Czech Design

In case you are expecting something more from art than apparent beauty and decorative function, meet Matyas Chochola, a visual artist who incessantly oscillates within a wide range of techniques - his work is, for the majority of people, over the edge.

Matyas Chochola will charm you with a wild attitude towards art, evident in all his artworks. He combines his reasonable mind with mysticism and projects this combination into various performances, video and new media works, sculptures, objects and installations including every possible substance (even those that would never cross your mind). Textiles, glass, metals, colours and also ceramics, such ostensibly stiff materials. Matyas Chochola impersonates modern art in all its playfulness with an unworldly perspective, breaking aesthetic clichés. With his visual artworks, Maytas Chochola goes back to true human roots, for which he uncompromisingly searches for in the world of Facebook identities of the 21st Century. The main goal of Matyas's work is to combine ostensibly disparate techniques and create a complex experience, through which he passes live energy. You can understand and interpret this energy in any way you want, it will always transform into something different. If you wonder what this energy means to you, do not hesitate to visit any exhibitions displaying modern works by Matyas Chochola – there happen to be quite a few every year. Matyas Chochola presented his artwork not only on home soil, but also in Italy and Germany (Grimmuseum in Berlin). The success of this artist who is a native of Hradec Králové is also evidenced by his participation in the 11th edition of Manifesta, the European biennial of contemporary art, held in Zurich. Moreover, Matyas won the Jindrich Chalupecky Award 2016 and, therefore, received a large space for the presentation of his art in the Fair Trade Place in Prague. Matyas successfully operates in the field of architecture and design as well. For example, in cooperation with Bara Kleinhamplova, he created hexagonal decor consisting of small arrows, which is now the motif of the Rajska Zahrada hotel in Nove Mesto nad Metuji, a breathtaking complex inspired by Dusan Jurkovic. Matyas Chochola spent two years in Michal Gabriel's sculpture studio at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Brno and graduated from the Vladimir Skrepl and Jiri Kovanda studio at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. In case you want to see firsthand his own place, which he is currently using as a base & studio, drop by Cisarsky mlyn in Dejvice, a place, which is, as well as the artist himself, full of punk magic.