Czech painter, illustrator and musician. Paintings, illustrations, travel diaries, books and exhibitions.
Prologue
“To step inside one of her paintings: it feels so safe. So familiar, perhaps not as a particular place, but as an experience. The light as it was then. A breath of warm wind. Voices next door. For all their variety, I keep finding two mirrors in Martina’s paintings: an adult’s observation of the world of children, and a child’s view of the wider world. Children discover; adults rediscover. It is a very good reason to make art, and anyone who doubts it should immerse themselves in Martina’s paintings. Their quiet, powerful authenticity is characteristic. We recognise something intimately familiar in them, even when they grow out of lines and reflections that are far from literal. A figure need not have detailed facial features for the truth of the moment to reach us. In Martina’s paintings we recognise the world as we saw it before we were taught the accepted way to look. When we still looked for ourselves.”
Pavel Klusák, 2022
About Me
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She studied art education at Charles University’s Faculty of Education and combines her own artistic practice with teaching workshops and courses.
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She works mainly in acrylics, but also enjoys experimenting with acrylic spray paints, creating multicolour linocuts and engraved drawings with colour rubbed into the surface.
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She exhibits throughout the Czech Republic and has also shown her work in countries including Turkey and Kazakhstan.
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In 2014 she travelled to the Himalayas to teach art. She describes the experience in Diaries from Ladakh, her own book told partly through paintings.
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She also works as an illustrator. In 2021 she created spray-painted illustrations for Markéta Pilátová’s children’s book Bába Bedla and linocuts for Marie Knitschke’s Jedůvky.
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Her wordless comic Babi was published by HOST in 2023. It was nominated for the Golden Ribbon Award in 2024.
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Alongside her visual art, she is a singer and songwriter whose distinctive songs move between jazz, folk, chanson and blues —www.trchova.cz
Reviews and Interviews
Read and listen to reviews and interviews about my book Babi.
Reviews and Interviews
Read and listen to reviews and interviews about my book Babi.
