Igor Hosnedl (born 1988, Uherské Hradiště) has developed a highly singular style of painting, characterized by carefully aligned color tones, flowing geometries and an atmosphere suggestive of alternative states of consciousness. Working almost exclusively in large format and with custom-made oil pigments, Hosnedl deploys a cautious yet bold technique to his work through a method that has guided him into a deeper space of painting. “Color is a very powerful weapon,” he explains, “and I really appreciate the unusual final look of the painting surface – it’s almost like a ceramic glaze.”

Hosnedl’s pictures combine a strange ornamental tickling in the stomach and childlike naiveté and hope for a happy ending – but there is also no simple resolution in Hosnedl’s pictures. The narrative of his paintings emerges from the works themselves and permeates installations of past and future exhibitions. Stories are interwoven in ornament-like curls. Although Hosnedl does not work with the direct citation of literature, the poetics of linking and blind paths may be a key to deciphering his works.  His paintings often take on the theme of ornament as an abstraction; they are non-linear, sometimes figurative and sometimes purely intuitive; an example of a strange, tidy chaos. The principle of ornament is thus not an addition or a compliment of a whole in the sense of decoration; it is a principle of work that transcends the works themselves and weighs them together – and is uniquely reflected in the formal processing of individual paintings. According to the artist: „I operate with classical and established narratives from painting history, like dropped shadows from objects randomly placed on tables or simply on horizons, because I’m trying to develop something that might be understood as an everyday thing, and a system that you already know from your visual experiences.”

Igor Hosnedl is a 2013 graduate of the Prague Academy of Fine Arts, studying in the drawing studio of Jitka Svobodová and the painting studio of Vladimír Skrepl/Jiří Kovanda.  He has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions at Kunsthalle Bratislava (solo, 2023); Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (2022); Nicodim Galerie, Bucharest (2022); Eigen&Art, Berlin (2023, 2022 & 2021); hunt kastner, Prague (2021 & 2016); Ribot Gallery (with Vera Knox, curated by Domenico di Chirico), Milan, 2020;  Nod Gallery (solo), Prague, 2019;  FAIT Gallery (solo), Brno, 2019;  VDIFF, (curated by Milan Mikuláštík), DUMB, House of the Lords of Kunštat Brno, 2019;  Downs & Ross (solo), NY, New York, 2018; Horizont Gallery (solo), Budapest, 2018; After Late for Pro: Office work (curated by Tereza Jindrová), Meetfactory, Prague, 2017;  and Galerie Jelení (solo), Foundation and Center for Contemporary Arts in Prague, 2016.  He currently lives and works in Berlin.

Igor Hosnedl full CV