Biografia
Daniel Pešta was born in Prague in 1959. During the Communist regime he moved outside the official artistic and social circles. He worked in the field of applied graphic art, especially poster design, which he had studied at the Václav Hollar Art College. After 1989 he designed a series of album covers for a classical-music publisher. He engaged himself in graphic arrangements of catalogues, receiving awards for book and poster design.
In his free creations Pešta systematically develops in his own unmistakable style. He dedicates himself primarily to drawing and painting, in time he begins to experiment with a wide variety of natural materials, such as wood, paper, wax and leather.
In 1998 and 2000 he introduces his work at his own exhibitions in New York. These study journeys are the milestone for the author’s creative work and subsequently bear fruit fully manifesting themselves in 2003, when he moves away from painting and begins to create with transparent acrylic materials, working with photographs. He seals his older rolled-up pictures into tightly-shaped columns, giving rise to the “Genetic Codes” and a series of “dark assemblages”, he implements conceptual projects, he films videoart. On the front elevation of the Felix Nussbaum Museum in the German town of Osnabrück he places a display of a dimensional neon work. In museums of contemporary art in Prague, Osnabrück and Solingen he presents conceptualised projects on the theme of masks and concrete figures. After a prolonged pause he partially returns to painting.
Pešta’s works are exempt from aesthetic kitsch, often hovering on the edge of raw naturalism. In the majority of cases they reflect the social and political situation. His masterful psychological analysis of the individual or society at large impedes any pathos whatsoever. The genesis of his works is subordinated to a precise preparation, he progressively works on their final form over a number of years.
Daniel Pešta has shown his work at dozens of one-man exhibitions in both Europe and America. He is represented in important museums and collections, he attends biennales of contemporary art.
