Curator: Kristýna Jirátorá

The exhibition Zuzana v lázni (Zuzana in the Bath) presents a selection of works by Czech painter Jiří Petrbok, who has developed a distinctive and recognizable painting style over the course of decades. His paintings function as intense, symbol-filled environments in which the grotesque intertwines with irony, fantastical characters with fragments of reality, and intimate associations with commentary on the contemporary world. Petrbok works with the image as a space of constant tension—between conscious gesture and spontaneous inner flow, between darkness and humor, between what is revealed and what remains hidden.

A key part of the exhibition consists of large-format paintings supplemented by a series of painted templates, which are not created as sketches or preparatory studies, but as a direct response to the finished canvas. These are concentrated fragments that reflect the artist’s way of working—layering, returning to motifs, and above all, the ability to transform his own visual world into ever-new forms.

The exhibition also works with the effect of double vision. Fluorescent colors and sophisticated lighting reveal further layers of the compositions and change the visual meaning of the works in real time. The viewer finds themselves in a situation where one scene changes into another and reveals what remains unnoticed in daylight. Petrbok thus offers the viewer an experience of constant visual uncertainty, characteristic of his work.

Jiří Petrbok (1962) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague from 1984 to 1990. From 1995, he worked there as an assistant professor in the drawing studio of Prof. Jitka Svobodová, and from 2011 to 2023, he headed this studio. His works are represented in the collections of the National Gallery in Prague, the Prague City Gallery, and numerous private and public collections at home and abroad. He has had numerous exhibitions in the Czech Republic, and his work has also been presented in many projects abroad, where he has exhibited alongside international stars such as the Chapman brothers and Maurizio Cattelan. He lives and works in Prague.