2025, high-voltage drawing

Krištof Kintera (*1973) is undoubtedly one of the current stars of the Czech art scene, and his work is also very successful abroad. In addition to monumental objects often linked to architecture, he devotes himself to daily drawings, which are part of his work ritual. His distinctive works are created as high-voltage drawings. These Lichtenberg figures—named after the German scientist who was the first to visualize electric current—are also reminiscent of the root system of trees, a theme to which Kintera constantly returns in his work. With its poetic nature, this "electric" drawing is not typical of Kintera's work, which is why it is a suitable piece for any collection.

• In 1999, 2001 and 2003 he was nominated for the Jindřich Chalupecký Award
• In recent years he has prepared solo exhibitions for the Prague galleries Kunsthalle, the DOX Centre for Contemporary Art and Rudolfinum, and abroad for Heldenreizer Contemporary in Munich, Kali Gallery in Lucerne and Ron Mandos Gallery in Amsterdam

Krištof Kintera lives and works in Prague. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, where he studied in the studios of Jiří Lindovský, Aleš Veselý, Michael Bielický and Milan Knížák. He then continued his studies at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam. In 1999, 2001 and 2003 he was nominated for the Jindřich Chalupecký Award. In recent years he has prepared solo exhibitions for the Prague galleries Kunsthalle, the DOX Centre for Contemporary Art and Rudolfinum, and abroad for Heldenreizer Contemporary in Munich, Kali Gallery in Lucerne and Ron Mandos Gallery in Amsterdam.

By now his work is known to almost everyone. Ever since his first exhibition project TO in 1996 he has been one of the leading figures of the Czech scene. The success of his work, however, does not rest on sarcastic humour and gentle exaggeration opening up serious contemporary themes alone; it grows out of a long-term effort to analyse our relationship to our surroundings, to nature and to ourselves.

In the 1990s and 2000s he won popularity above all with his kinetic sculptures and monumental installations. It would be hard to forget the subversive Appliances (1997-1998) or the philosophising Talkers (1999), metaphorical commentaries on human existence. He showed the provocateur in him when he worked with the artist David Černý on the controversial Entropa installation in 2009, and he revealed his gentler side in the exhibition Nervous Trees, which in 2017 literally swallowed up the spaces of the Rudolfinum gallery. With that grand installation of old cables, motherboards and dismantled mobile phones, seen by more than 160,000 visitors, he confirmed his position on the Czech art scene.