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Kým si pod mojou strechou- výstava Jakuba Kotlára
While you are under my roof - exhibition by Jakub Kotlar
Event by: Jakub Kotlár, Kristina Majvitor
Location: Street Food & Cafe Possonium, Kyčerského 2965/7a, Bratislava - Staré Mesto
Exhibitions
About event
"As long as you're under my roof" is a phrase that many of us carry with us from growing up. It promises protection, but at the same time it sets the rules, and sometimes we still feel anxiety from it, and some even despair.
In Jakub's paintings, it becomes a quiet, sometimes unidentifiable background of everyday life: bathroom, yard, nursery, bedroom or objects close at hand. Characters they do seemingly ordinary things, but they are always faced with the small choice of accepting a rule, slowing down, or going completely off track. The soft nest of the home is not just an interior filler. It plays the role of a place where we learn boundaries and subtleties.
Jakub Kotlár (1996) is based on the Bratislava graffiti scene of the 2000s and the study of graphic and spatial design. The last years he develops a series of paintings that are sometimes created according to a thought-out, sometimes intuitive process. Quick sketch in yellow, finishing in brown, corrections in red, light underpainting and acrylic layering. The spray leaves a legible trace and refines the contour with an angle.
The author chooses materials according to need – sometimes he borrows canvas from work, other times he finds cardboard from large warehouse. The colors of the works are based on contrasts. What is important is what remains in the viewer's mind, not the search for big questions. Civil motives and decisions "here and now" carry enough tension in themselves.
Jakub's exhibition responds to the experience of the home as a place where care can turn into control and rules are inscribed in the body. The dominant painting of a little girl skipping rope breaks on closer inspection because the jump rope is barbed wire. The game turns into a test of limits. However, it is not a gesture of hopelessness, but an image of concentration, courage and a fragile search for one's own pace in a space dictated by unspoken expectations. In the painting "Mom put a key around my neck", one of the central figures leads the others with their eyes covered, while the last one still looks behind the flower. A small shift in contrast is enough to indicate the possibility of individual choice.
The author deliberately omits large social themes. He is interested in the everyday that shapes us. From his family albums, as well as those of others, with which he comes into contact at work, he composes a map where support, habit and doubt intertwine.
His characters do not declare clear messages, rather they accept things as they are, and at the same time try to see if a step can be taken differently. In this, Kotlár's work is accessible and straightforward, which makes it effective.
His paintings naturally follow the lines that work with the home as a carrier of tension and vulnerability. Jakub does not illustrate these connections, but sticks to the civil language of contemporary painting – a gesture that happens in a moment and carries color, surface and shadow.
The exhibited works are thus connected by the subtle but precise idea that even under someone's roof you can find your own way. Sometimes we are strong, sometimes we are fragile. Both states have value and both need space.
In Jakub's paintings, it becomes a quiet, sometimes unidentifiable background of everyday life: bathroom, yard, nursery, bedroom or objects close at hand. Characters they do seemingly ordinary things, but they are always faced with the small choice of accepting a rule, slowing down, or going completely off track. The soft nest of the home is not just an interior filler. It plays the role of a place where we learn boundaries and subtleties.
Jakub Kotlár (1996) is based on the Bratislava graffiti scene of the 2000s and the study of graphic and spatial design. The last years he develops a series of paintings that are sometimes created according to a thought-out, sometimes intuitive process. Quick sketch in yellow, finishing in brown, corrections in red, light underpainting and acrylic layering. The spray leaves a legible trace and refines the contour with an angle.
The author chooses materials according to need – sometimes he borrows canvas from work, other times he finds cardboard from large warehouse. The colors of the works are based on contrasts. What is important is what remains in the viewer's mind, not the search for big questions. Civil motives and decisions "here and now" carry enough tension in themselves.
Jakub's exhibition responds to the experience of the home as a place where care can turn into control and rules are inscribed in the body. The dominant painting of a little girl skipping rope breaks on closer inspection because the jump rope is barbed wire. The game turns into a test of limits. However, it is not a gesture of hopelessness, but an image of concentration, courage and a fragile search for one's own pace in a space dictated by unspoken expectations. In the painting "Mom put a key around my neck", one of the central figures leads the others with their eyes covered, while the last one still looks behind the flower. A small shift in contrast is enough to indicate the possibility of individual choice.
The author deliberately omits large social themes. He is interested in the everyday that shapes us. From his family albums, as well as those of others, with which he comes into contact at work, he composes a map where support, habit and doubt intertwine.
His characters do not declare clear messages, rather they accept things as they are, and at the same time try to see if a step can be taken differently. In this, Kotlár's work is accessible and straightforward, which makes it effective.
His paintings naturally follow the lines that work with the home as a carrier of tension and vulnerability. Jakub does not illustrate these connections, but sticks to the civil language of contemporary painting – a gesture that happens in a moment and carries color, surface and shadow.
The exhibited works are thus connected by the subtle but precise idea that even under someone's roof you can find your own way. Sometimes we are strong, sometimes we are fragile. Both states have value and both need space.