Josef Bolf

Josef Bolf

"Josef Bolf was nominated for his suicidally intense records of vulnerable emotions, which, especially in his drawings and in connection with the influence of comic strips or sci-fi acquire the ability to communicate on general level." (Jury Statement)

Josef Bolf (*1971) graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, Studios of Jiří Načeradský, Vladimír Kokolia and Vladimír Skrepl. He paid study visits to Kongsthögskolan in Stockholm and Akademie der bildenden Künste in Stuttgart. The techniques he mostly employs are painting, drawing, American retouch and typically child’s technique of scratched China ink on wax crayons layer. In his art Josef Bolf builds upon his childhood, which he spent in Prague’s Jižní město (Southern Town) housing estate in the 1980s. His paintings are dominated by strange beings from a melancholic world, resembling characters from children’s comic strips, which however experience depressions or situations full of anxiety. The topics of Bolf’s art deal with the inner world, where intense personal statement mingles with the reflection of the times. Bolf was member of the Bezhlavý jezdec (Headless Horseman) art group. He exhibited at the Trafo Gallery in Hungary, Ana Cristea Gallery in New York or Aracute Arte Contemporaneo in Beijing. 

Report form the exhibiton of Josef Bolf

Video: Jan Vidlička