiří Načeradský and, last but not least, the work of Josef Váchal. Not only because of them, Salajka stands somewhat outside of classical figural painting. He doesn't approach the image with intentional rationality, but he lets spontaneity and fantasy to shape the final image. Expressive brush strokes and flashing colors go hand in hand with the adventure of the painting process, which often plays a more important role than the outcome itself. The extremes of our society and art are also reflected in the resulting expression of his work, which is dominated by primitive but very penetrating energy.
With mysterious and dreamy mood of the images he gets under the water surface, life in the trees and the dark night full of glowing eyes of wild animals. Demonic creatures, ravens and skulls penetrate the border of dreams and reality - nowadays profaned subculture symbols, whose visual language is turned into a design collection of t-shirts.
The freedom with which he approaches the blank canvas allows him to develop infinitely subject of the painting and to combine various techniques. Exception is not even the image based on the small format graphics developed into a wider story. Often in his work, we can find pictures that grew together and the stories flow from one canvas to another capturing variations of one theme.
text: Martina Vaverová
