Exhibitions by Vasil Artamonov at the Clauda Gallery and PAF Gallery
We invite you to two current exhibitions by Vasil Artamonov, a teacher at FFA.
Vasil Artamonov – Monstera
12 September – 25 October, 2025
Clauda, Veverkova 28, Prague
Vasil Artamonov's latest series of paintings depicts scenes from everyday urban life – a view into an office building, a still life with lilies, a portrait of a pigeon. The very title of the exhibition suggests that these are seemingly banal motifs, but their simplicity conceals deeper layers of unease. A typical example is the monstera plant – today a neutral decoration in corporate open spaces, corridors of prefabricated buildings, and waiting rooms, but until recently perceived as a strangely shaped and slightly frightening "monster." Artamonov removes it from its decorative context and uses it as a figurative tool to name the latent tension hidden beneath the surface of normality, as was the case, for example, with the motif of the collection and processing of personal data, which he dealt with in previous cycles. Data towers, omniscient birds, and diagrams of monitoring devices resembling ahistorical symbols therefore appeared on his canvases. In this exhibition, Artamonov chooses different, more straightforward means of inquiry, albeit similar in content.
Kateřina Rafaelová, Vasil Artamonov – It Only Gets Dark Before the Dawn
19 September – 23 November, 2025
PAF Gallery, Ztracená 6, Olomouc
The exhibition It Only Gets Dark Before the Dawn consists of paintings that are the joint work of Kateřina Rafaelová (alumni FFA) and Vasil Artamonov (teacher FFA). This comprehensive series brings to life an old-new order, cold and uniform, but also mysterious and strangely tame, which we seem to know intimately: traces of the past, which are subconsciously familiar to us, are transformed into the immediate present, bending and shaping it into a form where almost nothing is certain. What if the belief that the much-discussed apocalypse did not happen yet is just an alibi to push away the truth? The boundary between everyday banality and dreamy delirium is perhaps more permeable than we dare to admit. Abnormal phenomena are nothing new: the bizarre has become the norm. In this strange world, it is more urgent than ever to explore the concept of reality, as it is changing very quickly and, unfortunately, in an insidiously banal way. It is often darkest under the lamp.
| Author | Mgr. Tímea Vitázková |
|---|---|
| Published | |
| Short URL | https://www.favu.vut.cz/en//f26745/d303690 |