oil on canvas, signed on the reverse VENDULA CHALÁNKOVÁ, 2004–2025, MAMINČINA PRACOVNÍ VESTA 

INFO
The painting Maminčina pracovní vesta (Mom's Work Vest) was created as a copy of a lost original from 2004 for the catalog Radši maluj! (2025) in two versions – oil and acrylic, which remains in the author's archive.

Vendula Chalánková most often paints as if she were not painting. At first glance, her way of working defies the traditional idea of painting as a gestural, expressive process. She minimizes brush strokes and, with a few exceptions, texture, replacing expression with precision. The surface of her paintings is perfectly smooth, and she applies the paint so carefully that the result can look like a digital output. It is no surprise that her works, in the true sense of the word, are neither easy nor quick to create. In her case, painting is more of an optical pattern with no signs of craftsmanship. Nevertheless, she retains her visual sensitivity and compositional subtlety and does not renounce the most important thing, namely the careful selection of motifs.

The term non-painting, at least in relation to Vendula Chalánková, does not denote negation, but a shift. It is not a rejection of painting as such, but a re-evaluation of it. The act of painting is still present, only stripped of its expressiveness. In contrast to her non-handwriting, there is emotion associated with the content. The themes of the paintings are often personal, intimate, sometimes even intimate. Although Vendula Chalánková often focuses "only" on objectivity—that is, stating facts—her canvases often function as visual underscores with a critical accent. Her objectivity is not cold, but deliberate. Each painting is created for a specific reason, out of a need to communicate something, to draw attention to something, to capture something important. And that is not a matter of course in today's world.

• Radek Wohlmuth, On Not Painting Non-Paintings
from the introductory text to the catalog Radši maluj! (Just Paint!), 2025

Žije a tvoří mezi Troubkami nad Bečvou a Brnem. V roce 2006 úspěšně dokončila studium na Fakultě výtvarných umění, kde absolvovala v Ateliéru environmentu pod vedením Vladimíra Merty a Mariana Pally. Její umělecká dráha začala již v roce 2001 první samostatnou výstavou v brněnském Kabinetu múz.

Od té doby byly její práce vystaveny nejen v České republice, ale také na Slovensku, v Německu, Maďarsku, Anglii, Bosně a Hercegovině, Chorvatsku a dokonce i v Japonsku. Chalánková získala v roce 2006 Cenu Nadání Hlávkových a v roce 2009 ocenění Zlatá stuha za ilustrovanou knihu "O červené karkulce" v kategorii výtvarná část pro začínající čtenáře.

Její díla jsou součástí prestižních sbírek, jako jsou Národní galerie v Praze, Moravská galerie, sbírka Marek, Galerie výtvarného umění v Chebu, Muzeum umění v Olomouci a Museum für Angewandte Kunst ve Vídni.