Vladimír Houdek (b. 1984) received two significant awards during his studies at the Prague Academy of Fine Arts: the Critics’ Prize for Young Painting in 2010 and the Jindřich Chalupecký Prize two years later—the latter being, for a long time before and after, awarded only to a painter. His work combines painterly verism with technically precise forms that merely suggest the appearance of machine components, creating the perfect illusion of something unreal. At the same time, Houdek emphasizes the materiality of paint through layered applications, giving his works a tangible “objecthood” and a sense of physical weight. One recurring theme in his work is the idea of ideal cities, a motif subtly referenced in the title of this exhibition, even though no specific cityscapes appear in the paintings themselves.

Source text: Marcel Fišer / Gavu Gallery