Studio Visit – Pavla Malinová

Artist Pavla Malinová will guide you through her studio in Kostelec nad Orlicí.

Pavla Malinová is one of the most prominent faces of contemporary Czech painting. She came to wider awareness in 2019 as a finalist for the Jindřich Chalupecký Award, where she impressed the jury with her complex aesthetics and ability to naturally connect historical references with a contemporary view of painting.

She comes from Vsetín and was led to painting by the desire to find her own visual language. After studying at the glass school, she entered the Faculty of Arts in Ostrava, despite several attempts to be admitted to the Prague Academy of Fine Arts, where her work began to take shape significantly. It was the free atmosphere of the Ostrava scene that allowed her to experiment, work with other media, and develop a unique style that combines painting, music, and performance.

Strong figures, organic shapes, and symbols reminiscent of echoes of collective memory often appear in her paintings. Vivid colors, layering, and ambivalence of motifs create a visual world that oscillates between dream, ritual, and the present. The theme of spirituality, peace, and transformation appears repeatedly in her work, sometimes in paintings, sometimes in videos, where she connects the physical and mental planes. For Pavla, painting is a way to tune into the world around her.