Ondřej Michálek. Práce / Works 1969–2024

The work of Ondřej Michálek (b. 1947) encompasses several artistic media, but its gravitational centre is in free graphic art. However, it is also a domain in which several disciplines are intertwined: drawing, thinking in three-dimensional structures, technical solutions and the demands of the artisanal processes associated with reproducing an image by printing. Michálek's work is diverse in this respect, characterised by restlessness, but at the same time it is united by poetic visual thinking, finding meaningful parallels between the world of fiction and the real one, sometimes expressed by the author in sharp terms, sometimes only hinted at. The book presents extensive visual documentation divided into individual creative stages and, in addition to texts by exhibition curators, in the chapter Prints - Stories, the artist's account of the impulses or memories that led to the creation of some of the works. The monograph includes the artist's interview with the curator of his exhibitions, Olga Badalíková. Since 1984 Ondřej Michálek has participated in printmaking exhibitions in respected institutions around the world, where he has received more than twenty awards and honorable mentions. His works can be found in the collections of the world's museums and art galleries. In 1990 he accepted an offer to teach printmaking at the Department of Art Education of the Faculty of Education of Palacký University in Olomouc, where he has been working ever since.