Born in 1978 in Prague, Czechoslovakia, Jan Kaláb is one of the country’s most notable contemporary artists’ today. A founding pioneer of the Prague underground graffiti, and street art scene, formerly known as Cakes, and with his crew, The DSK – together they animated city streets, and spent many sleepless nights in train yards, and perhaps, a few nights too in police stations.
Following those glory days, Jan’s work has evolved to 3-D graffiti, light suspended installations, animated NFTs, paintings, and sculptures. His paintings teeter on the edge of sculpture and his sculptures are mostly painted. All the while, shape and color are the main characters of his work, which he pushes and blends together to exaggerate, or minimize, forms. Sometimes Jan’s work may resemble a particular shape, but it is never his intention to capture, nor replicate an existing image or narrative. Rather, he seeks universal beauty in an unseen and novel perspective, and redirects the known into the unknown; into a new dimension. The sensations of déjà vu, like when remembering a special moment or melody; this is the ultimate feeling, Jan strives to achieve and wishes to resonate with his audience.
In studio, Prague
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A Masters graduate from the Academy of Fine Arts of Prague in 2006, Jan had his first solo exhibition shortly thereafter in 2008 at the acclaimed Trafo Gallery, an exclusive art space notorious for showing only outstanding artists with limited shows of four per year. Since then, his works are part of the museum collections of the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library, Cedar Rapids in the USA; Museu Nacional de Belas Artes, Rio De Janeiro in Brazil; DEJI Art Museum in China; Osan Museum in South Korea. His artwork is part of the private collections of Dior and Tiffany. He exhibits in leading world galleries in places such as New York, Miami, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Seoul, Shanghai, Rio de Janeiro and Taipei.
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