Storm: A selection of artworks from the 1980s and current works from 2026

Martin Mainer: Storm brings together a selection of works from the 1980s with the artist’s most recent paintings from 2026. Spanning more than four decades, the exhibition offers a focused view of two distinct periods in Mainer’s practice and reflects the continuity, shifts, and renewed impulses within his approach to painting.

Martin Mainer (b. 1959, Czech Republic) is one of the defining figures of Czech Neo-Expressionism. Emerging as a significant voice in the Czech art scene during the 1980s, he developed a highly individual visual language in which abstraction and figuration coexist freely. His paintings resist fixed interpretation, allowing forms, figures, and fragments to appear, dissolve, and transform within the pictorial space.

The works from the 1980s capture an important period in Mainer’s artistic development, marked by an instinctive and uncompromising approach to painting. Presented alongside works created in 2026, they provide a broader perspective on an artistic practice that has remained open to change while retaining its distinctive character.

Rather than presenting a chronological survey, Storm concentrates on two moments separated by time. The exhibition allows these works to be experienced together, revealing both the persistence of certain concerns and the ways Mainer’s painting has evolved over the course of his career.

The title Storm evokes movement, unpredictability, and concentrated energy — qualities that resonate throughout Mainer’s work. Across different periods, painting remains for him an immediate and vital means of expression: a space for experimentation, transformation, and the continuous discovery of new possibilities.

The exhibition is accompanied by a bilingual catalogue.