Works of Jan Valik emerge from a space among 'absorbed' landscape, recollections, sense and memory. Paintings on the verge of imagination echo sources of inspiration that bridge the principles of Eastern and Western landscape painting evoked by calligraphic spontaneity along with careful construction of pictorial space.
Over the past years, Jan Valik has participated in several residences in the UK, Japan and China. These experiences have deepened his research and perspective in his approach to painting. In his canvases the author always balances the perception of space without polarizing the inner and outer aspects, thus he opens further associative and metaphorical qualities for the viewer.
Jan Valik (b1987, Bratislava, Slovakia) is a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. He currently lives and works in London. He was among the 15 shortlisted artists of the British Painting Prize 2021, won the third place in the VUB Painting Competition (2016) and was the finalist of the EXIT Award in Usti nad Labem (2011). His solo exhibitions were held for example at Amart Gallery (Vienna, Austria, 2020), Husk Gallery (Brussels, Belgium, 2019), the Cici Gallery (Bratislava, Slovakia, 2019), Chisou Gallery (Komono, Japan, 2018), at ABC Gallery (Bratislava, Slovakia, 2017), Niche Gallery (Tokyo, Japan,2017), Art Space NOV (Pardubice, 2016), Maumau Gallery (Istanbul, Turkey, 2015). Valik has participated in Artist-in-residence programs notably at BankART Studio (Yokohama, Japan, 2016), Mark Rothko Art Center (Daugavpils, Latvia, 2017), Banska Stanica Contemporary (Banska Stiavnica, Slovakia, 2018) and Shanjian Contemporary Art Space (Beijing, China, 2019). His work was exhibited in solo exhibitions in Czech Republic, Slovakia, Japan and China; as well as in group exhibitions in the US, Belgium, Japan, Czech Republic, Slovakia, China, Latvia, France, Germany and Ireland.