Jakub Tomas. Notstromversorgung
Augustenstraße 63
June 12 – July 11, 2026

Opening – Jakub Tomas is present
Friday, June 12, 2026, 6 pm – 9 pm

Jakub Tomas constructs his paintings as staged situations in which everyday realities subtly shift out of alignment. His figures move through pictorial worlds in which ordinary situations gradually slip toward the unfamiliar and the uncanny. Faces flatten into mask-like surfaces; gestures seem slightly delayed, perspectives tilt, and relationships retain an underlying sense of awkwardness. His paintings possess an atmosphere of quiet unease, suspended between familiarity and ambiguity.

Central to the practice of Jakub Tomas is a layered process that moves between collage, sculpture, and painting. Many works begin as small-scale paper models, arranged and lit like theatrical stage sets. Fragments of internet imagery and recollected impressions are assembled into provisional compositions before being translated into paint. Influenced by Cubism as well as Czech puppetry, folk traditions and stop-motion animation, Jakub Tomas merges different levels of reality into fragmented pictorial worlds in which multiple perspectives and temporalities collide. The resulting scenes balance intimacy and estrangement, humor and discomfort, creating images that remain suspended between familiarity and disorientation.

The recent body of work places particular emphasis on motors, energy sources, and technological elements that increasingly permeate contemporary life. Throughout the paintings, these objects intertwine with human presence, appearing within both landscapes and interiors. Rather than functioning as practical devices, motors become detached from their original purpose and enter unexpected contexts: carried through landscapes, placed within domestic settings, or embedded within environments where technology and nature begin to merge in strangely symbiotic ways. Removed from utility, they begin to operate as symbolic forms and visual objects in their own right. At the same time, the motor emerges as a sign of a broader cultural transition, reflecting tensions between older and newer technologies and the shifting systems that shape everyday experience.

The figures frequently fix their gaze on screens and devices rather than meeting the viewer’s gaze, directing their attention toward a virtual space. Their presence becomes strangely absent. Through these images, Jakub Tomas reflects on an increasingly intense competition for human attention and on the growing distance between physical experience and virtual forms of escape.

Across these works, everyday reality appears subtly displaced. Moments of technological dependence, social interaction, and ordinary objects are transformed into scenes that shift between recognition and disorientation. Slightly unsettling and at times absurd, the paintings remain uncannily close to the tensions and complexities of contemporary life.  

Jakub Tomas (born 1982 in Jihlava, Czech Republic) received his MgA, the Czech equivalent of an MFA, in Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague in 2012. Recent solo exhibitions of his works include The Cabin & The Bunker LA, Los Angeles, US (2024), COVA Art Gallery, Eindhoven, Netherlands (2025) and Asya Geisberg Gallery, New York, US (2024). He lives and works in Jihlava, Czech Republic.