MFA Graduation show, 2023, London Metropolitan University
Imagine a point in an infinite distance behind an infinite perfect plane. You moving towards it. What do you perceive? No progress. Infinity is, at the same time, infinitely deep and obtuse. No progress is possible. Nothing can be added to infinity to make it bigger. The obtuse abstract oil paintings on display balance intentionally on the edge of figuration and abstraction to create such a sense of movement with no progress.
A painting is a complicated, layered, flat object. At the same time, a painting represents something. It induces a reaction in the viewer. When faced with a painting, a complicated process of moving toward the meaning begins, which starts with perceiving the painting as a thing but immediately moves onto recognition. This recognition enters our minds again and is subject to further recognition. Ad infinitum.
The philosopher Deleuze gives an interpretation of the Baroque as the fold to infinity. He suggests that the defining property of the Baroque is the folding of material. Deleuze says: “It seems that this ambition of covering the canvas with folds is discovered again in modern art, with the all-over fold."
The process of folding in Ondřej's painting begins with the making of the paint. In the old hand process of making paint, ground material is mixed with oil and spread over a glass pane with a muller, then collected and folded over with a palette knife, then spread again and folded again until each particle of pigment is surrounded by oil. The canvas is folded literally around the edges of the stretcher bars. Then, it is sealed and primed, then the first layer of paint is layered over the canvas. The first layer induces a reaction in the artist, and the next layer is put down. Paint is smeared and folded over itself. Sometimes new layers are added over previously dried ones. If infinity of time were possible, it would take shape in an infinitely layered painting. It would be infinitely thick and take infinite time to paint and infinite time to comprehend. Is there a finite representation of the infinity of such repetition?
The intensely coloured and meticulously layered works suggest spaces, structures, faces and figures that exist in the world beyond the surface that invites further exploration but, upon inspection, gives nothing away. A shroud of sometimes calm sometimes violent monotony of the layers closer to the surface implies a world beyond. The textures seem to have a hidden rhythm and logic which contribute, together with the rhythm of the colours, to the sensation of a movement towards something well defined. But the secret is never given away.
