Location. A neo-renaissance building in the residential area of Prague 6 surrounded by unique historical buildings, located in a quiet quarter yet easily accessible, Villa Pelle is an ideal space for various cultural and social events of different nature. Four renovated floors of a spacious house host events which, while both independent of each other, are still connected and meet the cultural and social needs of visitors of diverse ages and interests. This is a great example of a historic building renovated to be as close to the white cube as possible and still save its charm.
Porte association, which is the keeper of Villa Pelle, is a non-government, non-profit voluntary organisation which has, since its founding, organised dozens of cultural events – art exhibitions, concerts, programmes for seniors and children.
Curator. Marek Pokorný — a well-established Czech curator and art critic (8 years as a head of Moravia Gallery, Detail magazine founder and editor-in-chief from 1995-2000)
Artist. Ivana Lomova (1959) graduated from the Faculty of Architecture at the Czech Technical University in Prague. In the late eighties and early nineties she illustrated more than 25 books, as well as created comic books, animated films and graphic art. Over time she replaced illustrations with free composition. Since the end of the nineties she has regularly had her artworks displayed both locally and abroad. Initially, her artwork was inspired by Czech grotesque style, gradually taking on a deeper existential meaning and treating topics such as the memory, reminiscences, social and family rituals, relations between close people, gender roles, solitude and the intricacy of the relationship between a man and woman. Currently, she dedicates all her work to paintings. She usually works in a series, developing a selected topic. Her cafés, trains, jungle paintings from „the Paradise“ series as well as her series in the interior entitled „Solitudes“ are well known. Awards: Best Graphic Work of 1994; The Most Beautiful Czech Book of 2005; Art Colony, Avsenik, Slovenia, 2006; she was also one of the finalists of the Celeste Prize in 2009. She lives and works in Prague.
Ivana Lomova’s artworks are not defined by the “magic realism”. so characteristic of her photographs, that allows us to precisely identify the situation in which the portrayed characters find themselves – and in which we are subject to its emotional charge, but by her ability to bring out the meaning of each particular environment to the maximum. Her artworks are always somewhat localised: to a café, an urban space, to the beach, onto a path, into a room. This time it is the bedroom, a synonym for intimacy, privacy, coyness, traumas and consolation. – Marek Pokorný
Personal Opinion. It is a well-structured show that fits perfectly to the layout of Villa and creates an intimacy so real, that it even feels a bit awkward to be around these silent people and places, as if you are invading somehow (literally in our case, because we came on Monday, but were still let in thanks to the kindness of the staff). The most impressive part was the one with bright and open windows, which on the white walls of Villa looked convincingly real. There is a certain amount of melancholy in Ivana’s paintings, which produce an effect close to Edward Hopper’s works, you are confronted by the shadows, the vanishing points, the brightness of the light, the roughness of the faces.
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