He was born on 24th March 1960 in Slovakia. Tono Stano studied the Secondary school of applied arts in Bratislava in 1975–1979. Then, in 1986 he finished the School of Film, Photography and Television (FAMU) in Prague. Since 1986 he works as an independent art photographer. He lives with his family in Prague.
Photographer Tono Stano’s name is now a world-renowned brand. He became famous primarily thanks to his monochrome female nudes, celebrity portraits as well as advertising and applied photography. His photographs are favourite with private collectors, and they also constitute a part of a number of public collections both in the Czech Republic and abroad. He has arranged many solo and group exhibitions on prestigious exhibition premises all over the world. The work of Tono Stano has been published in several monographs.
The white shadows of Tono Stano’s photographs crowded the walls of the Václav Špála Gallery at Národní třída in Prague. The author constantly adds to the series of photographs whose origins date back to 1991. Together with Pavel Lagner, the exhibit’s curator, Stano has chosen about 60 photographs made between 1992 and 2011 for the Václav Špála Gallery. Their characteristic trait is that all that is black is actually white, and vice versa. This is the first time that the photographs have been exhibited in the Czech Republic on such a broad scale.
The introductory address for the exhibit at the Václav Špála Gallery comes courtesy of poet, writer and musician Jáchym Topol: “Tono Stano, in whose works we are used to perceive the pulse of feminine beauty, has now dragged his models, most often girls and ladies, in from a masquerade, a wild carnival, or perhaps straight from the ghostly women’s Ship of Fools. Or maybe he just ran into them on Petřín. Yes! It must have been at a slightly weird feast, most likely in moonlight, in the grass between the trees on the top of Petřín. They grimace and distort their faces, naked or dressed in whatever was available in the studio. They are provocative, dreamy and wild-looking, the denizens of the world where shadows are white.”
2004
Institut Fran¢ais, Budapest, HUN
Galerie Baudelaire, Antwerp, BEL
2002
Fascination, Galerie G4, Cheb, CZE
Galerie Waldburger & Slovak Institute & Czech Centre, Berlin, DEU
Fascination, Dům umění, Brno, CZE
Czech Centre Bratislava, SVK
Fascination, Galerie Fiducia, Ostrava, CZE
2001
Fascination, Prague House of Photography, Prague, CZE
Photo l.a., booth of Galerie Waldburger/Photofront, Los Angeles, USA
2000
Schoren, St. Gallen, CHE
1996
Galerie Marzee, Nijmegen, NLD
Dom kultury, Bratislava, SVK
1995
National Technical Museum, Prague, CZE
1993
Ambrosiana, Brno, CZE
1992
Galerie U Řečických, Prague, CZE
1990
Le pont neuf Gallery, Paris, FRA
Centre Culturel des Prémontrés, Pont-à-Mouson, FRA
Galerie G4, Cheb, CZE
Mala Gallery, Warsaw, POL
Fondation Nationale de la Photographie, Lyon, FRA
1989
Musée Lapidaire, Lectoure, FRA
Galerie G4, Cheb, CZE
1988
Galerija Ars, Ljubljana, SVN
1987
Galerie Fabrik, Hamburg, DEU
1986
Fotochema, Prague, CZE
1985
Walbrzyska Galeria Fotografií, Walbrzych, POL
1984
FAMU, Lázaňský palác, Prague, CZE
Galeria Fotografií Okno, Legnica, POL
2005
The Nude in Czech Photography, Kostis Palamas Hall, Athens, GRC
2004
Umělecká beseda Slovenská, Bratislava, SVK
2002
Dom umenia, Bratislava, SVK
Fotobiennale, Moscow, RUS
Czech Centre, Paris, FRA
2000
The Nude in Czech Photography, Císařská konírna Pražskékeho hradu, Prague, CZE
1999
Czech photography in the 1990s’, Chicago Cultural Centre, Chicago, USA
Vartu, Vilnius, LTU
Mücsarnok, Budapest, HUN
Czech and Slovak Staged Photography, Czech Centre, New York, USA
Contemporary Czech & Slovak Photography, David Scott Gallery, Toronto, USA
1998
Czech Photography in the 20th Century, The Eli Lemberger Museum of Photography, Tel-Hai, Israel
1997
The Body in Contemporary Czech Photography, Macintosh Gallery, Glasgow, GBR
Salmovsky palace, Prague, CZE
10 ans de photographie , Reims, FRA
1995
Galerie G4, Cheb, CZE
The Nude in Czech Photography, Kostis Palamas Hall, Athens, GRC
1994
After the Velvet Revolution: Contemporary Czech and Slovak Photography, The Photography Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, AUS
Prague House of Photography, Prague, CZE
1993
In & Out of Czechoslovakia, The Zelda Cheatle Gallery, London, GB
Preview, Galerie Marzee, Nijimegen, NLD
A la recherché du père, Nouveau Forum des Halles, Paris, FRA
Czech & Slovak Photography, Spencer Museum of Art, Kansas, USA
Between Image & Vision, Ironworks Gallery, Coatbridge, GBR
What’s new: Prague, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, USA
1991
Slovak Staged Photography, Museum of Dance, Stockholm, SWE
Zeitgenössische Tschechoslowakische Fotografie, Kunsthaus, Hamburg, DEU
Photographie Tchécoslovaque 1940-1990, Centre Culturel, André Malraux, Vandeouvre-lès-Nancy, FRA
Photographie Tchécoslovaque 1940-1990, L’Aubette, Strasbourg, FRA
Die neue Kontinuität 1970-1990, Progressive Fotografie in der Tschechoslowakei, Städtisches Museum, Mühlheim, DEU
Contemporary Czechoslovak Photography, Exposition Park, Tokyo, JAP
1990
La Tchécoslovaquie à Arles, Palais de l’Archevêché, Arles, FRA
Photographie progressive en Tchécoslovaquie 1920-1990, Galerie Robert Doisneau, Nancy, FRA
Slovak Photography of the 1980s’, Warsaw PLN and Moscow RUS
Positivität, Fotogalerie, Vienna, AUT
Vision d’Homme, Chatêau d’Eau, Toulouse, FRA
Czech Symbolism, Výstavní síň Uluv, Prague, CZE
1989
Prix Air France, Ville de Paris, Paris, FRA
French Institute, Prague, CZE
Prager Trio, Czechoslovak Centre, Berlin, DEU
Junge Photographen aus der CSSR, Galerie Treptow, Berlin, DEU
Four Photographers from Prague, Aix-en-Provence , FRA
1988
Preis für junge europäische Photographen, Galerie Faber, Vienna, AUT
De Prague et de Bohême, Espace Jules Verne, Brétigny sur Orge, FRA
Questioning Europe, Photography Biennale, Rotterdam, NLD
Fotochema, Prague, CZE
1987
Preis für junge europäische Photographen, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, DEU
Galerie G4, Cheb
1986
La jeune photographie Tchécoslovaque, Arena, Arles, FRA
Mánes, Prague, CZE
Museum of Decorative Arts, Prague, CZE
1985
27 Contemporary Czechoslovak Photographers, The Photographer’s Gallery, London and Bristol, UK
Ursprung und Gegenwart tschechoslowakischer Photographie ,Fotografie Forum, Frankfurt, DEU
Il nudo nella fotografia dell’Est Europa, Torina Fotografia ’85, Torino, IT
1984
FOMA, Prague, CZE
