Vaclav Pozarek, born in České Budějovice (CZ) in 1940, lives and works in Bern (CH). He studied film and subsequently moved to Hamburg (DE) and London, where he studied under Anthony Caro at St. Martin’s School of Art. His interest in Concrete Art, in particular the work of Richard Paul Lohse, drew him to Switzerland and the city of Bern. Where, he developed a unique synthesis of the principles of Constructivism and the application of the arts to everyday reality. Pozarek focuses principally on sculpture and drawing, but he has also produced installations, photography and film. He often designs logos for his solo exhibitions. His works are part abstract, part “concrete objects”: he appears to embrace the Minimalist sculptural tradition, free from the constraints of mimetic representation or the hegemony of the plinth, while at the same time challenging and corrupting this modern orthodoxy through the use of craft techniques and vernacular references. His witty, determinedly anti-nostalgic works of the 1990s and 2000s intensify his examination of the realm of the object: pseudo-functional forms, architectural fragments and meditations on use are presented as sculptures for the visitor to decipher. (Lionel Bovier and Fabrice Stroun, MAMCO, Geneva (CH).)
Solo exhibitions (recent)
2019 HOW (hot or what), Galerie Francesca Pia, Zurich (CH).
2018 MAMCO, Geneva.
2017 HOH (Hund ohne Hose), Barbara Wien, Berlin.
Viel Avec Nothing, Lindenlei 9, Ghent (BE).
Auslaufmodell, Vaclav Pozarek/Koenraad Dedobbeleer, Gevaert Editions, Brussels.
Group exhibitions (recent)
2019 It’s Urgent! (second edition), Luma Westbau, Löwenbräukunst, Zurich.
2018 der grosse Anspruch des kleinen Bildes, Barbara Wien, Berlin.
Lampen, Galerie Francesca Pia, Zurich.
Paperwork, haubrok foundation, Fahrbereitschaft, Berlin.
Die Zelle, Kunsthalle Bern, Bern.
Publications (recent)
15x2. Colour Lights, 200 copies, MAMCO, Geneva 2018.
50/50, Wiens Verlag, Berlin 2017.
Stephan Kunz and Max Wechsler (ed.):
Vaclav Pozarek. LOS Library of Sculpture, Vol. 1, Bündner Kunstmuseum Chur, Zurich 2012.
www.francescapia.com
www.barbarawien.de
Portrait photo: Katalin Deér, St. Gallen, 2017