39 Jakub Hošek * 1979 Sawdust and diamonds, 2007

The painting of Jakub Hošek has, since its inception, been closely linked to the subcultural environment and background of the Czech and international alternative music scene. His connection to graffiti, punk, the aesthetics of vinyl records, skateboarding, tattoos, and graphic design shaped the visual and contextual form of Hošek's paintings from the start.

Even his early works possess the artist's characteristic style, featuring a combination of a distinctly colorful painting scale with graphic elements and text as an integral part of the image. When creating his works, Hošek uses stencils, with which he creates an unmistakable signature, anticipating to some extent the contemporary post-internet aesthetic with abstracted subcultural symbols.

The offered painting from 2007, titled Sawdust and Diamonds, refers to the song of the same name from the progressive folk album Ys by the American musician Joanna Newsom from 2006. This instrumental poetic ballad, which addresses a personal existential theme, is interpreted by some as also exploring the status of artists and musicians through the eyes of the general public. Besides the title, the painting contains a number of abstracted graphic elements resembling vegetative tendrils or roots. Like many of Hošek's other works, it is treated as a painting-object, incorporating the lateral sides of the work, which lend it a spatial dimension.

The author's multi-genre focus—his work as an artist, curator, musician, and producer, who has long shaped Prague’s community space with international contacts, a DIY approach, and activist stances—is inspiring for the youngest art scene operating outside institutional frameworks.

Jakub Hošek studied from 1998–2004 in the studios of Vladimír Skrepl and Jiří Kovanda at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (AVU). While still a university student, he formed the artistic duo Indie Twins with his sister Anežka, within which they prepared curatorial projects and DJ activities. In 2003, he co-founded and became a member of the A.M. 180 collective and the A.M. Gallery in Prague, associated with the subcultural and community art and music scene. In 2009, he co-founded and curated the independent contemporary music festival Creepy Teepee in Kutná Hora. He was a finalist for the Jindřich Chalupecký Award in 2005 and 2007, winning the audience award on the second occasion. He has received numerous international awards—for example, in 2011 he won the Viennese Strabag Art Award—and foreign scholarships, and has participated in various residency programs.