Juraj Kollár: En Plein Air will be on view from March 8 through May 28 at the Rosenbaum Contemporary gallery (150 Yamato Road) in Boca Raton, Fla. The exhibition will feature new abstract landscape paintings by Slovakian artist Juraj Kollár, who was dubbed “the most naturally gifted and pertinacious painter of his generation” and “the central figure of young…contemporary painting in Slovakia” by art historian Katarina Bajcurová. The paintings were completed during the pandemic last year and reflect a new direction for Kollár.
“I am following the sound of water in the lake and cicadas in the forest and the scent of the wind,” Kollár said. “It is a healing impetus where I can cross a post-pandemic feeling and make my private space vibrate with joy. When I paint my brain must be fully occupied by something other than painting. What you see is the mixture of disturbing moments, which actually make life authentic. Behavior of the color and the process of painting itself remain a part of the existence and being as such. What I am adding into this movement is the atmosphere. My expression always relates to my way of keeping love and hope in my heart.”
Kollár uses various methods to distort images and create abstraction. Some works are painted through breeze block walls, either through an existing wall or one that he creates in the environment. The resulting effect breaks the scene into multiple abstract components that, together, form a cohesive whole. Kollár’s pixelated pictures, a cross between pointillism and impressionism, incorporate construction netting, either painted through and removed or painted on and left in place, which has the effect of supporting the paint, enabling him to apply much more pigment than could be supported by the canvas alone.
Kollár’s work can be found in the collections of the Slovak National Gallery and the National Gallery in Prague and have been exhibited in prestigious art fairs including Art Cologne and SP-Arte.
En Plein Air can be viewed during Rosenbaum Contemporary’s regular gallery hours, Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., as well as on its website www.rosenbaumcontemporary.com.
Rosenbaum Contemporary, founded in 1979, is based in Boca Raton, Florida. The gallery caters to international collectors interested in investment-quality works by postwar, modern and contemporary masters and presents nationally recognized museum-level exhibitions throughout the year. The gallery also offers a wide range of free services to collectors worldwide including acquisition advice, art consulting, sourcing of artists, art collection building and management and resale of select works of art.
