EEL-MAN
The incredible story of Eel-Man falls on the verge of Murakami's absurd novels, the esthetics of 70s and 80s rock-pop, and artistic fabrications.
Eel-Man is introduced as a real-life figure, supported by fictitious news articles, posters, letters, photographs, interviews, and tabloids. The paintings at the exhibition document his life - from when he became a superstar to when he retired from the artistic scene. They represent a mental contrast between fame and exhaustion, absorption by attention and absolute isolation.
Klára also works with the audience's psychology - she intentionally incorporated a shining aura around the fictitious Eel-Man character. As it turned out, the spectators shared a fan-like inclination towards the figure, which was also proven during an exhibition where visitors were invited to write letters for the superstar.
The story of Eel-man holds up a mirror to the production of instant superstars. It combines a fantastic story that we want to believe and emotions that we wish to experience through the lives of celebrities, with humor and exaggeration (as in all of Klára's work), but also with alienation and solitude.
Klára Sedlo (*1993) is a distinctive young art generation artist in Czechia. She became an outstanding and successful talent while studying at the Prague Academy of Fine Arts. After graduating, she rooted herself in her painting manuscript and established a firm stance in the Czech artistic scene.
Her exhibitions take place in Czechia and abroad (USA, Great Britain, Italy, Germany,...). Her work can also be seen in collections in the US, Europe, Japan, and Australia. In her pieces, she focuses on figurative painting. She enjoys exploring and depicting psychological conditions (her graduation work was dedicated to obsessive-compulsive disorder); however, she also utilizes elements of pop culture, kitsch, or classic horrors and humor. Although she works mainly with traditional two-dimensional paintings, her art commonly expands into site-specific installations, performances, or video art to present her visions in context and simultaneously show the complexity of the human inner world.
