ARTIST IN FOCUS: Meet Valentýna Janů — a critically romantic cross-media artist.

“Artist in Focus” is a new column that shines a light on individual artists by showcasing their portfolios and artworks, exploring their inspirations and personal journeys. As our team travels to various art fairs, festivals, art weeks, and biennales, we uncover emerging talents and share their stories, giving our readers an authentic glimpse into the artists who are shaping the contemporary art world today.

Valentýna Janů (b. 1994), a Czech artist, creates narratives full of hope and reflectivity in her installations, films, and performances. Her suggestive installations often combine spectacular videos and video essays, completed by fabrics, materials, and objects, playfully addressing fundamental life questions and challenges. Janů’s artistic focus revolves around choreographing the human body within cinematic landscapes, drawing inspiration from pop culture to create unexpected societal fantasies, determined by technology, the patriarchal system, and climate change. Despite her exploration of the relations between the daily struggles of individuals and the global perspective, her work remains almost obsessively romantic. As an artist presented in various international exhibition spaces (e.g. Kunstverein Dresden, the National Gallery Prague, EXILE Gallery Vienna), a laureate of art prizes (Jindřich Chalupecký Award), and currently the co-head of the Intermedia Studio at FAVU Brno, the audiences cannot help but be engrossed within her vivid imagery and strong textual base of the convincing cross-media work.