Recorded at Trafo Gallery during Jiří Marek’s exhibition Palimpsest, this conversation opens a window into the painter’s meditative and material approach to image-making. Marek speaks about the duality of construction and destruction, the act of erasing as a form of creation, and the emotional charge that remains within matter. His reflections unfold as a poetic study of painting as an archaeological process, a constant rewriting of surfaces, memories, and personal history.
In this diploma-series episode of the HIDDEN Podcast, sculptor Kateřina Šťastná traces a path from photography studies to sculpture, from fast ink sketches on a tram to embroideries that take hours to breathe into being. Her recent installation pairs five monochrome embroideries on chiffon, studded with glass beads, with tender yet grounded sculptures in plaster and concrete.
The through-line is breath: once a subject, now a tool for sensing shape without the limits of anatomy. The cycle also holds an intimate narrative about a mother–daughter relationship—how care can shelter, compress, and finally allow distance so both figures can grow.
This episode is in Czech
In this 49th episode of the HIDDEN Podcast, sculptor Ekaterina Gordeladze speaks from the midst of her diploma installation at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (AVU). Graduating in 2025 from Figural Sculpture and Medal, she reflects on finding her language through shallow reliefs, the pull between painting and sculpture, and how intimacy, pressure, and space are negotiated on a plane only centimeters deep. Her recent series links bodies and thresholds using pigmented concrete, plaster, and experiments with transparent media.This conversation is in Czech
In this 48th episode of the HIDDEN Podcast, Czech painter Ilona Koroman speaks from the middle of her diploma installation at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (AVU). Graduating in 2025 from the Drawing Studio under Alice Nikitinová and Matyáš Smetana, she reflects on her path through multiple studios, a formative semester in Carrara, and the shifts in her approach to figuration, space, and colour.From her early plein-air works to carefully constructed, fictional interiors and cityscapes, Koroman’s paintings balance intimacy and observation, often framed through windows—both literal and symbolic thresholds between the public and the private.This conversation is in Czech🎧 More from HIDDEN🌐 Website: https://www.hiddengallery.cz📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hiddengallery.cz Explore on our site:• Best of AVU Diploma 2025 – curated selection of the most powerful AVU graduate projects• Exhibitions – current solo and group shows at HIDDEN Bořivojova, with a 2025 focus on emerging Czech artists• Podcast Archive – interviews with artists, curators, and collaborators including Josef Bolf, Jiří Petrbok, and more• TableTalk – informal public gatherings for deep conversations with artists over food and beer• HIDDEN Store & Editions – unique original artworks and editions by HIDDEN artists🖼 Want to support emerging artists? Discover available works, studio visits, and curatorial picks on our website.🎙 HIDDEN Podcast is produced by Filip Kartousek, founder and curator of HIDDEN Gallery in Prague.
HIDDEN Podcast: David Lynch – Up in Flames with Otto M. UrbanIn this episode of the HIDDEN Podcast, we go behind the scenes of Up in Flames — the most comprehensive exhibition of David Lynch’s visual art ever presented anywhere in the world. Curator Otto M. Urban takes us through the show at DOX in Prague, where lithographs, drawings, watercolors, photographs, objects, and experimental films converge into a raw, unsettling portrait of an artist obsessed with insects, fire, dream logic, and subconscious decay.Urban speaks candidly about curatorial decisions, the collaboration with Lynch’s team, and why the exhibition avoids traditional chronology in favor of intuitive, visual echo. Alongside Filip Kartousek and Kamil Princ, the conversation turns to deeper cultural questions: Why have we forgotten how to look? How does visual oversaturation numb our sensitivity? And why is reading not just about knowledge — but about training the eye?Otto argues that “aesthetics” shouldn’t be taught in schools. Instead, children should draw, sing, and build — through making, they learn to feel. Beauty can’t be explained, but it can be experienced. Up in Flames embodies that idea: it doesn’t explain Lynch, it lets you meet him, image to image, in tension and silence.This conversation is in Czech
In this 46th episode of the HIDDEN Podcast — and the first in a special mini-series featuring recent AVU graduates — we visit the diploma installation of sculptor Ondřej Navrátil at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. What begins as a playful conversation about stones, wild boars, and fictional fossils quickly unfolds into a layered exploration of sculpture as narrative, myth-making, and lived imagination.
Ondřej shares stories of transporting 300 kilograms of stone from a quarry, sculpting a time machine sphere, and carving fossils into the rockface of a Czech limestone pit. But beneath the absurdity lies a poetic sense of time — both personal and planetary. His work blends humor with sincerity, sci-fi with antiquity, and meticulous craft with total invention.
The result is a “sculptural comic,” as he calls it — a world where travelers get stuck in time, gods drown in sap, and relics from the future lie buried in the past.
🎧 More from HIDDEN
🌐 Website: www.hiddengallery.cz
📸 Instagram: www.instagram.com/hiddengallery.cz
Explore on our site:
• Best of AVU Diploma 2025 – curated selection of the most powerful AVU graduate projects
• Exhibitions – current solo and group shows at HIDDEN Bořivojova, with a 2025 focus on emerging Czech artists
• Podcast Archive – interviews with artists, curators, and collaborators including Josef Bolf, Jiří Petrbok, and more
• TableTalk – informal public gatherings for deep conversations with artists over food and beer
• HIDDEN Store & Editions – unique original artworks and editions by HIDDEN artists
🖼 Want to support emerging artists? Discover available works, studio visits, and curatorial picks on our website.
🎙 HIDDEN Podcast is produced by Filip Kartousek, founder and curator of HIDDEN Gallery in Prague.
In this 45th episode of the HIDDEN Podcast, we sit down with painter Anna Krištofíková and curator Kamil Princ, recorded inside Anna’s solo exhibition Wild at Steel Heart at HIDDEN Bořivojova. The conversation opens a raw yet poetic space where symbolism, protection, and vulnerability collide, both on canvas and in the artist’s life.Anna reflects on painting her own body, her time in New York, and how environmental and emotional atmospheres shape her work. Together with Kamil, they dive deep into metaphors of armor, keys, and emotional exposure, while also unpacking humor, self-irony, and artistic fatigue. What emerges is a vivid portrait of an artist navigating the blur between inner mythologies and outer realities.👉 Check out her solo exhibition: https://hiddengallery.cz/exhibitions/...This conversation is in Czech.
In this 44th episode of the HIDDEN Podcast, we meet Dina Spokij and Florián Synák, whose collaboration shaped the soft yet powerful exhibition Domeček pod dekou, presented at HIDDEN AVU.
Recorded directly inside the exhibition, this conversation navigates the emotional function of painting, the symbolism of fabric, and the tension between personal vulnerability and public space. Dina, originally from Ukraine, reflects on her experience studying at FaVU in Brno and spending a semester at AVU in Prague. Curator and fellow student Florián Synák brings a sculptural and spatial sensibility to the discussion, touching on light, darkness, and the role of curation as intimate dialogue.
Together with host Filip Kartousek, they explore how to construct emotional and physical safespaces through art, especially in moments of transition, anxiety, or dislocation.
This episode is in Czech.
In this 43rd episode of the HIDDEN Podcast, we meet Klára Hartlová and Alexandra Grüner, two emerging voices in Czech contemporary painting whose work draws on psychology, bodily intuition, and the tension between presence and absence. Recorded in the HIDDEN AVU space during their joint exhibition Vestigial, this conversation with Filip Kartousek—joined once again by curator Kamil Princ—offers a deep dive into how emotion, theory, and intuition collide in visual practice.
This episode explores the artists’ shared background in psychology, their current studies in the Drawing Studio at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (originally led by Jiří Petrbok, now under Alice Nikitinová and Matěj Smetana), and how they channel personal experiences—migraines, trauma, memory—into tactile visual form. Their conversation moves through themes of feminine identity, intuition as method, the risk of over-conceptualizing art, and how to keep an image “alive.”
They discuss the lingering influence of Freud’s concept of Das Unheimliche (the uncanny) and Julia Kristeva’s abjection—not as citations, but as frameworks they have internalized and embodied. Their paintings are shaped less by narrative and more by atmosphere, ambiguity, and embodied sensitivity. Kamil reflects on the exhibition as a space between object and image, between sensation and interpretation.
This conversation is in Czech.
In this 42nd episode of the HIDDEN Podcast, we return to Hidden Gallery to meet Roman Košťál, a rising Czech painter whose current work fuses superstition, folklore, and raw emotional narrative. In an open conversation with Filip Kartousek, Roman discusses the making of his solo exhibition BAD LUCK, his approach to painting, and how old European myths still resonate in today’s world.
This episode delves into Roman’s background—his beginnings in applied painting at the Secondary School of Glassmaking in Kamenický Šenov, a two-year period in hot glass techniques, and his eventual move towards painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague under Jiří Petrbok. Roman speaks about his belief in everyday superstitions, the aesthetics of chance versus control, and his fascination with old cinema, black-and-white imagery.
The conversation also touches on broader topics like authenticity in contemporary art, the tension between intellect and emotion, and how modern artists navigate the line between concept and feeling.
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In this 41st episode, we sit down with Liza Libenko, one of the most distinctive voices of the emerging Czech art scene. Known for her raw material experimentation and symbolic visual language, Liza joins Filip Kartousek and Kamil Princ for an intimate conversation about destruction, beauty, and the enduring legacy of decadence.
Recorded at Karpuchina Gallery in Prague, the episode touches on her recent solo exhibition inspired by Baudelaire’s Flowers of Evil, the ritual of burning her own paintings, and her fascination with circles, lunar symbolism, and the power of myth. Liza also reflects on her artistic education, her love of difficult materials like asphalt and iron, and the inner logic that drives her work—somewhere between philosophy, instinct, and obsession.
This conversation is in Czech.
In this 40th episode, we visit the studio of Josef Bolf, one of the most significant Czech painters and a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. This intimate conversation, conducted entirely in Czech, explores the layers of melancholy, memory, and subconscious imagery that define his work. Josef shares insights into his ongoing exhibition Melancholy of Outer Limits at DOX, reflections on childhood, his fascination with post-socialist architecture, and how art functions as a tool for personal and societal reflection. This conversation is in Czech.
In this 39th episode of the HIDDEN podcast, we host a thought-provoking conversation about contemporary art, its often misunderstood nature, and its role in shaping cultural narratives. The discussion delves into topics such as the evolution of art criticism, the challenges faced by artists and institutions, and the tension between conceptual and traditional approaches. We explore the impact of social media on the art world, the importance of understanding artistic intent, and the stories behind groundbreaking works. With reflections on the Czech art scene and broader cultural contexts, this episode offers a deep dive into the intersections of creativity, society, and history.
A significant portion of the conversation centers on Jan H. Vitvar's books, particularly his latest work, Umění, kterému rozumějí úplně všichni ("Art Understood by Absolutely Everyone"), published in 2024. This book serves as a sequel to his earlier publication, Umění, kterému nikdo nerozumí ("Art Understood by No One"), which garnered considerable attention for its insightful and often humorous exploration of the art world's idiosyncrasies.
This conversation is in Czech.
In the 38th episode of the HIDDEN Podcast, we welcome Ozlem Akin, a multidisciplinary artist and filmmaker, for an insightful discussion. We explore Ozlem's journey from studying filmmaking in Turkey and animation in Czech Republic, her inspirations from Kafka and Jan Švankmajer, and her love for body horror aesthetics.
Ozlem shares her creative process, from curating her first exhibition to crafting her distinctive sculptures that blend visceral and delicate elements. We also touch on her reflections on cultural contrasts, the challenges of pursuing animation, and the artistic potential of embracing life's imperfections.
This conversation is in English.
In this 37th episode of the HIDDEN podcast, we sit down with artist Lucie Hošková at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. Filip and Lucie, joined by curator Kamil Princ, discuss themes of mortality, materiality, and the philosophical inspirations that shape Lucie’s art, ranging from gnosticism to absurdism. They explore her creative process, the influence of obsessions in her work, and how she balances conceptual rigor with raw, emotional expression. Lucie also shares insights into her fascination with cemeteries, her residency plans in Paris, and the challenges of pursuing unique methods in her art. This conversation is in Czech.
In this 36th episode of The Hidden Podcast, we welcome Yukako Kumanabe, the third Japanese artist to exhibit in Hidden Gallery as part of our Japanese series. Originally from Tokyo, Yukako studied painting and printmaking at the Tokyo University of Art and later expanded her skills in Poland. She shares insights about her artistic journey, the influence of dreams on her work, and her approach to combining techniques such as drawing, painting, printmaking, and sculpture.
This conversation explores the cultural nuances of living between Japan and Europe, the poetic nature of Japanese language, and how Yukako’s inner world transforms into her art. Dive into her unique perspective, which balances reality and dreams, and discover what inspires her creative vision.
This conversation is in English.
In this 35th episode of the HIDDEN podcast, we once again delve into the "Catastrophic Season" series at the (A)VOID Gallery. Filip Kartousek and curator Kamil Prinz meet with artist Dante Daniel Hartl to discuss his provocative contributions to the series, particularly his glowing installation, ZLO (EVIL). This conversation, navigates themes of decadence, brutality, and the interplay of beauty and taboo, all central to Hartl's work.
This conversation is in Czech.
In this 34th episode of the HIDDEN podcast, we once again delve into the "Catastrophic Season" series at the (A)VOID Gallery. Filip Kartousek and curator Kamil Prinz meet with Barbora Myslikovjanová to discuss her exhibition "VERBA DOLORIS" an exploration of negative emotions and intimate self-expression. From themes of pain, loneliness, and melancholy, Barbara’s work in "VERBA DOLORIS" intertwines poetry and visual art, inviting viewers to confront complex feelings with introspection. She reflects on how her artistic journey incorporates these intense themes and reveals her experiences of combining deeply personal memories with broader existential questions. This conversation is in Czech.
Join us for the 34th episode of the Hidden Podcast, where we dive into the creative world of Yuki Asano, a Japanese artist whose work is the latest feature in our ongoing Japanese art series at the Hidden Gallery. Yuki shares her journey from studying in Kyoto to creating evocative paintings and installations that blend memories and emotions. Alongside our curious guest, Kamil Prince, we explore Yuki's inspirations, her evolving artistic process, and the stories behind her works. Tune in for an engaging conversation filled with insights, laughter, and the unexpected magic of artistic exchange.
This conversation is in English.
In this episode of the HIDDEN podcast, we return to the (A)VOID Gallery for a conversation with sculptor and poet Tea. Together with curator Kamil Prinz, we discuss her exhibition "In morte veritas," part of the series "Catastrophic Season," which explores themes of decay, melancholy, and the search for meaning amid chaos. Tea shares her journey of merging sculpture with poetry and finding beauty in unexpected places.
This conversation is in Czech.
