Sargasso Haven

The paintings are flooded with organic structures that resemble plant forms or cephalopod ink dissolving in clear ocean waters. The sprouts of abstract structures slowly dominate the entire surface of the paintings, evoking feelings of uncertainty and perhaps even danger, similar to black slime in Japanese anime. Out of dark, cave-like crevices, serpent-like bodies of moray eels emerge, their jaws menacingly wide open, while elsewhere, the mass of colour forms into shapes resembling dead corals or ghostly flowers that have never seen sunlight. Behind a thick veil rests a hybrid creature with a deer’s head and a human body, sheltered, nourished, and informed by the amorphous mass. Human hands, as a tangible symbol of touch, are only one possible form of communication and sharing within this interconnected ecosystem. The true intermediary between beings of different kinds is the amorphous, viscous substance. For this exhibition, whose title references the legendary Sargasso Sea, the artist was particularly inspired by the plant kingdom – its morphology and survival strategies of various biological species. Pavel Příkaský transforms the posthumanist awareness of the interconnectedness of the biosphere, thoughts on the more-than-human world, and the motifs hybrid beings into a curious universe of paintings on the border of fantasy, mythology, prehistory, and dystopian future, where he explores alternative environmental models and new forms of humanity.