Roman Trabura
* 1960
Roman Trabura (*1960 Vsetín) did not graduate from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague until the 1990s. As he put it himself: “With regard to studying, under the ‘Bolsheviks’ it didn’t even occur to me to give it a go. In those days, I was more underground, a rocker and nihilist.” His art has few peers on the Czech scene. He is constantly trying out new formal approaches, which he transforms like a snake shedding its skin. At the same time, he remains faithful to certain of his main themes, such as landscape painting.
Roman Trabura’s art comes from a rich, sometimes unchained imagination that seeks to both enrapture and provoke the viewer. They are in a sense inner landscapes that are still very close to the real, physical world. He uses those antitheses deliberately, along with many other sources of inspiration. However, it is not a question of direct influence or synthesis, but a pluralistic conception. He places figures with empty speech bubbles in sublime, romantic landscapes inspired by Caspar David Friedrich. Likewise, one cannot help feeling that his fairytale or even mystical scenes hide a biting black humour.
Trabura also created paintings in a comics-like style. An area is created within the context of his work in which the artist addresses in a grotesquely sarcastic manner current political events – in which he touches on dramatic events of violence, aggression, terrorist attacks. (Al-Qaeda, 2004, Warum, 2008). Roman Trabura’s work is very diverse. The artist easily and quickly changes styles and themes. Sometimes he is dynamic and brutal, at other times poetic and melancholic. Sometimes he’s a commentator on the unsettling questions of our times, at other times he sets out on the path of a storyteller. He himself says that he’s not interested in repeating the same old, and honing and developing that which has already been found. Trabura is in his own way a rebel and adventurer for whom the search for newer and newer worlds is a challenge.
Solo Exhibitions
2012 Václav Špála Gallery, Prague
2012 Sokolská 27 Gallery, Ostrava
2012 Peron Flood Gallery, Prague
2011 Psycho Rabasova galerie Rakovník
2010 Psycho,Galerie Dolmen,Praha
2008 Deník Galerie Kolín
2007 Hard stuff galerie WOXART, Praha
2006 Galerie hlavního města Prahy
2006 Staroměstská radnice Made in China
2004 Galerie XXL, Louny
2003 Atrium, Praha
2003 Galerie Via Art, Praha,Fuck you in the forrest
2002 Galerie N.O.D., Praha
2000 Galerie F. Jeneweina, Kutná Hora
2000 Galerie Černý Pavouk, Ostrava
1998 Galerie Caesar, Olomouc
1998 Galerie Via Art, Praha
1997 Galerie Via Art, Praha
1996 Galerie Via Art, Praha
1996 Galerie MK, Rožnov pod Radhoštěm
1996 Galerie Zámek, Příbram
1995 Galerie Fronta, Praha
1993 Galerie “U Řečických”, Praha
1993 Café Kandinsky, Praha
1993 Holešovická kavárna, Praha
1990 KD Delta, Praha
1989 Festival Monte Belluno, Italy
1988 KD Cíl, Praha
Group Exhibitions
1985 Valdštejnská zahrada, Prague
1986 Konfrontace I, Prague
1987 Konfrontace II, Prague
1988 Klub “U Melouna”, Prague
1988 Galerie v Karlovce, Prague
1989 KD Barikádníků, Prague
1989 Vinohradská tržnice, Prague
1989 Konfrontace III, Prague
1989 KD Delta, Prague
1989 Czech Independent Art, Wroclaw, Poland
1989 Festival v.d. Toekomst, Nijmegen, Holland
1989 Salon 90, Slavičín
1989 Totalalitní zóna, Prague
1989 Czech Independent Art, Sczeczyn, Poland
1989 Mostra d´art Txec, Barcelona, Spain
1991 AVU exhibition, U Hybernů, Prague
1992 Istropolitana, Bratislava, Slovakia
1993 Landscape in contemprary art, Galerie U kamenného zvonu, Prague
1993 AVU Exhibition, U Hybernů, Prague
1994 AVU Exhibition, Düsseldorf, Germany
1994 AVU Exhibition, City Galery, Karlovy Vary
1995 AVU Galery, Prague
1995 AVU exhibition, Galerie Mánes, Prague
1995 Swiss Bank Award Exhibition, London
1996 I.Nový zlínský salon, Zlín
1996 Harvard University, USA
1997 Strahovský klášter, Prague
1997 Art in Public Space, National Gallery, Prague
1998 “Harvest”, Galerie Mánes, Prague
1999 Umění pro nemocnici, Galerie V. Špály, Prague
1999 J.Jelinek Stiftung, Galerie Mánes, Prague
1999 Hommage á Franz Kafka, Kunsthalle, Ausburg, Germany
1999 Hommage á Franz Kafka, Tančící dům, Prague
1999 Zlínský salon 99, Zlín
1999 Czech Culture Centre, Berlin, Germany
2000 Visions, Galerie Roxy, Prague
2000 Galerie F. Jeneweina, Kutná Hora
2000 The End of the World, National Gallery, Prague
2000 “100”, Galerie Caesar, Olomouc
2000 Portrait 2000, Galerie Klenová, Klatovy
2000 “Past Future”, Alšova Galerie, Hluboká
2001 “Past Future”, Jihlava
2001 Laboratory, National Galery, Prague
2002 “Vizionáři a vypravěči”, Galerie Bayer, Levekursen, Galerie Bayer Dormegen
2003 Agua-art, Galerie kritiků, Palac Adria, Prague
2003 Czech painting, Riga, Latvia
2003 Art Prague, Veletrh galerií, Mánes
2003 Prague Biennale 1,The Youngest, Prague
2003 Perfect Tense, Riding Hall, Prague Castle
2004 Czech Art, Hannover Kubus, Germany
2004 Galerie Bohemica, Hannover
2004 AJG, České Budějovice, Žáci A. Veselého
2004 Eros, Galerie České plastiky, Prague
2004 Animálie, Galerie české plastiky Prague
2005 Bylo,nebylo, Krajská galerie, Hradec Králové
2005 Galerie Milenium, Prague
2005 Zima, České muzeum výtvarných umění, Prague
2004 Andělé a jiné bytosti, GČP, Prague
2005 Bylo,nebylo Horacka Galerie Nove město na Moravě
2005 Bylo, nebylo Galerie umění Cheb
2005 Art Hannover, Germany
2005 Arte Zurich, Switzwrland
2005 Floralie, G.Č.P. Prague
2005 Česka krajinomalba, Galerie umění, Liberec
2005 International Biennale of contemporary art, National gallery in Prague
2006 Brusel-Současná Ceská malba
2006 Příští stanice Arkádia, Galerie moderního umění v Roudnici nad Labem, Pirna Germany
2006 Přibližovadla, GCP, Prague
2007 Typický obraz, Nová síň, Prague
2007 Exotismy v Českém umění, České muzeum vytvarných umění Prague
2008 Exotismy,Galerie v Pardubicích
2008 Houby - motiv houby v Ceskem vytvarnem umění, Galerie Klenová
2008 International Trienale of Contemporary Art, Národní galerie v Praze, Prague
2008 Art Hannover
2008 Artfair Innsbruck
2009 Spřízněni, Národní galerie v Praze, Prague
2009 Across today, Současná česká malba, N.G. Prague, Veletržní palác, Prague
2009 Zarekvirowano 89-09, Wroclaw, Poland
2009 20 years 89-09, Muelsteen Art Museum, Bratislava
Representation in collections
National Gallery, Prague
Gallery of Central Bohemia
Felix Jenewein Gallery, Kutná Hora
Art Museum, Olomouc
private collections in Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Barcelona, New York and Prague