Daniel PešTa

Daniel Pešta was born in 1959 in Prague. A graduate of the Václav Hollar School of Art, he spent the totalitarian years existing outside of official cultural circles. His primary focus was on drawings, and he worked as a graphic artist. After 1989, he designed numerous series of illustrations for a classical music publisher, and won numerous awards for his book and poster work.

In the 1980s and '90s, Pešta began applying his poster design techniques - which had always balanced on the boundary to painting - to non-commissioned work. Since the very beginning, he has been working to further develop his artistic style.

At first, he studied the figure and gave shape to its vulnerability. Later, he worked with portraits in which he focused primarily on expression. Over time, his works became more abstract; he reduced their colors and began to approach the essence of his visual style, which exists fully outside of contemporary influences.

After returning from his first study trip to New York in 1998, he begins to experiment with a diverse range of materials such as paper, wax, leather, and transparent resin. Such tactile material enabled him to penetrate even deeper into the complicated nature of the human soul. These works...