Born in 1986 | Lives and works in Prague, Czech Republic
Tomáš Jetela, one of the most significant contemporary Czech painters, combines figurative imagery with abstract approach, which he explores through painting, drawing and collage. His striking expressionism is concentrated on the human inner life, revealing it as constantly evolving.
Jetela focuses on portraiture and figurative compositions, which he approaches through abstract forms and structures. His work is distinguished by a strong, rhythmic use of line and expressive, gestural brushwork. He liberates color from reality, using it to convey emotion and to shape the internal dynamics of the painting. Physical forms become partially distorted into recognizable fragments. Symbolic figures, between hidden and representational, laid on a classical landscape, create a fascinatingly disconcerting tableau. Jetela introduces a distinctive narrative dimension: beyond the figures themselves, the image expands into a layered field of meaning. A recurring concept in Jetela’s work is the duality of the human mind; the coexistence of multiple identities and perspectives within one being. The paintings contain distinctive visual analogies and associative layers of imagery, in which intuitive expression is combined with a carefully considered compositional structure.
Jetela’s paintings invite also multiple interpretations, with their elements and symbols coming together in unexpected ways that reveal something new every time they are viewed. Echoes of Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka can be discerned in the psychological intensity of his figures and their expressive distortions. At the same time, there is something distinctly Dalíesque in Jetela's approach; a dreamlike logic, the freedom of the subconscious and a reality in constant transformation. Uniquely juxtaposing features bring refreshing newness, diversity and depth to Jetela’s surrealism.
Tomáš Jetela has graduated from Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. He has also studied at Universidad Complutense de Madrid in Spain. He has been awarded with Arte emocion – award and in 2013 he was the winner of the Critic’s Award for Young Painting. Jetela’s works have been exhibited in e.g. Czech Republic, and his paintings are included in several private collections.