In this body of work, Filip Gyurkovský focuses on the human figure and portrait, a subject he keeps returning to almost instinctively. For him, there is something endlessly fascinating about the potential for expression in the body. How a gesture, a tilt of the head, or a subtle posture can communicate states that words can’t quite reach. Gestural drawing has always been one of his favourite disciplines, so translating that energy onto large canvases feels like the natural next step.
The portrait, particularly, is a universal starting point. It’s a form everyone understands because we all live with our own face and see faces every day. That familiarity creates an entry point for the viewer. Filip takes this known subject and reshapes it, distorts it, fragments it, into new expressions and forms. He likes that the viewer can project what isn’t there, filling the gaps with their own imagination or emotional experience. This shared space between their interpretation, and his expression is where the painting gains its meaning. It’s a kind of dialogue.
At this early stage of the series, colour plays an essential role, especially the red colour. Red, for the artist, carries so many conflicting emotions at once: directness, anger, beauty, intimacy, danger, warmth, power. It hits instantly. That’s why he has chosen to work exclusively with red for now. It felt honest and striking, a colour that doesn’t hide and doesn’t allow the painting to be passive. Eventually, Filip could experiment with other colours or even combine multiple ones on a single canvas, but at the moment, red still feels like the right emotional container for what he is trying to express. It’s aggressive and intimate at the same time, and that duality feels very close to the work.
When someone stands in front of his paintings, Filip wants them to connect inwardly. He hopes the viewer has an emotional reaction, not one that he dictate, but one that emerges from their own inner world. Ideally, the portraits invite a kind of private reflection. They should create an intimate moment between the viewer and the work, where the viewer can give their own meaning to it without being forced into a specific narrative.
His process begins with stretching the canvas. After that, he focuses on finding or creating the right reference. This part is crucial because he relies heavily on references that are modelled with strong shadows, they give him structure to react against and reinterpret. Once the reference is obtained, the conceptual questions begin:
Do I leave the background blank or build an atmosphere around the figure?
How do I want the brushstrokes to behave? Flowing, directional, chaotic?
Should I smudge the paint or drag it across the surface?
Is this a painting that asks for outlines, or should everything melt together?
Where is the focal point? Or should the painting dissolve into something more abstract?
These questions guide the mood and direction of each piece. Sometimes the reference is so strong it demands a certain approach. Other times, the emotions dictate what happens. Every canvas becomes a negotiation between intention and instinct.
Before the actual painting Filip might create few sketches to figure out some future problems like composition and balancing the lights and shadows. Technically, he works with big brushes and a palette of five shades of red plus white. He layers them repeatedly, sometimes mixing the tones directly on the surface. He also uses tools like spatulas to push the paint around, creating unexpected shapes or disruptions in the composition. Large scale works bring their own challenges, they’re physically demanding, need more paint, require more space, and they amplify every decision. But they also create an intensity and scale that smaller works can’t reach.
Emotionally, the painting process is unpredictable. The artist often start with a mix of fear and excitement because he never know the final outcome. Painting can shift very quickly, he might love a piece one moment, only to doubt it entirely the next. Still, he keeps working until something settles and the canvas feels resolved. There’s no fixed point where he decides it’s finished, it’s more like the painting tells him when to stop.
Looking ahead, Filip wants to explore both more figurative and more abstract directions. He imagine diving deeper into abstraction one day, but he is still tied to figurativism. Even when he pushes things far, something recognizable keeps returning. He doesn’t want to force himself out of that. It’s simply where he feels most expressive right now. He is also thinking about shifting his themes toward something less dark, although ironically, it seems to be moving in the opposite direction. Maybe it’s just natural as he has always been drawn to dramatic lighting and strong contrasts, and those instincts show up in these paintings whether he plans for it or not.
For now, he is letting the work unfold. The combination of gesture, red tones, familiar forms, and distorted expression feels like the right language for what he wants to explore. The artist is curious where it will go, but he is not trying to control it too much. The unpredictability is part of what keeps the work alive.
Filip Gyurkovský
Czech Republic (Czechia), 1995
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