David Nosek (b. 1994) is a student of the painting studio at the Prague UMPRUM led by Jiří Černický and Michal Novotný. In his work he tries to unite the formal rationality of conceptual aesthetics with its counterpart, present in the content layer, which disturbs this formal order. At the same time, he emphasizes the natural, purely visual language of his works. He tries to elevate it above the prevailing discursive perception of the informed viewer and, on the contrary, to return it to sensory forms of reception. With this approach, David Nosek goes against today’s prevailing artistic strategies in the field of ideological or theoretical relations, and with the specific language of his work, he ranks rather among the solitaires who stand out from the crowd. Although a critical view of contemporary events is not the primary message of his work, it is integrally present in the very way he approaches his work. He conceives of the installations of his exhibitions as complex and often forceful messages to the viewer. In the foreground, then, we perceive Nosek’s rather scenographic skill, with which he is able to transform the exhibition space and set the emphasis of his intention. The key to understanding, however, lies deeper, in the works themselves, which work very sophisticatedly with emotions, the most contemporary technologies, setting a critical cultural and social mirror within the framework of current events, whose multilayered message, however, should be universal. David Nosek, through the vigour of his installations, wants to bring us closer to a deeper, more subtle perception of his work. His exhibitions, e.g. at the City Surfer Office gallery in Žižkov, Gallery 207 at UMPRUM or the 4+4 Days festival, contain these approaches, but it is also possible to perceive the exhibited works equally well without the context of an intense installation. Their message loses none of its power.

– Ján Gajdušek