Jan Merta was born in Šumperk in 1952. After graduating from a vocational artistic high school colloquially known as ‘Hollarka’, he spent the best part of the following decade doing various jobs unrelated to his studies. He eventually enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, studying there from 1981 to 1987. His conception of painting developed during these six years: he rapidly understood that accurate technical reproduction served him less on an emotional level than imbuing his representations with personal perspective.
An intimate sense of symbolism thus made its way into his early corpus. He uses large, synthetised pictographs often rendering the relationship between outward and inward spaces as a means of artistic communication. Later, he reintroduces figuration once again, in a schematised version. No unnecessary lines or details, just fundamental elements that outline a face, a body, and allow the spectator to project and fill in the rest.
Despite graduating somewhat late in his own life, he arrived on the contemporary Czech art scene at just the right time. He participated in seminal local exhibitions called ‘Confrontations’, as well as memorable performances that shaped the postmodern generation. Like many artists who have – consciously or not – deconstructed their medium, Merta seeks answers to his creative drive outside of the strict borders of artistic practices.
As a result, the artist’s work transgresses the limits of time (with a purposeful investigation of volatility manifest in his lines and use of colours), art and more generally society – all while celebrating the hedonistic and purely pleasure-generating aspects of painting as an art form and practice.
A comprehensive list of Merta’s solo exhibitions reads as follows:
Moje rodina/ Meine Familie, Galerie Doma, Kyjov (2013); Galerie Via Art, Prague (2012); Galerie Václava Špály, Prague (2012); An meine Südmährer, Galerie mĕsta Blanska, Blansko (2011); Liberec III, Topičuv salon, Prague (2011); Der Frühling ist gekommen, Galerie Johnen, Berlin, Germany (2011); LAOZI, Galerie Zdeněk Sklenář, Prague (2010); Galerie Martin Janda, Vienna, Austria (2010); Geist und Materie, Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle, Munich, Germany (2010); On paper 1982–2010, ARS Gallery, Brno (2010); An der Schwelle der Karriere (Didactica), Academy of Fine Arts, Prague (2010); Jan Merta – Stockhausen’s Sinfonie, Galerie Zdeněk Sklenář, Prague (2010); Vỳstava, Wannieck Gallery, Brno (2009); 11 Moralities, Johnen & Schöttle, Cologne, Germany (2008); Galerie Ad Astra, Kuřim, (2008); Liberec, Malá Výstavní síň, Liberec (2006); East Bohemian Gallery, Pardubice (2005-2006); Vystavni sin Sokolskä 26, Ostrava (2001).
In 2010, Merta won ‘Personality of the Year’ and ‘Exhibition of the Year’ in his native Czech Republic.
Merta lives and works in Prague.
