Šimon Vahala

Simon Vahala graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague in the Intermedial Studio of professor Milan Knížák. He studied also at the Kyoto University of Art and Design (Kyōto zōkei geijutsu daigaku) in Japan. Vahala’s work is unique by the richness of its spectrum: the artist moves with the same ease from painting to sculptures and photography. Šimon Vahala’s works have been presented in a number of solo and group exhibitions in the Czech Republic and abroad, and are part of the permanent collections of the National Gallery in Prague, as well as of private collection in the United States of America, Switzerland, and Japan. In his paintings Vahala portrays things around us in their simple beauty, which he is able to capture from inside, to touch it directly. We recognize them intimately—although we never saw things in quite the same way before. Lately, flowers became Vahala’s subject. He makes what we could call portraits of flowers, where in a simple composition and a seemingly roughly cut, sketch-like style, he captures each flower’s character, the simple naiveté of its presence, with all its nuances, the slightest motion of the pedals, the freshness in the air, the fleeting moment of a flower’s existence. Šimon Vahala’s works are characteristic by a strange kind of silence that immediately overtakes us. It is not the silence in the absence of words, in their suspense, when expecting words to come and to explain. It is a silence of a world where words never existed and never will. Here, in silence that tunes us to the frequency of a butterfly flapping its wings while flying, we do not know how to put into words what we feel. This allows the feeling to stay with us and live its own life side by side with ours—unsaid, uninformed, undiscovered, free. (K.Dolanská)

Tweet

Artworks of this author offered by Prague Art & Design

Šimon Vahala

* 1978, Prague

Education

2003–09 Academy of Fine Arts in Prague - MFA, Intermedial studio of prof. Milan Knizak Dr.A

2007 Kyoto Art and Design Univesity - Visual information department, Photography studio of prof. Suzuka Yasu

2004 Academy of Fine Arts in Prague - Intermedial studio of prof. Milan Knizak Dr.A

2001 Hochschüle fur Künst und Gestaltung in Zürich - Vorkurz

1999 Secundary Art and Design school in Prague - Painting studio

Collections

National Gallery in Prague

Captured Global, Portland, USA

Diamond Gallery, Prague

Eraldo Di Vita Collection, Italy

Michal`s Collection Gallery, Prague

Private collections in Japan, Switzerland, England, Czech Republic, Hawaii USA