Holyně Chapel Gallery, opening on April 28, 6. p. m., 2026
Curator: Vendula Fremlová
Opening: April 28, 2026, at 6:00 p.m.
Closing reception: June 13 at 6:00 PM, ritual: Kateřina Ritterová
The title of the exhibition by artist and university teacher Pavla Gajdošíková highlights the importance of the connection to original sources and roots. In the realm of artistic creation, these can be the material, the medium, or the creative activity itself. After a relatively long period of black-and-white line drawings inspired by architecture and dwellings, Pavla Gajdošíková has turned her attention to watercolor, drawing, paper, and ceramic clay or porcelain. She immerses herself in these materials and media, allowing them to enchant and meditatively guide her. Her watercolors, spreading in transparent and repetitive layers of shades of pink, blue, and violet—often across the entire surface of the canvas—resemble kaleidoscopes. They brighten the world around them, evoking colorful prisms, crystals through which light passes only to be refracted into a fascinating spectrum of colors.
Beneath the surface of Pavla’s works, however, we sense more than just the vibrancy of the material and the creative process; the artist does not stop at being dazzled by the possibilities of watercolor. We also sense an emphasis on the female experience, femininity associated with nature and natural forces, both fragile and relentless. From abstract patches of color, she purposefully draws our attention to formal structures, imagery, and associations. Motifs of the womb, the uterus, and an open flower—which is also a sexual organ—emerge here, yet they remain “merely” a centrally oriented composition of overlapping, flowing, soft patches.In these compositions, Pavla occasionally intervenes with pen drawings, dark and white pastels, wash techniques, or rubber stencils. The drawing seems to flourish and grow, branching out from a central base; in some cases, it appears as a delicate texture, like the veins of a flower, a leaf, or a part of the body. Similar qualities are also achieved by small ceramic objects, which can function both as accompaniments to the watercolors and entirely on their own. They can be a specific utilitarian object (most often a bowl), an imprint of a plant part, or a multi-layered object whose shape, shading, and texture evoke parts of the body, its nooks and crannies.
