The Free Academy: Otto M. Urban

This lecture will introduce the curatorial work of Otto M. Urban, who has long been involved in the interpretation of contemporary and earlier art. Special attention will be paid to his latest project, the exhibition Up in Flames at the DOX Centre for Contemporary Art, which is the first major presentation of David Lynch's art in Prague. Urban will describe the preparation process and his own curatorial approach, which combines an emphasis on conceptual work with the art itself, the ability to create a dialogue between individual cycles and motifs, and sensitivity to space, architecture and accompanying media. The lecture will also show how his long-term experience with curating – from exhibitions of symbolist and decadent art to contemporary projects – is reflected in his work with Lynch’s visual world, where film, drawing, painting and sound intertwine in a complex artistic experience. 

 

An art historian, critic, curator and university lecturer, Otto M. Urban is currently chief curator at the DOX Centre for Contemporary Art. Since the early 1990s he has been focused on Czech and world art from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, especially symbolism and decadence in painting. However, he also devotes attention to contemporary Czech artists.