Jakub Matuška aka Masker

Finalist of Jindřich Chalupecký Award 2010, holder of Respekt Magazine Readers' Award 2010

Jakub Matuška (*1981) graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (Painting Studio II/Vladimír Skrepl School) and went on residencies at Cooper Union in New York and Middlesex University in London. Despite his institutional background, he is also a distinctive member of the Czech graffiti community. He creates paintings and large-sized murals and objects. He is naturally intrigued by letters and symbols, comics aesthetics and stylized motifs he incorporates in complicated tangles of colors and shapes, often evoking conflicting feelings of anxiety, cruelty and euphoria. In 2011, he received the 333 Award then awarded by the National Gallery Prague. He presented his work at solo exhibitions in London, Paris and Leipzig among others.