About the gallery
We are opening the Art brut Prague Gallery as the first exhibition space in Prague focused exclusively on the work of artists who, for various reasons, are unable or unwilling to join the mainstream art scene.
“Here, things are raised proudly
and more stabbingly,
the world is full of edges
on which we have
hurt ourselves many times.”
The quote, taken from Josef Čapek’s groundbreaking book The Most Modest Art, will greet all visitors at the entrance as a foreshadowing of the type of work they will encounter here.
To clearly define the gallery, the name was chosen after the painter Jean Dubuffet’s famous term art brut – usually translated in Czech as “art in its raw state”.
But not all the artists the gallery will represent necessarily fall into the category of art brut as it is usually conceived. Some of them, for various reasons, become outsiders, not even classifiable in this field.
The selection of the artists is basically conditioned by the absence of any conscious calculation in their work aimed at achieving success in the world of contemporary art.
The gallery also wants to support its artists by making their works available for sale.
Exhibitions
Ota Prouza
That´s Just How It Is!!!
Takhle to prostě je!!!
15. 1.–14. 2. 2026
Curator of the exhibition: Jiří Mach.
Curator of the gallery: Jaromír Typlt.
Ota Prouza (born 1959) spent part of his childhood in a children’s home in Liberec. Since the age of eight, he lived in an institution for people with mental disabilities in Brtníky. In recent years, he has been residing in sheltered housing in Rumburk.
His works—sheets of paper glued together into strips several meters long, densely covered in ballpoint pen, marker, and crayon—could easily have ended up in the trash. After all, what is one to do with the “scribbles of a madman”? Yet, his work was fortunate. In 2008, the drawings were discovered by Darina Bočková, a mathematics teacher at the Varnsdorf grammar school who ran workshops at the institution. One day, the papers literally spilled out of a cupboard onto her. Fascinated, she decided to exhibit them in the school corridors, presenting Ota’s work to the world for the first time. Several smaller exhibitions followed.
Darina Bočková’s daughter, Paulína, then a scenography student at DAMU, showed the drawings to her teacher, Ivana Brádková. Captivated, Brádková immediately traveled to meet Ota in person, marking the beginning of a new chapter in his artistic career. Together with the organization abcd, she devoted immense energy to promoting Ota’s oeuvre. While she meticulously mounted the roughly glued paper strips for display, her greatest contribution lay in securing their exhibition in galleries both at home and abroad. Notable examples include Crossroads at the MuMo gallery in Prague (2015) and euward7 at the Augustinum in Munich (2018). In 2017, a solo show was dedicated to Prouza’s drawings at the Artmaterial.cz gallery in Děčín (curated by Jaromír Typlt and Ivana Brádková). His works also received significant recognition at various collective exhibitions, including the Pop up at the Czech Centre in Paris, the Czech Art Brut exhibition at the Cavin-Morris Gallery in New York, and Power(less) at the DOX Centre for Contemporary Art in Prague (all in 2022).
In 2018, he was awarded second place at the 7th European Art Award for Painting and Graphic Arts by Artists with Mental Disabilities (euward) in Munich.
As I bring this text to a close, I realize there is still much to be said about the ingenious, organic nature of his highways and railways—about the perfect world without people (and without accidents!) that he creates. I consciously remain fascinated by the story that “some madman’s scribbles” can tell. And I find myself repeating: “Good, isn’t it?”—the very phrase Ota uses to comment on his own work with such wonder.
Jiří Mach.
About the authors
The main circle of authors is formed by the persons who create in the Studio of Joyful Creation at Letná: Dagmar Filípková, Šárka Hojaková, Dominik Jirsa, Jarmila Jandová, Marie Kohoutková, Václav Kuklík, Marie Kůsová, Lorenzo, Karel Pajma, Lukáš Paleček, Vojtěch Proske, George Radojčič, Iveta Riminka Filí, Ladislav Svoboda will be presented here.
However, internationally known names such as Anna Zemánková or Zdeněk Košek will also be represented. Other authors who have already gained attention include Hana Fousková, La Inthonkaew, Ota Prouza, Helena Skalická and Tomáš Krupka.
Practical information
The gallery will be open five afternoons a week, Tuesday to Saturday 2 – 7pm.
www.artbrutpraha.cz
artbrut.praha@gmail.com
+420 606 028 942 (during opening hours)
+420 602 646 665 (out of hours)
Postal address: Galerie Art brut Praha, Resslova 300/6,
120 00 Praha 2 – Nové Město.
About the place and the founder
The gallery acquired its space after the renovation of a long unused technical building at St. Wenceslas Church in Zderaz.
The operator is the Altán Art association, which has so far been active mainly in Letná: in 2013 it opened the Studio of Joyful Creation here as the first Czech studio providing facilities for artists falling into the category of art brut, and in 2017 it opened up also to the wider public by establishing the ART Cultural and Community Centre, where senior citizens and people with disabilities develop their artistic interests together. Vladimír Drábek is the main representative of the association. More information on the website www.altanart.cz .
Curator
Jaromír Typlt (1973) is a poet, performer and essayist. During 2000-2010 he worked in Liberec as a curator of photography and contemporary art exhibitions at the Small Exhibition Hall and then at the U Rytíře Gallery. Since the end of the 1990s he has also helped to promote the work of overlooked authors, publishing the first book on Zdeněk Košek (2001), literary texts by Hana Fousková, František Novák and many others. In 2018, he started cooperation with the association Altán Art. He has long focused on the topic of “écrits bruts” – written expressions in art brut.
Gallery partners
Studio of Joyful Creation at Letná
Czechoslovak Hussite Church in Prague 2 – New Town
Graphic studio chapter
abcd praha
Media partners
Analogon
Revolver Revue
Souvislosti
I am convinced that a considerable circle of artists, those interested in art brut and the
Pavel Konečný, art brut collector
professional public can form around the Art Brut Prague gallery in a very short time. The
project is a positive response not only to initiatives stemming from the vibrant undercurrent of
our spontaneous creativity, but also responds to calls from foreign cultural institutions to
strengthen the voice of outsider art, including by improving intercultural cooperation and
dialogue across European borders.