IVAN PINKAVA

The Figures and Shades in his work overlap and are a reflection of thought processes that are typical for traditional Western culture. The author intentionally enters into familiar iconographical situations to – somewhere just slightly, elsewhere radically – alter, jumble, rename, empty or cloak them, or sometimes just see them in another light. Pinkava ignores the established view of ancient and biblical characters, and behind the historic scenes, he finds something common that is valid for both the present and the future – the prototype of human insecurity of their own physical impermanency. Eventually, it all comes down to a personal coping with death. If the nudity of the youth in Pinkava’s photographs is pictured as wasteful and self-centered on one hand, it is presented in sharp contrast with death on the other hand. Everyone walks alone and in silence to its inevitable end. The word “heroism” is losing its appearance so characteristic for the history and the legends and acquires an intimate and pathetic meaning.

2010 – More Space – Wasteland
ZPC Gallery Pilsen, together with Josef Bolf, Pilsen

2009 – Silence, Silence, Dream and Three Mattresses
Vernon international & in  Stage, Padova, Italy

2009 – The Insecurity of the Centre
Galerie 5. patro (Gallery 5th Floor), Prague

2008 – Cafe Club 102, Lodz, Poland

2007 – Salome
The South Gardens of Prague Castle, Prague

2006 – Heroes – choice
Central exhibition hall „Manesh“, Moscow

2006 – Ivan Pinkava, David Moješčík
Gallery Ars, Brno

2004 – Heroes – Ivan Pinkava
Gallery Rudolfinum, Prague

2004 – TNF
Atelier of Josef Sude, Fotograf v zahradě (Photographer in the Garden), Prague, Czech Republic

2004 – Theatre of Lost Soul
Mesaros Gallery, Morgantown, WV, USA

2004 – Adam and Eve
Gallery Fiducia, Ostrava, Czech Republic

1999 – Cain and Abel
Gallery Allan, Vienna, Austria

1999 – Cain and Abel
Tschechisches Zentrum (Czech Centre), Berlin, Germany

1999 – Ivan Pinkava
Month of Photography, Bratislava, Slovakia

1998 – Cain and Abel
Gallery JNJ, Prague, Czech Republic

1997–8 – Ivan Pinkava
Centro de la Imagen, Palatio Bellas Artes, Mexico

1996 – ECCE HOMO
Gallery Pusta, Katowice, Poland

1996 – Ivan Pinkava
Gallery G4, Cheb, Czech Republic 

1996 – Portraits
Frederiks Bastion Gallery, Kobenhavn, Denmark

1995 – Portraits
Gallery Pallas, Prague, Czech Republic

1995 – Memento Mori
Gallery Rudolfinum, Prague, Czech Republic (joint project with V. Jirásek and R. Novák), subsequent shows in Mexico

1992 – Dynasty
Pražský dům fotografie (Prague House of Photography), Prague, Czechoslovakia

1992 – Ivan Pinkava
Hippolyte Gallery, Helsinky, Finland

1990 – Ivan Pinkava – Fotografien
Fotogalerie in der Brotfabrik (Photographs, Photogallery in the bread factory), Berlin, Germany

2010 – Darkness for Light
Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

2010 – Decadence Now, Beyond the Extreme
Gallery Rudolfinum, Prague

2009  – Black and White Golden City 09
Topičův salon (Topič lounge), Prague

2009 – Tschechische Fotografie des 20. Jahrhunderts (Czech Photography of the 20th Century)
Kunst und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik  Deutschland (Art and Exhibition Hall) Bonn, Germany 

2008 – The Third Side of the Wall
Moravská galerie (Moravian Gallery), Brno   

2008 – New Urbanism
Gallery Seiene 51, Paris

2007 – My Favorites Photography
Seine 51 Gallery, Paris

2006 – Closed Eyes
Museet for Fotokunst, Copenhagen

2005 – Czech Photography of the 20th centrury
Municipal Library of Prague

2004 – Il Nudo, Fra Ideale e Realita
Galleria d´Arte Moderna, Bologna

2004 – Gods Becoming Men
Frissiras Museum, Athens

2003  – Naked before God
The Museum of New Art, Pärnu 

2002 – Czech and Slovak Photography of the 80´s and 90´s of the 20th Century
Museum of Fine Art, Olomouc

2001 – Czech Photography
Benham Studio/Gallery, Seattle

2001 – GoEurope: the kaleidoscopic eye
Kunsthalle des Artmax, Braunschweig 

2001 – Vintage & Contemporary Czech Photography
S.K. Josefsberg Studio, Portland

2000 – Gallery Replica
Stockholm

2000 – Portrait
New Gallery, Houston, Texas

2000 – The Nude in Czech Photography
Imperial Stables, Prague Castle, Prague

1999 – Czech Photography in the 20th Century
The Eli Lemberger Museum of Photography at Tel-Hai Industrial Park, Israel

1999 – Czech Photography of the 1990‘s
Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago

1999 – Czech and Slovak Photography
Czech centrum, New York

1998 – Body and Photography
Salmovsky Palace, Prague

1996 – Soudobá fotografie NOX 1996
National Gallery, Palace Kinských, Prague

1996 – Facing the End of the Centure
Five Czech Photographers, Taitemia Gallery, Kuopio, Finland, Later shown in Tatlin, Panevezys, Siauliai, Pécs, Den Haag, Cottbus, Poprad

1996 – Certainty & Searching in Czech Photography of the 90’s
Prague Castle, Prague, Later shown in Berlin, Bratislava, Chicago Cultural Center

1996 – The Body in Contemporary Czech Photography
Macintosh Gallery, Glasgow, Later shown in Braga, London

1995 – Portrait II
Fotogalerie Wien, Wien

1994 – V ostrém světle
Prague House of Photography, Prague

1993 – Fotofeis
MacLaurin Art Gallery, Glasgow, Later shown in EBRD London, Lisabon, Porto, Salamanca

1993 – Presences, The Photographer`s Gallery
Bill Brandt Room, London

1992 – Photographes européens forts de leur Histoire
Salle des Fetes, Arles

1992 – Bratrstvo, Gabina, Ivan Pinkava
Fotogalerie Wien

1991 – Plastic Photography
Rijksmuseum Twenthe, Foto Biennale Enschede

1991 – European Photography Award 1991
Berlin

1990 – Choice
Fotofest, Houston, USA

1990 – Tchechoslowakische Photographie der Gegenwart
Museum Ludwig, Köln

1990– La Tchecoslovaquie a Arles
Palais de l’Archeveché, Arles

1990 – Vision de l’homme
Galerie Municipale du Château d’Eau, Toulouse

1989 – 37 Photographers at Chmelnice
Chmelnice Club, Prague

1989 – Contemporary Czech Photography
Nieuwe Kerk, Foto 89 Amsterodam

1988 – Vize
Moravian Gallery, Brno

1988 – “11”
Gallery Fotochema, Prague

Where the place – Upon the Heath, Ivan Pinkava / Josef Bolf
Petr Vaňous, Petr Jindra:Západočeská galerie v Plzni (Gallery of West Bohemia in Pilsen), 2010

Czech Photography of the 20^th Century
Vladimír Birgus, Jan Mlčoch, Kant, Prague 2010

Heroes
Introduction by Martin C. Putna, Prague, Kant, 2004 (Awarded The most beautiful Czech artistic publication of 2004), (Awarded The best photo book published in the central and eastern Europe 2003-2004 at Month of photography Bratislava)

Il Nudo, Fra Ideale e Realita
Galleria d´Arte Moderna, Bologna 2004

Gods Becoming Men
Edward Lucie-Smith, Frissiras Museum, Atheny 2004

Političtí vězni 50. let
Galerie Langhans, Prague 2003

Das Lexikon der Fotografen 1900 bis Heute
Knaur, Germany, 2002

Česká a slovenská fotografie 80. a 90 let 20. století
Muzeum umění Olomouc, 2002

Black and White Photography
James Luciana, Rockport Publishers, Inc., Gloucester, 2000

Czech Photography of the 1990s
Vladimír Birgus, Kant, Prague, 1999

Memento Mori
V. Jirásek, R. Novák, I. Pinkava, text by Bohdan Chlíbec, TORST, Prague 1998

Contemporary Czech and Slovak Photography
Aperture # 152, New York, 1998

Certainty and Searching in Czech Photography of the 1990s
Vladimír Birgus, Miroslav Vojtěchovský, Kant, Prague, 1997

Dynastie – Ivan Pinkava
text Josef Kroutvor, ERM, Prague 1994
(Awarded The most beautiful Czech artistic publication of 1994)

The sea inside the skin
Min Tanaka, photo J. Krejčí and I. Pinkava, TORST, Prague 1992