Jiří Marek

Oct 20

HIDDEN Podcast: Jiří Marek on Layers, Destruction, and the Palimpsest of Painting

Description:

Recorded at Trafo Gallery during Jiří Marek’s exhibition Palimpsest, this conversation opens a window into the painter’s meditative and material approach to image-making. Marek speaks about the duality of construction and destruction, the act of erasing as a form of creation, and the emotional charge that remains within matter. His reflections unfold as a poetic study of painting as an archaeological process, a constant rewriting of surfaces, memories, and personal history.

Topics Discussed

The concept of Palimpsest — painting as a layered field where old meanings stay visible beneath new ones
Marek’s method of working alla prima: direct, intuitive, often without preparatory drawings
Influence of professors Jiří Sopko and Jiří Petrbok during his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague
The transition from oil to acrylic and the search for immediacy in process
The tension between abstraction and figuration — why Marek remains drawn to recognizable forms
Collaboration with curator Tomáš Knoflíček on the architectural intervention at Trafo Galerie
Reflections on faith, spirituality, and the metaphysical dimension of painting
Organ-like heads and bodies as portraits of inner transformation
Literary and philosophical inspirations: Dostoyevsky, Bachelard, and the language of poetry
Views on melancholy, authenticity, and the need for emotional depth in art
Thoughts on collectors, relationships to sold works, and what remains after an artwork leaves the studio

Key Quotes from Jiří Marek

“Painting for me is a search in real time, construction and deconstruction happening at once.”
“Each painting is a residue a trace of what has already happened, layered again and again.”
“I’m not trying to remind people of the past; I’m trying to speak to what exists right now.”
“When I finish an exhibition, I’m completely exhausted. I need to step away, take a breath, and clear my mind.”
“I like when something in the painting still carries a connection to the real world — even if it’s abstract, it needs to evoke memory.”

Guest Information

Jiří Marek (born 1991 in Brno, Czech Republic) is a contemporary painter living and working in Ostrava.

He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, first in the painting studio of prof. Jiří Sopko and later in the drawing studio of prof. Jiří Petrbok.

Marek’s work focuses on the psychology of painting — on the boundary between figuration and abstraction, presence and disappearance. His technique often involves layering, erasure, and re-painting, leaving visible traces of previous compositions.

This conversation is in Czech.