* 1980, Turnov

The painter of “passionate still lifes” Vladimír Véla is inseparably linked with the phantasmagorical Bohemian Paradise landscape and memories of his birthplace area and home in Turnov, filled with banal yet mysterious objects. This intrinsic affinity with nature runs in his genes, since his family has practiced hunting for generations. From there stems the root of Véla’s woodland imagery, as one can see from the depicted forest cratches (Hollow I, 2011), antlers or tree stumps (Salt Cellar I, 2014) and the predominant blue-green colour scale. However Véla’s aim is not simply to mirror these miracles of nature. He is focussed on the process of capturing the subliminal “feeling matter” of experience.  To this aim he is aided by his refined painting technique.  

By its very nature Véla’s work defies categorisation. The fragments of artistic styles scattered throughout his work are subject to distinct transformation.  As a result they are apparent only by association and when interpreted it is key to retain a playful point of view.  Véla,  is more inclined to declare an affinity with the legacy of the masters of European art (Rembrandt, Goya, Poussin) than with current trends and finds great inspiration in classical music (Mozart, Dvořák, Ligeti, Scelsi)  with which he feels a great kinship thanks to its immediacy. He follows in the footsteps of Kandinsky in his search for harmonious accord at the receiving-aesthetical plane of his work and believes that the actual conception of the image should resonate with the perception of the recipient. Nonetheless, certain impetuses of Véla’s work can be found in its expressionism, intuitive automatism, meditative lyrical abstraction and spirituality and allegoricality of sacral art. Pervasive rounded biomorphic shapes with soft edges may, for example, bring to mind the surrealist works of Miró or Arpov, or even the abstract expressionism of Baziotes and Rothko or Kandinsky’s spiritual paintings.  However, Véla aims to defy stereotypical interpretation based solely on external similarities. His transformation of stimuli from the history of art as a whole is reflected in the play on the conventional symbolism of objects, shapes and colours, which in the spirit of Magritte, thanks to its intrinsic connection to linguistic constructions appears unreliable and arbitrary.    

Véla’s paintings attempt to revitalise the relationship between the world of objects and the subject of art through regression to naivety and fantasy. As a result, they often defy logic and intent and strive, as Rothko once did, to attain maximum sensuality – to activate the priomordial language of perception of the world. This also ties in to Véla’s reflection on the phenomenon of balance, which bears aspects of Klee. Twisted Voussoirs (Voussoir I-VII, 2013), Unstable Struts (Struts I-V, 2014), Rickety Cratches (Hollow I, 2011) and Hybrid Levels (Water Level, 2011) negate the laws of physics, yet they form a reference for intuitive interpretation and are the supporting frame for the compositional structure of the paintings. The search for an equilibrium between the painter’s inner vision and the external physical reality is best reflected in the metaphor of communicating vessels (Communicating Vessels I, 2012). 

The two-time finalist of the NG 333 award Vladimír Véla (*1980) lives and works alternately in Prague and in Turnov. He studied at the Academy of Applied Arts, first at the Studio of Classical Painting Techniques under Zdeněk Beran, thereafter Intermedia Studies under Milan Knížák. His art work is widely exhibited at exhibitions in the Czech Repubic, he has also exhibited work in Germany and the USA. He is represented in collections in the Czech Repubic and abroad. Véla, together with David Pešat and Ondřej Maleček form the art group EX. Besides painting he also devotes himself to teaching art.   

Olga Kovaříková

Solo exhibitions

2024
Krajiny, z Českého ráje a okolí, Senát Parlamentu České republiky / Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, Prague, Czech Republic
Začátek (with J. Lipavský), Galerie OFF/FORMAT, Brno, Czech Republic

2023
Souřadnice / obrazy, kresby, Městské divadlo / Municipal Theatre, Kolín, Czech Republic
Obrysy věcí, Contemporary czech art, Šumperk, Czech Republic

2022
Poutník po barvách krajiny, galerie MAXIART, Trutnov, Czech Republic
Fenomenologie hodnot / Phenomenology of values, Galerie Kvalitář, Prague, Czech Republic
Horizont konkrétna, Galerie moderního umění v Roudnici nad Labem, Czech Republic
Vladimír Véla, Galerie Ladislava Sutnara, Plzeň, Czech Republic

2021
Stupeň volnosti, galerie HYB4, Prague, Czech Republic

2019
Naturalismus, Galerie kabinet T, Zlín
Pod hladinou obrazu (with O. Maleček and D. Pešat), Galerie U Betlémské kaple, Prague, Czech Republic

2018
Vladimír Véla a Jaromír Šimkůj, Naturalismus, Galerie Kabinet T., Zlín, Czech Republic
Cosmological interaction QCD / Kosmologická interakce QCD (with J. Kovářík), church / kostel Nanebevzetí Panny Marie, Most, Czech Republic

2017
PRECESES, Galerie Vyšehrad, Prague, Czech Republic
Přibližnosti / Approximations, Galerie SPZ, Prague, Czech Republic
Tři fáze, Galerie Ahoj, nazdar, čau, Liberec, Czech Republic

2016
EX: Prototyp / EX: Předobraz (with O. Maleček and D. Pešat), Nitra Gallery / Nitrianská galéria, Nitra, Slovakia
Warm heart! / Vzhůru srdce! Gallery J. Jílka, Šumperk, Czech Republic
Platforms / Předpoklady, GASK, Kutná hora, Czech Republic

2015
EX: Ausflug (with D. Pešata and O. Maleček), Raum für Drastische Massnahmen, Berlin, Germany
Vladimír Véla, Gallery Prostor 228, Liberec, Czech Republic
Reverze (with M. Polách), Nová Galerie, Prague, Czech Republic

2014
Reverze (with M. Poláček), Nová galerie, Prague, Czech Republic
White and black! / Běl a čerň! (with M. Maupicova), the Museum and the Pojizerská Gallery, Semily, Czech Republic
Paintings, Gallery Felixe Jenewein, Kutná Hora, Czech Republic

2013
EX: It is not indifferent where we are / EX: Není lhostejné, kde právě jsme (with O. Maleček and D. Pešat), Galerie Caesar, Olomouc, Czech Republic
Natři (with M. Maupicová and P. Šimíček), Galerie Klatovy, Klenová, Czech Republic

2012
Black Hour / Černá hodinka, Gallery House / Galerie Dům, Broumov, Czech Republic
Cavity, Galerie OFFormat, Brno, Czech Republic

2011 EX (with O. Maleček and D. Pešat), Topičův salon, Prague, Czech Republic

2010 Kyproplej, Regional Gallery in Liberec, Liberec, Czech Republic

Selected group exhibitions

2023
JÁ-MY, Jilská 14, Prague, Czech Republic
Severní prostor: Prostor pro dialog, Galerie Nisa Factory, Jablonec nad Nisou, Czech Republic

2022
Paralely, Městské muzeum a galerie, Hořice, Czech Republic

2020
Ne věcnost, Galerie CoCo, Strakonice, Czech Republic
Mezisvěty / Interworlds, Glerie U Prstenu, Prague, Czech Republic

2017
Pinturas Negras, Nová galerie, Prague, Czech Republic

2016
Jiří Dostál +21, Srdec v lázních, Regional Gallery Liberec /Oblastní galerie Liberec, Liberec, Czech Republic
Ornament of the Mass (Fragments from the Bible Visuality II) / Ornament masy (Fragmenty z biblie vizuality), Nitra Gallery / Nitrianská galéria, Nitra, Slovakia

2015
Czech Dream / Český sen, Czech Center, New York, USA
Needle in haystack / Jehla v kupce sena, Topičův salon, Prague, Czech Republic

2013
UB - Plane, Gallery Oko, Opava, Czech Republic
Butterfly Effect?, Gallery Rudolfinum, Prague, Czech Republic

Public collections

The National Gallery in Prague, Czech Republic
The Regional Gallery, Liberec, Czech Republic
Aleš South Bohemian Gallery in Hluboká nad Vltavou, Czech Republic
Galerie Klatovy, Klenová, Czech Republic
Galerie Dům, Broumov, Czech Republic
Private collections in Czech Republic and abroad