Kateřina Štenclová v ploše si sní

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           (David Vávra)

Kateřina Štenclová patří k několika málo českým umělcům, kteří se systematicky zabývají abstraktní malbou. Jejími hlavními výrazovými prostředky jsou čistá barva, vztahy geometrických a organických ploch a malířské gesto. Okrajově se dotkla i problematiky monochromní malby nebo vztahu malířství a architektury. Hlásí se k modernistické malbě druhé poloviny dvacátého století a dále rozvíjí její podněty. Průlomovou se pro Kateřinu Štenclovou stala její výstava v Nové síni v roce 1994. Experimenty se skladbou několika obrazů do jednoho obrazového celku vyvrcholily v cyklech Hranice události I a II., který se dočkal neobvyklé reflexe v prestižních světových periodikách jako Art in America nebo Artforum. Na přelomu tisíciletí již autorka opustila strohou geometrii a začala pracovat se vztahem kruhového malířského gesta a pravoúhlým formátem podložky, a současně se vztahem různých vrstev malby na sobě. Její dílo je zastoupeno mimo jiné ve sbírkách Národní galerie v Praze, Galerie hlavního města Prahy a Alšovy jihočeské galerie a bylo draženo v prestižním výběru současné malby aukční síní Christie‘s.

• She has been reviewed in prestigious international periodicals such as Art in America and Artforum.  
• Her work is represented in the collections of the National Gallery Prague, the Prague City Gallery and the Aleš South Bohemian Gallery, among others
• Her works have been sold by the auction house Christie's.
   

Kateřina Štenclová is a leading figure in Czech painting. For many years she has devoted herself above all to abstract painting, experimenting with it and exploring the possibilities of visual language conceptually; drawing on everything she has learned along the way, she has moved through polyptychs to painting in open space in the form of installations. Reflecting on the meaning of the image is typical of her, which is also why in 2023 she became a co-author of the wide-ranging exhibition Myšlení obrazem: Vizuální události Miroslava Petříčka at the Prague City Gallery in the Municipal Library, where she also exhibited.

From 1982 to 1988 she studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, and between 1990 and 2009 she took part in many international symposia in Switzerland, Austria, Italy and Denmark. In 2003 the Directorate-General of the European Union appointed her an independent expert in the visual arts for the assessment of projects under the European Culture 2000 programme, and a year later she received the Outstanding Creative Excellence award at the Emaar International Art Symposium in Dubai. 

Her works are held by the National Gallery Prague, the Aleš South Bohemian Gallery in Hluboká nad Vltavou, the Moravian Gallery in Brno, the Prague City Gallery and the Gallery of Modern Art in Roudnice nad Labem, as well as in many private collections in the Czech Republic and abroad.  Kateřina first drew wide attention in 1999 with the exhibition Hranice události at the Trade Fair Palace of the National Gallery Prague. Among her other major solo shows of recent years are Světlo barvy II. at the Gallery of Contemporary Art in Roudnice nad Labem, Hranice mé řeči II at the Aleš South Bohemian Gallery, Na povrchu času at the GASK gallery in Kutná Hora and the striking installation Expanze jemných struktur at Galerie HYB4 in Kampus Hybernská in Prague. 

Kateřina Štenclová's approach can be considered genuinely unique in the Czech context. She is one of very few artists on the local scene to work exclusively in abstract painting, while at the same time, unlike her contemporaries, leaning towards a postmodern idea of the medium. Her paintings are free of any narrative or symbolism, so that viewers can give themselves over entirely to the energy of colour, to the painterly gesture and to pure planes; Kateřina draws free inspiration from music. "Ever since childhood I have loved colour, and I felt that, just as with music, it holds interesting moments of inspiration that charge me up," the artist says of her relationship to colour. In her large-format paintings she searches for the right combinations of colour and light, often taking her cue from the exhibition space, responding to it and almost architecturally completing it. Kateřina Štenclová's works let viewers step into inner worlds of their own.