Věrka Kotlárová

I discovered in the Brno Internet gallery Magda (www.galeriemagda.cz), where she first appeared in 2002 at the invitation of Pavel Pražák, curator of the gallery, and where she was asked to put on a show of her work.
She has a reputation for being a kind girl with the appearance and character of a Native American. She is a distinct young painter who doesn’t pay much attention to style, but is a creator of brave metaphorical paintings. Her relaxed animal-like painting is free from stylish elements, but does not take advantage of naive expression. What is important is the action, the scene. Her visions are reminiscent of descriptions of parallel mythic worlds used by some philosophers as a critical mirror held to our world. She puts the separate pictures into cycles and compliments them with explanation, as if she were illustrating historical images or pictures from holy books. Despite all my efforts to get more information and a telephone interview, I failed to put together an exact profile of the artist. She clammed up, and I learned from friends that she shuns publicity. This is her third year in the studio of Václav Stratil at the College of Fine Arts in Brno. For her final project of this year she presented another cycle of paintings with a different, but once again visionary, even dark, subject matter. The expressions may appear cruel at first, though they are means to strict rejection of evil and cynicism. They remind you of original versions of fairytales by the Grimm Brothers.

01.04.2002