He started painting when he was “already” 20 years old. However, talent does not ask about your age and simply manifests itself. Jakub's talent is indisputable and his paintings have an extremely strong effect...
"Jakub Čuška is not looking for beauty where it is given or clear, but for beauty that is out of the ordinary, outside of 'lighting'. He searches in the second row, perhaps in the third or fourth, or in the very last, in which he gradually finds and examines what, according to him, is unfairly overshadowed," says Petr Hájek, curator of the exhibition, about the exhibition of Jakub's works. And what does the author himself say about his work and approach?
Jakub,where do you get your inspiration from? Do you have it materialized?
Recently from newspapers, prints and my photos. I compose my situations. Now I've added collages of silhouettes to it, I perceive a person a bit as a still life. But I don't have any main source of inspiration, I try to focus on myself and my work, shape it, research material and color, and so on. Form is important to me, I think in this type of painting it always depends in part on the form.
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Large format canvases hang in Café Radost. What is your path - why do you create, howdo you create?
I started painting relatively late. I've always been interested in art, but I didn't start painting until I was twenty, actually a bit by accident. At that time, I applied to the Faculty of Education - the subject of art education for art schools - and needed to prepare for it somewhere. I went to Adéla Janská´s class and started painting. I paint because I have to. A bit of a cliché answer, but if I didn't paint, I don't know what I would do.
I mostly paint oil paintings, watercolors every now and then, and I also draw a lot, but it comes in waves. Sometimes alot and sometimes not at all. I've always been interested in figural painting, which is a difficult discipline, so I started with landscape. I went outdoors alot and painted industrial peripheries, especially around Olomouc. Working outside is different than in the studio, so it was more of a smaller format that fit in my car or backpack. Only in recent years have I been working on bigger things.
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What does your work represent?
It is a difficult question. A lot of my work is spontaneous, I have never had a fixed system, neither in the approach or in the work process. I have always been interested in solitaires, a human being as independence. People who are not in the mainstream. I think this allusion is evident in my works. Whether it's a person, a landscape or a thing- it forms a still life. I'm also interested in the light, which quite often actually comes out of nowhere.
What is your education? Who was leading you and who is leading you now?
I mainly self-educated myself, but as I mentioned, I started painting at Adéla´s studio, and I still do, we have a common studio and a household. So I primarily share work with her. I started at the Academy of Fine Arts with Martin Mainer, now I am finishing with Marek Meduna, who replaced him two years ago.
Wheredo you see yourself in 10-20 years? Still painting or are you interested in other ways of expression?
I see myself in the studio. I'm interested in a lot of things, but painting is my profession.
You can follow Jakub Čuška and his workon Instagram @jakubcuska
Painter Jakub Čuška (* 1989) has been studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague since 2013 (Painting Studio IV,Prof. Martin Mainer's School). He is currently continuing his studies in the same studio under the new management (Marek Meduna´s School), where he will graduate this year. The author is close to the thematic gloom of the Cluj painting school (Romanian Cluj).
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