Jakub Ružinský

Halfway to Nowhere

23th January — 22th February 2023

DOLE, Ostrava, Czech Republic

Solo exhibition

Photo by Roman Polášek

Curated by Mgr. Martin Mikolášek

Jakub Ružinský often works with square formats for his paintings. This may reference the aforementioned comic techniques, perhaps aiming to disrupt traditional compositional conventions, or it may explore contemporary visual culture shaped by social media. He frequently incorporates Christian (medieval) or broader religious symbolism. Ružinský investigates the language of these themes and symbols not only through their motifs but also by examining their potential emptiness, enduring relevance, or legibility in terms of their comprehensibility and applicability in contemporary discursive practice.

He explores these aspects through the painterly language he chooses to depict them. His approach alternates between flat, reductive stylization, Cubist articulation, lyrical abstraction, graffiti and street-art aesthetics, and perhaps most prominently, a neo-expressionist style that has culminated in his latest work as a kind of fantastical, colorful psychedelic spectacle. Symbols referring to Christian narratives (the divine eye, the chalice and serpent, the fish, and others) are intertwined with science fiction and fantasy, where humans are replaced by ape-like or reptilian beings.

Through this thematic and stylistic syncretism, I believe Ružinský aims to showcase the vast opportunities provided by medieval aesthetics, which he frequently references. These visual traditions were often shaped by a blend of spirituality, mystical visions, hermeticism, and magic. Simultaneously, the artist unveils our contemporary interpretive reality, where descriptions of the world and its modes of presentation are shaped by "varied critical masses." These range from Enlightenment-inspired optimistic rationalism to alternative and conspiratorial theories that “unveil” a hidden, sophisticated plan in the past, present, and future, mixing half-truths, assumptions, and fictions—a narrative often more appealing than the seeming dullness of our everyday lives.

This expansive field of possibilities for articulating contemporary issues and critiquing modernist rationality, which 'brought us to where we are today' (J.R.), appears to be the central message Ružinský offers through his paintings.