The Prague City Gallery presents the first large-scale retrospective of artist, photographer, and graphic designer Pavel Jasanský. Held at the House of Photography, the exhibition offers a rare glimpse into several decades of his multifaceted work, spanning photography, painting, sculpture, and video. Initially known for LP covers, posters, and multimedia projects, he turned fully to independent art in the 1980s. The show features key series such as New Landscape, New Inhabitants—existential photographic visions of an overwhelmed world—and Botič, a black-and-white panoramic childhood recollection. Also on view are early reportage photographs from Paris (Paristory), sensitive portraits from hospitals and institutions, intermedia installations including the iconic video sculpture Divák (1989), and the documentary series Signed Photos, portraying people from his life, including public figures. Jasanský’s work balances personal testimony, critical commentary, and ironic detachment, remaining strikingly relevant through its visual intelligence.
At NoD Gallery, from May 22 to June 13, you can explore contemporary photography with a similar interest in its broader potential. The exhibition Power of Placing Photography features the work of Lukáš Jasanský—Pavel Jasanský’s son—and Martin Polák, who have collaborated as an artistic duo since the 1980s. Their new series links two seemingly distant environments: traditional theatre stages and the empty spaces of underground caves. Both are studied for their visual characteristics and spatial structures. Photographs depict theatre interiors both in performance and in stillness, while cave imagery emphasizes monumental space devoid of human presence. The artists gently bring both types of “scenes” into dialogue—revealing formal similarities and symbolic layers. With subtle irony, they offer a reinterpretation of the concept of the stage—not merely as a cultural construction, but as a natural spatial arrangement that can exist independently of human presence.
On Wednesday, May 14, Berlinskej model opens a show that is part of a curatorial series based on intergenerational artistic dialogue. Curators Agáta Hošnová and Karolína Voleská bring together the 1970s sculptural work of Milada Othová with contemporary approaches by Jáchym Šimek, Hubert Švaříček, and Laurence Sturla. These artists expand the material and narrative principles of classical sculpture into new contexts. The exhibition Sparks Detector explores various methods of working with metal—from raw textures to traditional casting and imitations of ceramic glazes. Oxidation and other chemical processes here are not mere surface effects but active agents that bridge memory, presence, and transformation. Despite the material unity, the show highlights divergent approaches, scales, and techniques. Metal and its compounds become a common language in which layers of time and artistic gestures melt and reshape. Works from different eras and raw materials are linked by a physical continuity—a shared engagement with matter that absorbs time and undergoes transformation. The pieces are presented within a dynamic architectural structure designed by Jakub Lukáš. The exhibition is on view only until Sunday, May 18.
At Galerie Jelení, the exhibition Pack of Lies opens with a vernissage on May 16, offering a dialogue between painter Vladimír Skrepl and sculptor Tomáš Roubal. Both artists operate at the intersection of figuration and the grotesque, sharing an interest in distortion and raw expression. Skrepl’s expressive figures encounter Roubal’s sculptural forms, creating a dynamic interplay and tension between artistic approaches and generations. The exhibition runs through June 8.
