Traveling around the world for artistic inspiration

Ancient cultures and modern technology collide in Slovak artist Karol Felix's newest exhibition, in which he draws on mystical symbols from primeval civilizations he has visited, in works that mix old and new techniques and mediums.

The exhibition, on display at Prague's Slovak Institute through Sept. 30, features Felix's work from the past two years. At the Sept. 7 opening, the artist stood among his richly detailed paintings and mixed medium pieces, which draw on his lifetime passion for ancient cultures, as well as a lifetime of artistic progression. Between sips of wine and greetings from well-wishers, Karol discussed his peripatetic life and art with The Prague Post.

Many of Karol's paintings are elaborate depictions of simple symbols from the ancient past of Egypt and Africa, such as the most commanding painting at the exhibition, a large canvas portraying in bright red a series of figures that evoke African masks and the animal skeletons that sometimes inspire them.

Originally from Košice, Slovakia, Felix bases much of his work on his childhood fascination with the ancient cultures of Egypt, Greece and Rome. The artist's grandmother, who taught art history as a university professor, was another "important inspiration," he says.

Felix studied at a pedagogical faculty in Nitra before moving onto the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava, where he won several student prizes, including the Ľudovít Fulla Scholarship. Soon after graduation, he began his life of international travel, putting foreign inspiration into his work.

"My work is inspired by traveling all over the world. So many of my exhibitions have been abroad - in Europe, Asia and the Americas - and that's reflected in the paintings," Felix said. "It's not intentional; it's more like I go along and present my work somewhere. ... For example, I was in South Africa presenting at a university, and I saw masks from ancient tribes, and years later it inspired me."

Over the past 30 years, Felix has experimented not only with different mediums, but with different techniques and styles. At one point in the 1990s, he was chosen to design Czechoslovak postage stamps, on which he depicted scenes from the Slovak countryside, culture and nature, as well as stamps depicting Egyptian artifacts from the Slovak National Museum.

"I have the perfect painting in mind, but then I go to do it, and it's never the same as how I perceived it in my mind," Felix said. "I have a plan, and then things go a certain way, because the vision cannot be 100 percent projected on the canvas, so that is how my work progresses."

The most thought provoking pieces at the exhibition are those that combine traditional painting and print techniques with mixed media and digital work, like agate stones and pins.

"It's a dialogue between the modern and the ancient cultures," Felix said. "The main difference between the old techniques and the modern techniques is, with the old techniques, you can imagine where it should go. With the modern techniques, you can go any direction you chose. There are no boundaries, and both of these are very beautiful. It's the same balance as in life between freedom and constraints."

Pieces from his series "Cabinet of the Clones" are spooky and seem to play on the modern fascination with mysteries of the ancient world. Upon closer inspection, one can see the basic perpendicular figures repeated in most of these pieces are altered photographs of sand dunes from Felix's trip to Dubai.

Felix takes the figure from that photograph as the basis for prints, painting and graphic design work. These works vary from what look like technical diagrams to others that are more like the sand paintings of desert dwellers.

Felix continues to work from his studio in Nitra, where he lives with his wife and raised his two sons, Juraj and Adam.

Cat Contiguglia can be reached at
ccontiguglia@praguepost.com