White Unicorn Gallery in Klatovy
8. 12. 2012 – 27. 1. 2013

The art group Kůže na Skále (Leather on the Rock) was founded in 2007 “in response to the pressing need to renew the seriousness of monstrous beauty and our own self-confidence.”

The group’s name is based on the given names of its co-founders (and sole members), the painters Šárka Zadáková and Petra Brázdilová. (Šárka, from the Greek word for leather, personifies courage and flexibility; Petra, Greek for stone, personifies sturdiness and solidity). With equal doses of undisguised sincerity and exaggeration, the two artists declare: “Our duo symbolizes truth (sturdiness/rock) and mercy (flexibility/leather). Based on earlier informal meetings and discussions at well-concealed locations (since we do not enjoy exposing ourselves on the art market), we formulated the group’s platform, which has the ambition of aiming towards the principles of the ‘new spirit’ of those who promote art without artists.”

After five years of existing “underground,” the group’s members have decided that the time is ripe for breaking out of the boundaries of privacy in order to once again come together. On the eve of the next in a series of predicted ends of the world, and in the spirit of its name and the coming-of-age novel Silver Wind, they have decided to hold a “class reunion” in the form of a joint exhibition.

Šárka Zadáková-Růžičková

Born 1982 in Tábor; lives and works in Prague

Šárka Zadáková’s art mirrors her personal life. With time, painting has become an informal diary consisting of large-scale autonomous images depicting memories from the past, current experiences, or even personal “memories of the future.” She might recount important scenes from her life, mediated on the canvas in her distinctive figurative expressionism: subjective and at the same time realistic and truthful; or she might create scenes from her mental collection using objects representing various stages or moments in life, composed first in her mind and then on the canvas as a still-life. Her distinctive, earnest, and carefully considered style gives the everyday an air of exclusivity. As much as her message is purely personal, its modesty is not a burden, but makes it a universal story of human life.

Petra Brázdilová

Born 1980 in Vsetín; lives and works in Prague

Petra Brázdilová uses her art to comment on the world around her. She chooses and adapts her artistic tools to suit each particular topic, which she does not pick according to any strict rules. She reflects the personal and the general, as they occur during the flow (often torrent) of life. Situations emerge like moving targets at a shooting gallery on which Petra aims her sights. Her work is dominated by conceptual painting. Depending on what she needs to capture in the painting, she chooses an expressive technique bordering on art brut or visual simplification, but her sensibilities are closer to more classical techniques bordering on realism. Generally speaking, the dominant element is expressionist, reflecting her natural disposition. Depending on the situation and sentiment, however, she also uses photographs or three-dimensional conceptual objects. The seemingly inconsistent application of stylistic approaches is nevertheless in congruence with her finely honed skills of observation.