Split Times / Jaroslav Koléšek, Katarína Szanyi, Aleš Hudeček
The most striking feature is an installation of several bronze sculptures by Jaroslav Koléšek, which fill the chapel space. The artist’s slightly provocative tone in his artistic expression “disrupts” to some extent the treatment of otherwise traditional existential themes, in which love, justice, confession, and compassion resonate.
Informations about the exhibition
- EXHIBITION: Mezičasy / Jaroslav Koléšek, Katarína Szanyi, Aleš Hudeček
- PLACE: Arcidiecézní muzeum Olomouc, kaple sv. Jana Křtitele
- DATE: 2026, 29 05 – 04 10
- OPENING: 2026, 29 05, AT 6 PM
- AUTHORS AND CURATORS: Štěpánka Bieleszová, Helena Zápalková
- ARCHITECTURE: Jaroslav Koléšek
- TRANSLATION: Zuzana Henešová
- GRAPHIC DESIGN: Petr Šmalec
- INSTALATION: Martin Mydlarčík
- COOPERATION: Ondřej Žák, Radek Látal
- PUBLIC RELATION: Tomáš Kasal, Martin Šinkovský
Aleš Hudeček’s solitary figures move beyond time and real space, set by the artist against often deeply unsettling interiors. At the Archdiocesan Museum, he presents a monumental canvas placed in the cloister, dominated by a medieval fresco depicting Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.
In contrast, Katarína Szanyi’s pair of intimate canvases offers a deeply personal, introspective perspective. The artist arranges objects found on the seashore into compositions that may evoke fragments of time and stories and, in a figurative sense, also the Arma Christi. Their placement near the medieval fresco of Veronica’s veil bearing the imprint of Christ’s face creates a striking tension.
Taken as a whole, this intimate exhibition—an intervention in the historic spaces of the Archdiocesan Museum—comes across as a focused statement by three mid-career artists who, without ostentation or a need for sensationalism, address questions of life, faith, the fragility of human existence, and the current state of the world.
Jaroslav Koléšek
Sculptor and educator Jaroslav Koléšek (*1974, Šternberk) studied from 1992 to 1997 at the Department of Fine Arts at the Faculty of Education, University of Ostrava, primarily under Stanislav Hanzík and Marián Kotrba; he completed his doctoral studies at the Academy of Arts in Banská Bystrica. He has long been affiliated with the Faculty of Arts at the University of Ostrava, serving as head of the sculpture studio since 2011. In his work, he combines a high level of sculptural craftsmanship with industrial and figurative motifs. He works with bronze, stone, glass, resin, and other materials.
Aleš Hudeček
The painter Aleš Hudeček (*1973, Uherské Hradiště) has deep ties to Ostrava. He first studied at the Secondary School of Applied Arts in Uherské Hradiště and then, from 1992 to 1997, at the University of Ostrava in Daniel Balabán’s painting studio. He has been a leading figure in Ostrava’s art scene since the mid-1990s. The leitmotif of his work is the human figure, often placed in alienated situations, interiors, and psychologically unsettling visual environments; he also works with found photographs, exaggeration, and a subtle shift of reality into a dreamlike or metaphorical plane.
Katarína Szanyi
The painter Katarína Szányi (b. March 20, 1974, Košice) is based in Ostrava. She studied at the Secondary School of Applied Arts in Košice and, from 1992 to 1997, at the Department of Fine Arts at the University of Ostrava in Daniel Balabán’s painting studio. She is associated with the VY3 group and has long been developing a painting practice based on a sensitive handling of color, light, and atmosphere. Her work oscillates between concrete motifs and abstract, meditative painting.
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