Exhibition by Jakub Špaňehla: Five Lights Over Water, presented a new series of paintings inspired by the legend of St. John of Nepomuk at the Bold Gallery in 2020.
Jakub Špaňhel (1976) has been dealing with the theme of St. John of Nepomuk since the beginning of his career. Already during his studies he captured the interiors of St. Vitus Cathedral, including the silver tomb of this Czech saint. Twenty years later, he returned to the legend through energetic, gestural large-format canvases and roller painting multiples.
The series remains straddling the line between black-and-white austerity and subtle colour, combining inspiration from Baroque prints and folk devotional images. The key motif here is water, an element inherently linked to Nepomuk iconography. The spontaneous details of the painting, such as the flowing colours, take on a meaning-making role and evoke spiritual depth and an optical reference to repeated prayer.
Moreover, the exhibition at the Bold Gallery had a deeper context due to the gallery's location at the time in the Lesser Town, just a few dozen metres from the Charles Bridge, where the story of St. John of Nepomuk came to a close.
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