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
Łukasz Szymański
Portraits of Portraits
Portréty portrétů
19. 2.–28. 3. 2026
Curators of the exhibition: Piotr Gierowski and Jaromír Typlt.
The thirty-seventh exhibition at the Art brut Praha Gallery is the very first solo exhibition by the Polish artist Łukasz Szymański. Theorist Piotr Gierowski from the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, a collaborator of the Stacja Badawcza Outsider Art gallery, writes about him:
Łukasz Szymański is an artist originally from Kraków. For over twenty years, he has been associated with the “Miodowa” Gallery in Kraków’s Kazimierz district, which presents the works of artists who have experienced personal crises, alongside creators connected to the Art Studio Miodowa art therapy workshop. The gallery is run by the painter Małgorzata Bundzewicz.
Łukasz Szymański remains practically unknown to the wider public. He has created several hundred works, but is not currently producing any new art – in the past, he was encouraged to draw by his father; however, following his father’s death, at his mother’s prompting, he swapped the art studio for a carpentry workshop. He is a quiet, reserved person who shies away from attention, does not sign his works, and does not consent to having his photograph published.
He creates entirely autonomously – although he draws inspiration from reproductions of classical artworks, including paintings by Rembrandt, which he is particularly fond of, he reworks the source material to such an extent that it becomes unrecognisable. Usually, these are portraits, or more precisely, portraits of portraits. Łukasz works primarily with intense, pure colours. The figures have simplified outlines, lack three-dimensionality, and are placed against a stark, single- or multi-coloured dynamic background, which is sometimes further filled with vibrant patches or dots in a different colour. All of this lends his drawings a monumental and slightly surreal character.
Most often, he creates using coloured pencils and pastels. He draws without making corrections, in his own way, and entirely independently – thanks to which he has managed to create his own poetics, a distinctive and recognisable signature that captures the viewer’s attention.
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 Horváthová (Rimini Filí), Ladislav Svoboda, Vojtěch Šůra 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.