Patrik Hábl graduated from the Academy of Art, Architecture and Design under prof. Pavel Nešleha, received a year of training in the graphic-design studio of Mikoláš Axmann, attended the Saint Petersburg’s State Academy of Art and Design for a year and the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague for a year in the studio of Vladimír Kokolia. He currently teaches at the Academy of Art, Architecture and Design in Prague.
His work oscillates between experimental painting and graphics and is a kind of reflection of the inner world of the artist, projected in the form of abstract landscapes. Their presence in the paintings is only implied, the individual elements are completely non-specific and are partly the result of regulated chance or a painterly experiment. Hábl applies, washes, imprints, pours, lets paint run or freeze on his canvases, and layers the individual plans on top of each other in original color combinations. Hábl’s paintings often bear a sacred crossover, as evidenced, for example, by the pre-Easter installation of “Lenten paintings” in in the academic St. Salvator’s Church in Prague, or the large-scale canvases at the Dox Centre for Contemporary Art, where he transformed the last floor of Dox into a kind of chapel. Hábl likes to disrupt established practices and has no problem entering into architecture or public space where he can handle large scales, as he has demonstrated in his recent realizations. His spatial realizations in architecture have recently included the Drn Palace and the reconstructed Špork Palace, designed by award-winning architect Stanislav Fiala in 2017. Other artistic entries into architecture can be found in the projects Park Palmovka (Fišer+Aulík architects), where he created a monumental painting resembling a waterfall, or more recently in the Lahofer Winery in Znojmo (Chybík+Kryštof Architects, 2019), where paintings entitled Vrstvy (Layers) cover the entire vaulted ceiling. Patrik Hábl has had more than 70 solo exhibitions around the world, for example in Milan at Spazio Ostrakon Gallery, in Kyoto at Gimlet Saas Gallery, in Graz at QL Gallery or last year in Munich at Gallery Kalt. His work was also included in the fourth and sixth Beijing International Art Biennale. Hábl has been featured in group exhibitions in Paris, New York, Istanbul, and Zurich. Recently, he was again included in the International Top Selection of works by London’s Sotheby’s in the Contemporary Art section, something no living Czech artist has ever managed to do.
Hábl has been awarded the Europol Award, Graphic Designer of the Year 2019, and the Waldes Prize. He is currently living in Prague and teaching at the Academy of Art, Architecture and Design. He is a member of the associations Umělecká beseda and Hollar.
