Ján Vasilko

19.2.2010 - 11.4 2010

One of the most distinctive talents in the young Slovak painting scene presents himself in the Gallery Behind the Wall through his new pieces. The work of the winner of the Oskar Čepan Award (2005) and Strabag Artaward International (2009) shows the influence of the city of Košice, where he studied and also lives. A mix of technical and technicist objects and items, which represents one of the basic areas of his work, unerringly refers to the tradition associated with the engineering production of this east-Slovakian city.
Vasilko started to create „technical” pictures already during his studies, in approx. 2003. In the following year he surprised Prague with a series of „Renaissance-perceived” canvases (exhibition area AM 180) to present – at a joint exhibition with candidates for the Jindřich Chalupecký Award in the Municipal Library – large canvases which received the Slovak Oskar Čepan Award in the same year.
If we are to point out one of the most typical characteristics of Vasilko's work, we should primarily mention the „philosophy of utopia“. It is determined, among other things, by the place of his activities, the east-Slovakian city of Košice. The contrast between basically an agricultural region where three giant mechanical engineering plants have been built, which „drown out“ everything else with their production, gives Vasilko's work a peculiar and characteristic urgency.