Jan Kaláb

Jan Kaláb, a graffiti pioneer in his native Czech Republic made his name on the European art scene originally under the name Cakes in the late 90s. 

After establishing himself on the Old Continent he ventured to the graffiti Hall of fame: New York, where he collaborated on numerous projects with the kings of the graffiti scene at the time - Key and Rome.

Around the same time, he found a new way to push his own limits and challenge himself by making 3-D Graffiti. Under the name of Point, he sculpted huge abstracts letters he chose to put in the streets and on the walls. The highest the better. This was another form of graffiti, in daylight, and without a spray, but truthful to the spirit of competition and innovation of the urban scene.

Those sculptures lead him to abstraction, a path he’s been exploring through canvas from 2007, using acrylic painting and brushes. In the meantime, this admirer of Kupka graduated from the Academy of fine Arts of Prague – becoming the first Czech writer to do so. Jan Kaláb had his first solo exhibition in 2008 in Prague. Others solos took place in Romania, Argentina, Germany or in the United States. With time, his forms became more and more geometric.

He has been using colorful squares and circles as an obsessive vocabulary for infinite variations around depth, time, and motion. Playing with circles conveyed organic imperfection and swing into his work. Dynamic is also crucial in his recent experiments, when he took pictures of some of his paintings in the streets of New York or other cities. The project became a social one when he realized he needed help from strangers to carry the canvas. This is no surprise, since collective energy is crucial in his creative process. The artist is very invested in collective events. He’s the co-creator of a highly dynamic cultural space in Prague, called Trafačka. More than 160 exhibitions took place there from the opening in 2006 till the closure in 2015. On his own or collectively, the motto is the same: always getting higher, always inventing new forms – a tribute to the soul of graffiti.

AWARDS

2010

ART PRAGUE Young Award, Prize of UniCredit Bank at Art Prague artfair