Who’s Jan Kaláb?

• Czech Painter, sculptor, writer. Graduated on the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague in 2001 and the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague which he ende in 2006. He was one of the first graffiti artists in the Czech Republic with realizations in public spaces around the world and also the founder of old Trafačka (2006) and Trafo Gallery. He deals with abstract geometric shapes in two and three-dimensional form.

Graffiti era

• When Jan Kaláb was born in 1978 in Czechoslovakia, graffiti was not to be seen in the Eastern World. In the nineties, as the country was opening itself to western influences, he became one of the pioneer of the local scene, and founded an iconic crew, the DSK. Sleepless nights around train yards, light tubes at police stations and above all hard work on his style: he went through all the classical steps of a writer’s career. Through Europe, he made a name for himself as Cakes.

3D graffiti

• Around the same time, he found a new way to push his own limits and challenge himself in 3-D Graffiti. Under the name of Point, he sculpted huge abstracts letters he chose to put in the streets and on the walls. The highest the better. This was another form of graffiti, in daylight, and without a spray, but truthful to the spirit of competition and innovation of the urban scene.

Abstraction

• Those sculptures lead him to abstraction, a path he’s been exploring through canvas from 2007, using acrylic painting and brushes. His great role model was František Kupka. In the meantime, this admirer of Kupka graduated from the Academy of fine Arts of Prague – becoming the first Czech writer to do so. Jan Kaláb had his first solo exhibition in 2008 in Prague. Others solos took place in Romania, Argentina, Germania or in the United States. With time, his forms became more and more geometric. He used colourful squares and circles as an obsessive vocabulary for infinite variations around depth, time, and motion. In his pantings he was playing with circle game, which comes with swing and imperfection.

Trafačka

• Trafačka was a building of former ČKD transformer stations and electrical distribution systems in Prague 9-Libno, which from 5 December 2006 to 14 December 2014 served with the adjacent home block as an alternative cultural and residential center for contemporary art. The gallery program was not strictly conceptually defined, but mostly young and beginning authors took turns here. This trend has been disrupted from time to time by well-known authors, artists for whom Trafačka is an inspiring environment (Martha Cooper, Lenka Klodová, Pavel Mára, etc.). Many who started here now exhibit in renowned Prague galleries or take part in various world exhibitions of contemporary art. There were 31 studios in the gallery house, which formed the southern wing of the building. The future of the building was uncertain from the beginning, already at the start of operations in 2006 the developer planned to demolish it within a year. The last opening took place on December 5, 2014, the final termination of the activity was announced on December 14, 2014.

Trafo gallery

• Since the summer of 2011, some residents have moved to the new space of Trafo Studio, which has been renovated for cultural purposes. • Trafo Gallery is a private exhibition hall in the former slaughterhouse, the aim of which is to exhibit prominent artists not only from the generation of its founders. Jan Kaláb, Jakub Nepraš, Michal Cimala and Blanka Čermáková were present at the birth of the former Trafačka, who have been creating an exhibition program together since the end of 2006.