Library of Patterns

This joint exhibition by Alžběta Říhová and Petr Dub is not a confrontation but rather a symbiosis: a parallel public presentation of two artists of similar artistic persuasions. Alžběta and Petr are among the significant Czech representatives of post-conceptual art, or “reductive tendencies” transformed by the lessons of postmodernism that resuscitated spectacular visuality. Both artists begin with the hanging painting. Their source for formal and semantic play is architecture, specifically tectonic elements, but also deconstructed elements of the archetyped image or the physical properties of materials. They both experiment with multiplication, seriality, variability, and modularity. They emphasise materials and meticulous surface treatment of the exhibited artifact, often employing illusive effects. The result is a simplified geometric form present in hybrid image-objects that offers a surprisingly rich source of meanings, significations, quotations, and references to the history of art, architecture, and society.