Vision quest, 2003, Prague Post, English

<small>Z Kokolia</small>

autor textu: Mimi Fronczak Rogers

Vision quest
Vladimir Kokolia renews the art of seeing

týdeník Prague Post, 19.6.2003, vyšlo k výstavě: Vidění, Galerie Behémót, Praha

Vladimir Kokolia is one of the most prominent Czech artists of the middle generation and the first winner of the country's prestigious Jindrich Chalupecky award. Several years ago, when he began getting numerous offers for exhibitions and people were waiting to buy his paintings, he questioned whether the motivation for his painting was coming increasingly from the outside. "I canceled all of my shows and declared that I am having a crisis," he said at the time.

Kokolia was also fighting against the notion of being an "international" artist -- which, he said, "means you travel from one biennale to another." So he dug in where he already was, the Moravian village of Veverske Kninice. "I realized I should root at any cost," he said. After a three-year hiatus, Kokolia began to paint again last year, and he is now showing a group of his new canvases at Galerie Behemot. They can be seen as the first flowering of that deeper and stronger root system.

The title of his show, "Vision," refers to an ability and readiness to genuinely see -- a faculty often neglected, the artist says. His approach to painting emphasizes the priority of looking and seeing before executing a work.

At the core of Kokolia's art is a search for authenticity. His signature style often involves painterly, intricate networks of lines. Though a viewer may perceive his paintings as entirely abstract, Kokolia says they always link to some original thing. One is reminded of Paul Klee's famous aphorism: "Not to reproduce the visible, but to make visible." Whatever thing is at the heart of the dozen paintings in this show, the subject of energy seems a subtext.

In the large horizontal canvas that stands alone in the gallery's front room, a network of diamond shapes pulsates within a larger diamond, with the painting's energy field dissipating -- but by no means enervating -- toward the peripheries. Ebullient arcs of color splash forth from some of the smaller shapes, a gesture of renewed vitality.

One of the canvases in the second room evokes a neural network -- or perhaps the complicated grid that provides water and warmth to a city. A mass of main and secondary conduits, the networks are vital but often overlooked, hidden below the rush of daily life.

A couple of the paintings are atypically dark for Kokolia. One is nearly all black, with multiple grottolike chambers created by a web of arching forms. In another, purple, black and blues predominate in a composition whose focal point is situated just off-center, a smallish aperture that seems to draw energy like a magnet. This toning down of the palette points at a new exploration of color by the artist -- although several canvases, including the show's centerpiece, show a color continuity with much of Kokolia's earlier work.

As with the Tai Chi that the artist practices daily, there is a sense of energy originating from a central point in his paintings and flowing outward. With one leg rooted firmly and securely against the earth, Kokolia is showing a newly invigorated balance and unity in his work.

Vladimir Kokolia at Galerie Behemot Ends June 28. Elisky Krasnohorske 6, Prague 1-Old Town. Open Tues.-Sat. 11 a.m.-6 p.m.