About People

The exhibition of works by Jan Šafránek, a Czech painter of figurative art, was created in collaboration with Galerie Gema.

The exhibition About People offers a cross-section of the work of painter Jan Šafránek, a globetrotter and keen observer who captures the world with exceptional and unique insight through his precise classical painting technique. In his lively and thoughtful compositions, he tirelessly records moments of everyday life from streets to markets, celebrations, cafes, bars, and galleries. His paintings capture both ordinary and absurd situations, always with a gentle, merciful irony that brings a smile and stimulates the imagination. Šafránek's painting style was already fully mature in the 1960s, when, in addition to painting film panels, he mastered figurative painting with masterful ease. In the 1970s, Šafránek was active on the Prague alternative scene, participating in unofficial exhibitions and underground events. Signing Charter 77 was a turning point for him, leading to his emigration – first to Austria and later to Australia, from where he undertook extensive travels in Tasmania, New Zealand, the Pacific, and South America. The author, who now lives alternately in Prague and Vienna, reflects his rich cosmopolitan experiences in his works. Despite all the changes in geographical and personal circumstances, the painter's central theme remains man and his stories, in which we always find Šafránka's typical humor, empathy, and perspective.

"If the Italian trio of both Tomášes and Filippa from the Brancacci Chapel, Flemish Bruegel, South American Botero, and North American Edward Hopper were to come together at one exhibition, the only one missing from this timeless elite would be the Viennese Czech Jan Šafránek to complete the group." This was how Lubomír Hromádka, a congenial collector of domestic and world art, aptly put it when, together with the equally renowned expert Jaroslav Kořán, they admired his first exhibition at the Gema Gallery in Prague thirty years ago. What they agreed on then still holds true today.