HIDDEN podcast

Painter Ester Wala joins us at HIDDEN at (A)Void Gallery for a conversation recorded inside  On the Edge , her debut solo exhibition. We talk about painting bodies suspended between stability and collapse, working with industrial asphalt and porcelain, why her titles arrive only after the painting is finished, and her path from architecture and graphic design into painting at AVU. Curator Kamil Pr...

In the new episode of the HIDDEN Podcast, we sit down with Markéta Špundová and Viktorie Macánová, the artists behind the exhibition MOTOROVKA at HIDDEN UMPRUM. We talk about where the deliberately provocative title came from, playing on the contrast between the "rough" chainsaw and the "domestic" bábovka (a traditional Czech bundt cake), and what that has to do with how we sti...

In this episode of Hidden Podcast, we speak with artist Ema Prosová about her journey through Vietnam and Japan, and the experiences that have shaped her artistic practice. Ema shares stories from learning traditional lacquer techniques in Vietnam, working with natural materials, and discovering the demanding craftsmanship behind a process that has been passed down for generations. We discuss the...

In this episode of the HIDDEN Podcast, we speak with painter Klára Korbelová about memory, childhood, solitude, and the personal experiences that shape her work. Recorded during her exhibition  Nebe–peklo–ráj , the conversation moves between painting and everyday life, revealing the autobiographical foundations of her practice. Korbelová discusses recurring motifs that appear throughout her painti...

Martin Gerboc is an artist whose work operates on the edge of the grotesque, the physical, and the symbolic. In this episode, we talk about painting as a confrontatio, with the body, identity, and the darker layers of human experience. We discuss the role of instinct in his process, the tension between control and chaos, and why certain images need to remain uncomfortable. The conversation also co...

Recorded directly at the exhibition, this episode follows Sára Konečná’s first solo show Heat, selected as Exhibition of the Week by Respekt. The paintings were created within a single month of intense studio work, shaping a body of work that moves between physical sensation and inner psychological states. We talk through her use of color: blue as bodily coldness, orange as a fever pushed to its l...

Czech painter Tereza Mátlová discusses her exhibition  Between Winter and Summer  at HIDDEN Bořivojova. In this conversation recorded inside the gallery, she reflects on her intuitive approach to color, the tension between figuration and abstraction, emotional states as a driving force of painting, and the long temporal process through which her works evolve. The discussion also touches on memory,...

In this episode of the HIDDEN Podcast, we meet painter Jiří Petrbok and artist and psychotherapist Klára Hartlová for an open conversation recorded inside the alternative space of Hell Smoke BBQ. Together we discuss collaboration, intuition, and the role of the unconscious in painting. Petrbok speaks about working with overpainted images, fast digital sketches and instinctive decisions, while Hart...

V tomto díle HIDDEN Podcastu mluvíme s malířem Martinem Mlatečkem v kontextu jeho výstavy  Flâneur , která byla představena v prostoru HIDDEN AVU. Výstava vychází ze série nočních plenérových obrazů malovaných přímo na místě v Praze 3 – na Žižkově, v nočních a ranních hodinách. Rozhovor se soustředí na Mlatečkovu pracovní metodu: malbu venku bez návratu do ateliéru a práci v reálných podmínkách, k...

V tomto dílu Hidden Podcastu se setkáváme se sochařkou Marií Bokovou a umělcem Kryštofem Víchou, autory výstavy Distorza v HIDDEN UMPRUM. V otevřeném rozhovoru zkoumáme témata tělesnosti, fragmentace, funerální estetiky a osobních zkušeností, které formují jejich tvorbu. Mluvíme o práci s hlínou, o jizvách a proměnách těla, o psychosomatice, bolesti a o myšlence, že urna může být stejně intimním o...

In this episode, we meet Slovak painter Ján Bátorek, whose work grows out of childhood territories, subcultures, and the overlooked architecture of everyday life. We talk about growing up in Čadca, the hidden spaces children claimed around panelák housing estates, and how these early experiences formed the emotional vocabulary of his painting. Bátorek shares how anime, emo aesthetics and early sub...

Recorded at Trafo Gallery during Jiří Marek’s exhibition Palimpsest, this conversation opens a window into the painter’s meditative and material approach to image-making. Marek speaks about the duality of construction and destruction, the act of erasing as a form of creation, and the emotional charge that remains within matter. His reflections unfold as a poetic study of painting as an archaeologi...

In this diploma-series episode of the HIDDEN Podcast, sculptor  Kateřina Šťastná  traces a path from photography studies to sculpture, from fast ink sketches on a tram to embroideries that take hours to breathe into being. Her recent installation pairs five monochrome embroideries on chiffon, studded with glass beads, with tender yet grounded sculptures in plaster and concrete. The through-line is...

In this 49th episode of the HIDDEN Podcast, sculptor Ekaterina Gordeladze speaks from the midst of her diploma installation at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (AVU). Graduating in 2025 from Figural Sculpture and Medal, she reflects on finding her language through shallow reliefs, the pull between painting and sculpture, and how intimacy, pressure, and space are negotiated on a plane only centim...

In this 48th episode of the HIDDEN Podcast, Czech painter Ilona Koroman speaks from the middle of her diploma installation at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (AVU). Graduating in 2025 from the Drawing Studio under Alice Nikitinová and Matyáš Smetana, she reflects on her path through multiple studios, a formative semester in Carrara, and the shifts in her approach to figuration, space, and colou...

HIDDEN Podcast: David Lynch – Up in Flames with Otto M. UrbanIn this episode of the HIDDEN Podcast, we go behind the scenes of Up in Flames — the most comprehensive exhibition of David Lynch’s visual art ever presented anywhere in the world. Curator Otto M. Urban takes us through the show at DOX in Prague, where lithographs, drawings, watercolors, photographs, objects, and experimental films conve...

In this 46th episode of the HIDDEN Podcast — and the first in a special mini-series featuring recent AVU graduates — we visit the diploma installation of sculptor Ondřej Navrátil at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. What begins as a playful conversation about stones, wild boars, and fictional fossils quickly unfolds into a layered exploration of sculpture as narrative, myth-making, and lived ima...

In this 45th episode of the HIDDEN Podcast, we sit down with painter Anna Krištofíková and curator Kamil Princ, recorded inside Anna’s solo exhibition Wild at Steel Heart at HIDDEN Bořivojova. The conversation opens a raw yet poetic space where symbolism, protection, and vulnerability collide, both on canvas and in the artist’s life. Anna reflects on painting her own body, her time in New York, an...

In this 44th episode of the HIDDEN Podcast, we meet Dina Spokij and Florián Synák, whose collaboration shaped the soft yet powerful exhibition  Domeček pod dekou , presented at HIDDEN AVU. Recorded directly inside the exhibition, this conversation navigates the emotional function of painting, the symbolism of fabric, and the tension between personal vulnerability and public space. Dina, originally...

In this 43rd episode of the HIDDEN Podcast, we meet Klára Hartlová and Alexandra Grüner, two emerging voices in Czech contemporary painting whose work draws on psychology, bodily intuition, and the tension between presence and absence. Recorded in the HIDDEN AVU space during their joint exhibition Vestigial , this conversation with Filip Kartousek—joined once again by curator Kamil Princ—offers a...

In this 42nd episode of the HIDDEN Podcast, we return to Hidden Gallery to meet Roman Košťál, a rising Czech painter whose current work fuses superstition, folklore, and raw emotional narrative. In an open conversation with Filip Kartousek, Roman discusses the making of his solo exhibition BAD LUCK, his approach to painting, and how old European myths still resonate in today’s world. This episode...

In this 41st episode, we sit down with Liza Libenko, one of the most distinctive voices of the emerging Czech art scene.  Known for her raw material experimentation and symbolic visual language, Liza joins Filip Kartousek and Kamil Princ for an intimate conversation about destruction, beauty, and the enduring legacy of decadence. Recorded at Karpuchina Gallery in Prague, the episode touches on her...

In this 40th episode, we visit the studio of Josef Bolf, one of the most significant Czech painters and a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. This intimate conversation, conducted entirely in Czech, explores the layers of melancholy, memory, and subconscious imagery that define his work. Josef shares insights into his ongoing exhibition Melancholy of Outer Limits at DOX, reflections o...

In this 39th episode of the HIDDEN podcast, we host a thought-provoking conversation about contemporary art, its often misunderstood nature, and its role in shaping cultural narratives. The discussion delves into topics such as the evolution of art criticism, the challenges faced by artists and institutions, and the tension between conceptual and traditional approaches. We explore the impact of so...

In the 38th episode of the HIDDEN Podcast, we welcome Ozlem Akin, a multidisciplinary artist and filmmaker, for an insightful discussion. We explore Ozlem's journey from studying filmmaking in Turkey and animation in Czech Republic, her inspirations from Kafka and Jan Švankmajer, and her love for body horror aesthetics. Ozlem shares her creative process, from curating her first exhibition to craft...