Daniel Pitín: Traps

Traps

“New Works by Daniel Pitín.

Charim gallery is delighted to present Traps, a new series of works by the young but renowned Czech artist Daniel Pitín.

For this exhibition, Pitín was inspired by the notion of ‘traps’ and what might constitute a ‘trap’, be it physical, psychological or virtual. He began by focusing on the construction of his paintings. Though they initially resemble theatre stages or film sets, closer inspection reveals a cubist-style approach where we see that the fractured space is dominated by a series of coloured shapes: red triangles, blue, yellow or red squares vie with rectangles and semi-circular arcs or diagonal ‘frames’. In almost every work there is a window or doorway into what appears to be another world or alternate space…

The act of trapping his protagonists and animals in certain positions or between spaces, enables Pitín to sustain dramatic tension. This crucial positioning also sees him forging a strong dialogue between the constructed and ‘wild world’ and between man and nature. As an active painter, Pitín acknowledges his debt to art history but he uses it in a decidedly contemporary way: constantly disrupting his works with the intrusion of technology, and by creating an indefatigable system of confrontation…

For Pitín, Traps are not simply about catching animals, they are about the temptations that constantly besiege artists. Not only do they often long to inhabit their ‘other’ worlds, they seek out the hidden and often dark parts of their minds for things that might be lurking there in order to uncover their secrets… “

(quotation: Jane Neal)