Art gallery arrivals and departures

On the Prague gallery scene, the more things change, the more they stay the same. One of the mainstays of the city's gallery landscape is a continuous flux of arrivals and departures, and the past few months have been a particularly active period for the birth of new art spaces throughout the city, along with a noteworthy closure of a respected photography gallery.

Next week, Prague bids farewell to one of its top noncommercial photo galleries, Langhans Gallery Prague. The gallery opened in 2003 following a beautiful reconstruction of the historical building on Vodičkova street that once housed the renowned Jan Langhans Photo Studio, where members of high society went to have their portraits made from 1880 until the mid-20th century. Gallery Director Zuzana Meisnerová-Wismer, the great-granddaughter of Langhans, announced that she would close the gallery after its current show "Now and Wow: The Rebirth of Fashion Photography," but it has recently been hinted the closure may be only temporary.

A new photography space has stepped in to fill the gap. The Czech Photo Gallery opened June 16 in Malá Strana with a show by noted documentary photographer Josef Klamar. Other newcomers in recent months include Spejs in Vinohrady, Galerie SPZ in New Town, Galerie Laboratorio in Holešovice, and in Old Town Art Space Řetízek, the new Galerie S space of the Zdeněk Sklenář Gallery and Artbanka.

Spejs is located in the atrium of an office building on a quiet street in Vinohrady, its architectural layout posing both challenges and interesting possibilities. Its curator is Pavel Liška, former head of the Academy of Art, Architecture and Design, who plans to stage four shows per year. This week it opens its second show, by Jan Slovenčík, which will run until early October.

Galerie SPZ (whose name is the Czech abbreviation for car license plate) is a new independent artist-run gallery launched by Robert Šalanda and Lukáš Machalický to showcase young artists and also established artists of the middle generation. It occupies a small space - Machalický's mother's garage - on Pštrossova street whose presence is signaled by a large flag hanging from the building facade. The flag is part of the gallery's concept: Four times a year a selected artist will design a flag to flutter over the entrance.

Juxtaposition between artists is another key part of Galerie SPZ, thus each artist asked to exhibit may invite a guest artist. The gallery's first exhibition featured Patricie Fexová with guest artist Linda Salzman Sagan. It has very limited operating hours; apart from openings, it is open Saturdays from noon to 6 p.m., though its street-level windows allow viewing at other times.

Galerie Laboratorio opened in mid-April in room 212 of Bubenská 1 in Holešovice in a former electric company building that currently houses artists' studios and hosts cultural events. The room's former function as a laboratory serves as an inspiration for an experimental exhibition program featuring young artists. Its first show was by photographer Adam Holý, and its second show, by Aleš Růžička, is on view until the end of July.

Another recent entry on the Prague gallery scene is Art Space Řetízek. Located on Řetězová street in the courtyard of the House at the Three Strange Men (Dům U Tří divných mužů), this cellar gallery distinguishes itself from other new arrivals with its emphasis on bringing together different forms of culture. In its vaulted stone rooms, it holds short-term exhibitions along with events ranging from acoustic concerts and poetry readings to magic shows and fairy tales for children. Its first art exhibition, ending June 29, featured Luboš Vetengl, a student of Jiří Lindovský's Graphics Studio I at the Academy of Fine Arts. Its second exhibition, opening Friday, July 1, is a group show with about a dozen artists.

The new Galerie S run by the Zdeněk Sklenář Gallery is located in the same building as the existing Sklenář Gallery, along Smetanovo nábřeží near the National Theater. The elegant space was designed by the renowned architect Josef Pleskot. Its inaugural show is "KraJiná," which translates as "different landscape." Here, three prominent Czech artists, Karel Malich, Federico Díaz and Evžen Šimera, all take a radically different approaches to the landscape. Over the course of the exhibition, which runs until Oct. 15, the works on display will change and their number will increase in the hope that the theme will start taking on a life of its own.

Finally, Artbanka is a seasonal exhibition space a stone's throw from Charles Bridge. The Dvorak Sec Contemporary art gallery rented this space to display artworks in its recently launched Artbanka program, whereby the gallery purchases art works, mainly by young Czech and Slovak artists, for a continuously expanding collection of works that corporations or individuals can rent. The gallery will keep this space open only until the main tourist season draws to a close in late October or early November, but it may reopen next spring.

Mimi Fronczak Rogers can be reached at
Features@praguepost.com