On Saturday, December 9, 2023, the gallery of the House of National Minorities hosted the opening of an exhibition of photographs and graphics by the Slovak director, cameraman, photographer and artist Ladislav Kaboš entitled Nudes and Serigraphy. The original filmmaker, who drew attention to himself mainly with documentaries such as Starina, Fašiangy v Sebechleby, Zmenil včar shanghaij, Farby pisku, Zdémy moje deti, Kapela or Architekt snej poétyky, presented himself this time in the role of photographer and artist. Despite the fact that his domain is mainly film, he was able to prepare an extraordinary artistic experience for visitors by presenting his art works.
The exhibition, which was opened by illustrator and scenographer Zuzana Štancelová, presents a cross-section of the artistic work of Ladislav Kaboš, from classical photography, through digital photography to serigraphs or printing on textiles. While he is mainly inspired by natural shapes in his graphic work, the central motif of his photographs are female nudes. With female nudes, where the black and white form of expression prevails, the author works with a perfect cinematic perception of light contrasts. However, in his serigraphs, which evoke almost fairy-tale magic, on the contrary, he discovers richly colored playfulness. In the oldest photographs from the series Labyrinth of the City, which historically date back to his student days spent at the FAMU in Prague, the author captured various parts of Prague on 35 mm film negative as a contrast to the soft contours of the female body. On the contrary, in the black-and-white digital series from the Light and Shadow cycle, the artist lets the charms of the female nude fully resonate, albeit with a high degree of sensitivity for intimacy. Color digital photographs from the Stopped Time series, in which soft shades of blue prevail, as if referring to the strong influence of surrealism in Czechoslovak art. Ladislav Kaboš's serigraphs attract attention at first glance with the variety of plant shapes arranged into symmetrical objects reminiscent of the animal kingdom. By combining acrylic colors with the screen printing technique, the author evokes a mystical colorful landscape full of living creatures, such as a Lion or a Cephalopod, which usually only appears to us in a dream. The printing of female nudes on non-woven fabric from a fragile material fascinates the artist, according to his own words, also because each print is essentially an original, since it is impossible to create two identical portraits during printing. Moreover, with these hanging textiles, his work acquires much more plasticity, and thanks to the possibility of placing them in the gallery space, the visitor of the exhibition cannot even ignore them. He can almost touch the objects on display, and he can make them move just by walking past them. Ladislav Kaboš proves with his artistic expression that he is a man of many talents and that his work has not been conserved over time, but that it is undergoing dynamic development. He received several awards for his films, such as the IGRIC Award for extraordinary creative performances in audiovisual works, the Slovak Film Critics Award or the FIPRESCI Journalists Award. He is the laureate of the Crystal Wing award, but also the holder of several awards from film festivals at home and abroad. Despite this, he did not stop in his artistic exploration of the world and has the courage to constantly open new and new doors in unexplored space. The exhibition in the Gallery of the House of National Minorities is also a promise that we will very likely continue to learn about his further achievements.
Text and photo: Vladimír Dubeň