Exhibition in Galerie Artrafika: The place where the new art in Czech is born

ILLUSTRATE V TRAFKE—the exhibition of illustration held in Galerie Artrafika greeted the final day on September 4th.

The exhibition room was a small and cozy place, but full of works with passions. More than 100 works with different styles were displayed. Some of them were colorful while some of them were monotone, many of them had only text while the others were full of images.

It might not be some ordinary exhibition you would expect, but who cares?
Exhibits were made by 16 young artists, not only from Czech but also from other countries—Slovakia, Germany and Ukraine.

Filip Zatloukal, a Czech artist and also one the founders of the exhibition. He told a story of this exhibition room. “I had my original inspirations of art from old buildings in Czech and Czech comics, which motivated me to start drawing. Through my works, I want people to think about a reality of the life.I wished to have the place for art which is independent from others. So I started the gallery from borrowing a newspaper stand.”

In 2016, he and his girlfriend along with a few other friends held an exhibition of illustration there. After three years, more people joined in the project. With the help of many cooperators, he achieved to move the gallery to here and have the exhibition. He made this space not only for a gallery but also a café, since he wanted to make a community where people can gather, talk with each other and exchange their thoughts. Visitors can not only just walking around exhibits but also talk with the artists directly. Artists and even visitors can also try new experiments here.

“Prague is a perfect place for us, because there are a lot of people from different cities and countries. We can meet more visitors and work together with various people.”

Martin Zika, one of the cooperators told us, “Honestly I am more into music than arts, but I am happy to help them because I can learn new things and creative processes from here. It is an exciting time. Here is kind of the second home for me. And also this place is open to everyone to join”.

Barbora Žižková is an illustrator who exhibits her works here. She stayed in Japan for several months.

“I like Japanese culture so much. I hold some Japanese calligraphy and Japanese drawing workshops here, and teach Japanese culture in school.” Japanese culture had a big influence on some of her works.

At six o’clock, the finale of the exhibition started. Music played in the room stopped. Two poets—Honza Skorumka and Františka Novotná started to recite poems.

Visitors sat in a circle and listened closely. Their tones and voices were sometimes sharp, sometimes soft. Listeners sometimes laughed, and sometimes sunk into deep thoughts. Even if people who cannot understand Czech could also immerse in the world of poems. During the break and after the recital, people chatted with each other and exchanged their opinions about the meaning of poems and arts. Some people directly asked poets what is the profound significance of the poem and shared their impressions.

Galerie Artrafika is a small gallery in Prague where young artists meet new ideas, visitors meet arts and new arts will be born from here.