It is sad that the technique on paper has been neglected for a long time and the interest of the public is still moving more towards paintings on canvas, but I dare to say that if this phenomenon can be changed in the future, one of those whose work will be a driving force for the better in this direction is Nikola Čulík. He is a bravura draughtsman (he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Jitka Svobodová's studio), but his bravura in no way rises above the meaning/theme of his work. That is why we often see small formats of precise drawings by him, which prove that a large work does not have to be large in format. In the case of this exhibition, which somewhat unmasks the origin of the series with its title, it will be no different, and the artist will introduce the viewer to his world, in which the suggestive rendering of his reflections sometimes has a melancholic veil... If I were to approach Nikola Čulík's work more closely, or at least try to do so, then for me his expression has always been and still is an intensely personal, even intimate confession. It is a commentary on his own life or the life of others, but it is never engaged in the sense of declaring his attitude towards things and situations! He shows, he presents (and often in a crude and indiscriminate way) but he never judges... He is a son of the loneliness of the world.

Palladium is a noble precious metal of greyish white colour. It is characterized by the greatest reactivity and its occurrence on our planet is very rare. Even in the surrounding universe, it is thought to be present in approximately 1 atom of Palladium per 30 billion atoms of hydrogen. At the same time, however, the term Palladium is associated in Czech pop culture with the name of a shopping centre in the centre of Prague, which was built on the site of the military barracks where in 1834 J. K. Tyl wrote the lyrics to the song "Where is my home", which later became the national anthem. With apologies, I could not forgive myself for this perhaps strange introduction as an argument why Marian Palla's exhibition at the contemporary czech art gallery was named in this way. One of our best conceptual artists, performer, poet, novelist and recessionalist, evokes in his works, like that Palladium, an equally varied mix of feelings and impressions. He has been teaching at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Brno University of Technology for 17 years. His novel inventiveness with which he realizes his projects is a beautiful demonstration that dematerialized art can have a powerful effect on the viewer without overwhelming him with pathos and a false sense of depth. Marian Palla's art is inedible to the snob, but the open-minded viewer who does not take himself so seriously will always derive a sublime pleasure from his actions, performances and texts.

In these times of fast changing fashion trends, we can say with assurance that the most silly thing one can do is pause and indulge in observing everyday phenomena and objects. Vladimír Véla is undoubtedly an artist who likes watching the popular scene from afar. He has his own way of painting, of quiet, sensitive reduction that can be softly vibrating even in its often monumental proportions... After his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in the studio of Zdeněk Beran, Véla decided to graduate from the intermedia studio of Milan Knížák. That is probably why he became more open and his up to then realistic painting gradually became reduced to symbols and essence of objects. The artist himself says that he learnt to paint the way he does now only after he graduated. He may not be the first or the last one, however it is definitely worth mentioning because many graduates of art schools lack the talent and the courage to do so. Vladimír's paintings and drawings are a reference to a meditative contemplation of our world, his composition is close to artists such as Mark Rothko, William Baziotes, William H. Holst and Helen Frankenthaler. His paintings do not restrict a motif, they rather provide a baggy, airy garment for it. In a similar way the colours meet on the canvas in limited palettes so that they have the maximum impact within the area the artist permits them to occupy.

Speaking about Adam Kašpar, it is pointless to ask whether it is permissible to separate a work of art from its creator. If we dare to label him as a landscapist, we need to consider that such a label could cause harm in the future. It is obvious that his obsession with landscape is unusually deep and I dare to say that there has not been a better realist landscape artist in years. However, Kašpar's creative passion somehow exceeds the confines of landscape. He is not trying to dazzle us with his brilliant painting style. He is rather an admirer of the regularities and principles behind whatever the nature chooses to reveal to us as the spectators. Why do I believe that his interest in the landscape is rooted deeper than we are mostly able to see in his paintings? Here I come back to the question whether it is possible to separate the author and his work... I had the opportunity to have a taste of that landscape behind landscape, to get to know the author's thoughts about the orders of the landscape. In their ultimate expressions they are the orders of the existence itself. As of this writing, the author is only twenty-seven. When he was studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, it was definitely a refreshing time for many of his colleagues and professors. Not many artists are capable of bringing fresh air from the woods and the mountains inside the studio walls.

As a young girl, Lenka Falušiová used to take walks in her hometown of Vrbno pod Pradědem. Did she suspect back then that the landscape of the Jeseníky Mountains, where her hometown is situated, was to become the theme of her thesis project at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague a few years later? It is something we need to ask her... Anyway, she studied in the studios of Jiří Lindovský and Dalibur Smutný. That suited her very well. She was able to fully develop her interest in transferring the soul of the landscape onto the surface of paper. Lenka's monochromatic drawings and graphic works resemble a music score for the massif of the Jeseníky Mountains. Through her drawings, Lenka lets the needles and leaves of the trees sing in a gentle accent. At the same time she has the spectator perceive the darkness and impermeability of the deep forests. Her hatching is budding from within and the structures create a seemingly chaotic cobweb of natural lace where human activity is almost non-existent. Gentleness is combined with rawness, and the honesty that can be found in every work of this young artist lures and draws your attention. There is no need to make comparisons. However, where other artists, such as the French artist Bertrand Flachot, need to combine several techniques in order to achieve the intended effect, Lenka Falušiová utilizes a much simpler artistic arsenal. Yet her work is equally powerful because, as we all know, less is often more.

If we label Petr Válek in any way, trying to assign the artist a particular position on the contemporary art scene based on his work, whether we like it or not, we will get into trouble. Petr Válek comments on anything that he stumbles upon. No shortcomings of our civilisation, no social taboo, escape his ironic sense of humour emanating from each of his picturesque paintings and drawings. However, this is not all. VAPE (which is his signature) is also dealing with abstract audio productions. The sounds are emitted by the insides of various bizarre machines, little and big, which he constructs and brings to life. He is a free spirit. Petr loves the nature; however, he is not just the eccentric with long hair and a beard from the foothills of the Jeseníky Mountains whom you see at first glance. Rather unerringly he assesses and monitors the events around him. The result of his observations is his performative role he adopted on social media. In the spirit of his critical and ironic concept, his successful videos present him as an outsider on purpose, both by his appearance and behaviour. As a de facto YouTube performer, he speaks a non-existent language, which is a reference to the texts that appear in his paintings, drawings and illustrations from time to time. We could also mention his miniature poetry book that got published or his illustrations for many literary works of famous authors. Long story short, it is extremely difficult to define the scope of his art activities in a nutshell but it was worth the try.

Ožibko is an artist who belongs to the one but last generation of the graduates from the studio of classical painting techniques of late Professor Zdeněk Beran. Beran was the head of the studio at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague between 1990 and 2012. Even though Ožibko is better known for his figurative works that verge on hyperrealism, his abstract, expressive works are rather plentiful too. As a painter born at the beginning of the 1980s, during his adolescence he went through the era of the newly discovered graffiti art, in which he actively participated. This is probably where Ožibko's tendency towards large formats and coloured surfaces originated. Ožibko says that his discussions with Professor Beran also led him to choosing larger dimensions for his paintings. Beran was a graduate from the studio or wall and monumental painting headed by Professor Vladimír Sychra at the Academy of Fine Arts and he shared his views with his students in the studio. Another source of inspiration for the author's abstract works was undoubtedly the paintings of Pavel Holas, assistant professor in Zdeněk Beran's studio. Even though Holas's paintings are called non-figurative, he was certainly verging on abstraction. Of course, we could easily find more influences that shaped the abstract art of Michal Ožibko presented here. However, the fundamental pillars, on which one can base the assessment of this artist’s work, are obvious.