They All Met in Karlsbad & Poet Peasant – JOINT PRIVATE VIEW

Celebrate two exhibitions in one evening at our joint Private View: They All Met in Karlsbad, showcasing bold Czech artists in dialogue, and Poet Peasant by SJ Fowler, where poetry takes visual, sculptural form. A unique meeting of material exploration, literary experimentation, and creative freedom. All welcome!

THEY ALL MET IN KARLSBAD

During the summer, the Czech Centre’s Vitrínka Gallery presents a group exhibition showcasing recent works by eight emerging Czech artists from the 2024 Karlovy Vary (Karlsbad) residencies. Their cross-disciplinary pieces reflect the town’s rich heritage and spirit of collaboration.

The Magnus Art Gallery in Prague launched its residency programme after gaining access to an elegant apartment in an Art Nouveau palace in Karlovy Vary. Designed for two artists at a time, the residency fosters dialogue between disciplines and encourages creative exchange.

In 2024, seven artist pairs took part, often blending media—glass with textiles, sculpture with painting. The town’s distinctive spa town atmosphere and layered history became a powerful source of inspiration.

Initially shown at the palace’s Display Gallery and later in Prague, a selection of these pieces now comes to London’s Vitrínka Gallery, offering a glimpse into how young Czech art flourishes when given space and freedom to experiment.

Artists exhibiting in London

Anežka Hošková & Jakub Hošek
Anežka Hošková’s paintings reflect her romantic vision of Karlovy Vary’s churches, landscapes, and mineral springs, merging meditative experiences with watercolour techniques. Jakub Hošek responded to the city’s uneasy history, blending beautiful and dark elements into stitched compositions filled with texts, emotions and urban fragments.

Karíma Al-Mukhtarová & TEA
Karíma Al-Mukhtarová explored the transformative symbolism of bathing in a monumental tapestry, capturing the moment between death, acceptance and rebirth. TEA created a sculpture of a scribe inspired by Egyptian aesthetics, integrating fragments of Karíma’s tapestry into the work, reflecting on shared experience and artistic imprint.

Anna Jožová & Lucie Rosická
Anna Jožová and Lucie Rosická investigated materials tied to Karlovy Vary’s nature and culture. Jožová’s luminous glass objects engaged in dialogue with Rosická’s embroidered textiles, as both artists inspired each other to cross creative and material boundaries, exchanging insights from their differing practices.

Néphéli Barbas & Jakub Tytykalo
Néphéli Barbas was drawn to the city’s layered architecture and forested surroundings, translating these into sculptural forms of bent aluminium. Jakub Tytykalo created a unique series of paintings exploring the inner energy of underground springs, blending elemental forces in vibrant, otherworldly compositions.

EXHIBITION OPENING
With artists Karíma Al-Mukhtarová & TEA
Friday 11 July 2025, 6.30 – 8.30 pm
Free entry

EXHIBITION DATES: 11 July – 31 August 2025

VENUE
Vitrínka Gallery, Czech Centre London
30 Kensington Palace Gardens, London, W8 4QY

OPENING HOURS:
Tue – Fri 10am – 5pm
or by appointment – +44 (0) 207 836 3669

Organised by Czech Centre London in partnership with Magnus Art Gallery and J&T Bank.

Part of From Karlovy Vary, With Art.

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POET PEASANT: AN EXHIBITION BY SJ FOWLER

An exhibition of poetry as curios, discovered text and found literary sculptures drawn from previously unseen works, selected asemic writing and the poetic props of performances across the globe. Drawing from fifteen years of rabid activity, this exhibition evidences the breadth of visual and conceptual poetry from one of the definitive experimentalists of the British 21st century literary scene.

On the site of the former Notting Hill Books, a formative space for many, including Fowler, this exhibition emphasises the potential of the marginal, peculiar, detritus-as-poetry mode so removed from the medium’s stereotypical obsession with neatness, craft and clarity. From bear suits to homemade skeletons, handwritten novels to concrete poems, Poet Peasant represents the core aesthetic concerns of SJ Fowler – playful, eclectic and anti-singular, it is a deliberate mess of fun and weird visual literature that stretches the bounds of what poetry is.

www.stevenjfowler.com/poetpeasant

SJ Fowler is a writer, poet and performer who lives in London. His work has been commissioned by The National Gallery, Tate Modern, BBC Radio 3, Somerset House, Tate Britain, Southbank Centre and he was part of the first Hub residency at Wellcome Collection. His visual poetry has been exhibited at the V&A, Hayward Gallery, Jerwood Space, Mile End Art Pavilion, Kielder Forest, Tate St Ives and Palais de Tokyo. He has published over 50 works, the subject of the Small Publishers Fair 2022 feature exhibition and given over 400 performances at venues around the world. He lecturer at Kingston University and is the director of the European Poetry Festival. Poet Peasant … is his 8th solo exhibition.

EXHIBITION DATES: 11 July – 5 August 2025

VENUE
Bouda Gallery, Czech Centre London
132 Palace Gardens Terrace, London W8 4RT

PRIVATE VIEW: Friday 11 July 2025. 6.30 – 8.30 pm

OPENING HOURS:
The gallery will be opened to the public 12 noon to 5pm every Wednesday to Saturday

ACCOMPANYING EVENTS:
July 24th July 26th, July 31st, August 2nd 7pm – 9pm.