Vladimír Kokolia's artistic activities are very extensive. He is not only internationally renowed painter, printmaker and draftsman, but also a professor of the Academy of Fine Arts, a regular blogger, poet and writer. In 1990's he was a singer of group "E", one of the most appreciated Czech alternative and underground bands of its time.
He received his MFA degree from the Academy of Fine Art in Prague in 1981. Shorty after that Kokolia was recognized as a cult drawer, with hundreds of sarcastic drawings. During 1990s, he received international attention with his paintings which integrate representational motives with patterns, and physical gesture with meditation. In 1990, Kokolia became the first winner of the prestigious Jindřich Chalupecký Prize, and, consequently, he stayed for six months as artist in residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts in San Francisco. Kokolia has been the subject of more then 90 solo exhibitions, and his work was included in about 360 group shows. In 1992, he was the only Czech artist participating in the Documenta IX in Kasel, Germany. Kokolia’s work has been collected by many international galleries and collectors. Since 1992 Kokolia has been the head of the experimental printmaking department at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. Besides painting and drawing he is also a qualified instructor of the traditional Chen family Taijiquan.
Kokolia resists any simple description. His paintings explore the limits of our perception of reality finding wonderment in everyday life. His lecture will be given in English with a Chinese translation. In the talk he is going to touch his lifelong obsession with the field of vision, and the various ways of translating the visual field into images. A simple statement: "I paint what I can see" turns into a never-ending challenge, as soon as one questions what the "seeing" may actually mean. He will provide diverse visual answers with an aid of his artworks.
Besides, he wishes to present the theme of visual field not only at personal or private level. As the mass receiver of commercial or political propaganda, or just of a kitsch and ballast, the visual field becomes a vulnerable constituent of the public sphere. The English title "Vision in the field" should imply that visual field is the very place of the collision between media power and individual views.
About the lecture:
"Vision in the Field": A Struggle to Visualize the Field of Vision
Date: September 17th, 14:00-16:00
Venue: Auditorium of CAFA Art Museum
Address: No.8 Hua Jia Di Nan St., Chao Yang District, Beijing,P. R. China 100102
