PRAGUE.- Gandy Gallery has now opened the important group exhibition, entitled ORIGIN OF THE STONE, featuring artists from Central Europe. It opened on October 10th and will be on view until December 8th, 2023. The curators of the exhibition are Jana PÍSAŘÍKOVÁ, Ondřej CHROBÁK, and Nadine GANDY.

Could the stone be the author of the exhibition? Okay, weird question, let's try asking it another way: Could the stone be a co-author of the work? What is the role of stone in contemporary art anyway? When did it cease to be a mere material to be worked and become an entity in itself with its own meaning, symbolism, or perhaps even an artistic partner for conversation or wandering? The exhibition The Beginning of Stone tells the story of stones through the work of contemporary artists.

It presents an interdisciplinary theme of ontological, existential and symbolic qualities that can enter our thoughts out of the blue, perhaps by simply stumbling on the path, or conversely through a careful search for flint or precious stones.

Exhibited artists:Karel ADAMUS, Alva HAJN, Milan MIKULÁŠTÍK, Marian PALLA, Miloš ŠEJN, Petr ŠTEMBERA, Dušan URBANÍK, Jiří VALOCH, Polina DAVYDENKO, Jana ŽELIBSKÁ

Gandy

When the Gandy gallery took root in Prague (Czechoslovakia ) in 1992, shortly after the fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe, the stranglehold on local creation had only just been loosened. In order to mitigate the effects of this long break with the West, the first exhibitions were devoted to artists such as Patrick Raynaud (1992), Nan Goldin (1996, 1998), Jonas Mekas (1996), Joseph Grigely (2001, 2005), Matali Crasset (2002) or Douglas Gordon (1997)… and also by introducing the Czech artists Vaclav Stratil and Jiri David.

The gallery moved to Bratislava (Slovakia) in 2005, whose central geography (close to Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, the Balkans...) gives it a position at the crossroads of cultures. Nadine Gandy, its founder, then decided to put the spotlight on the artists of these countries, whose work is sorely lacking visibility.

Currently, the gallery brings together some thirty artists, mostly from former Soviet countries (Zbyněk Baladrán, Oto Hudec, Alva Hajn, Ilija Šoškić, Jana Želibská...) whose work addresses issues related to identity, memory, the body, migration, and archive work. The gallery fosters ongoing research, discoveries, experimentations and carefully constructed relationships in a tireless and passionate manner.

In 2012, the French government bestowed Nadine with the title of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters.

In 2021, on the occasion of its future 30th anniversary, the gallery has founded the non-profit association ZoomEuropa.

Gandy Gallery
ORIGIN OF THE STONE
October 10th, 2023 - December 8th, 2023
Jana Písaříková, 2023: Curator and art theorist,works at the Blansko City Gallery and the Moravian Gallery in Brno.