Jakub Tomáš

Jakub Tomáš (1982) is a contemporary Czech painter and graduate of the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen and the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, where he studied painting under Vladimír Kokolia and Jiří Sopko. His early work was characterized by an attempt at constantly updating and redefining the medium of the easel painting. In 2011, he began to experiment with circular can vases that resemble the eye of a camera and give the impression that we are voyeuristically looking upon the depicted scenes. After this, he engaged in the spatial decomposition of his paintings, thus disrupting the traditional perception of the painting and its perspective. More recently, he has returned to the traditional canvas format, though with an emphasis on the conceptual exploration of the boundary between reality and fiction. He deliberately disrupts the viewer’s gaze through optical illusions, by giving his paintings a layered, collage-like character, or through the motif of a “net” or curtain that divides the space into “in front of” and “behind.” His paintings’ figures often evoke the movements of puppets – a reference to his inspiration from Cubism, Czech animation, puppetry, and folk art, but also Expressionism, Surrealism, and German New Objectivity. Jakub Tomáš has enjoyed success at home and abroad in particular: his works can be found at foreign galleries and he regularly exhibits in important European and American cities. Prominent exhibitions include Fluidity at Nevan Contempo (2018), plus the solo exhibitions LA Story at The Cabin in Los Angeles (2024) and The Field Robot of Myself at New York’s Asya Geisberg Gallery (2024).