Monika Žáková

Monika Žáková (1987) is a leading representative of the contemporary art scene whose art embraces the legacy of 1960s geometric abstraction. This third-place winner of the 2014 Critics’ Award for Young Painters, she first came to the attention of art theorists and collectors with her 2012 graduation work, Linea Alba. Besides completing her studies in Jiří Sopko’s painting studio at Prague’s Academy of Painters, this piece also marked the beginning of her artistic career, in which she has moved away from symbol and toward material. Over time, she has abandoned painting tools and has adopted working methods more commonly found in sculptural or architectural work. She works with light, space, composition, movement, and a wide variety of materials such as fabric, metal, paper, or plaster – all of which form the basic techniques and the basic content of her art. Her works are characterized by an almost haptic sensitivity for the chosen material and its physical qualities, which Žáková allows to speak through a process of mutual cooperation. The result is a unique geographic structure or (in the case of paper and fabric) a mental map capturing the reciprocal effects between the artist and her chosen material. Monika Žáková’s work has been shown at numerous solo and group and exhibitions and can be found in important collections in the cities in Europe (and also Japan) that she has visited.