Vladimír Houdek was born in 1984. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague where he studied at the studio of Vladimír Skrepl. In 2010 he first drew public attention to himself by winning the Young Painter Critics‘ Prize. In 2012 he won the Jindřich Chalupecký Award for Young Artists for the acuteness of his artistic work; the urgent way in which he conveys the reflectively returning experience of art onto his canvases; postmodern and neomodern at the same time. His most recent paintings explore the possibility of illusory and realistic theme interconnecting into one unified whole which, however, keeps referring to the complexity in perception of our world. Despite narrower field of expression, his paintings still present a rich structure of references to modernism, to the constructivist austerity, dadaistic absurdity, poetist fervour or surrealistic exploration of dream landscapes. In spite of these obvious historical references, Houdek remains in consonance with contemporary happenings. What makes his work most topical is his emphasis on the materialness – the substance of the paint itself and the workmanship with which he processes it. The artificially created barrier between the „concept“; and the „craftsmanship of painting“ is falling apart in his artistic work.
