Střešovická Kramle brings their raw, interdisciplinary practice to New York, where sound, image, and performance converge in an unstable, immersive environment.
Opening hours: Monday to Thursday, 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Special opening days: Tuesday, June 23, 10:00 AM to 9:00 PM Friday, June 26, 10:00 AM to 9:00 PM Monday, June 29, 10:00 AM to 9:00 PM Tuesday, June 30, 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM
Events: Thursday, May 28, 6:00 PM | opening reception | RSVP Thursday, May 28, 8:00 PM | concert | RSVP
When Monsters Dream presents the work of artists connected to the Prague-based post-underground collective Střešovická Kramle, whose practice spans visual art and performance. Curated by Tereza Špinková, it brings together works by Václav Girsa, Tomáš Hrůza, Tom Kotík, Ladislav Kouba, Michal Mariášek, Jan Ságl, and Daniel Vlček.
Closely tied to the group’s first New York performance at Bohemian National Hall, the exhibition offers a glimpse into the collective’s visual language. Moving between painting, sound, installation, and video, the works cross disciplines and resist fixed form.
Recurring motifs—shared across both their music and visual practice—include dystopian imagery, environmental anxiety, and hybrid, often unsettling figures. The exhibition unfolds as a shifting environment, somewhere between concert, installation, and narrative space.
Václav Girsa’s work forms a central axis of the exhibition. His paintings oscillate between immediacy and instability, where everyday forms merge with subconscious and mythic elements. Built through an intuitive, process-driven approach, they carry a restless, pulsing energy.
Daniel Vlček engages with the idea of resilient ecosystems through his work with algae, while Ladislav Koubek presents paintings of animal forms. Michal Mariášek subversively dismantles video game rules to display a resistance of passivity in moments of violence. Tomáš Hrůza explores nomadic modes of existence through photography and video, and Tom Kotík’s installation examines the tension between sound and object.
The exhibition also includes a contribution by Antonín Gazda, who co-authored You Promise Me Spring with Daniel Vlček. Made with a knitted scarf, acrylic, sixteen-channel sound, and a biofeedback recording of the seaweed Ulva lactuca, the installation translates biological stress into music and reflects on ecological fragility under climate change.
Following the opening of the exhibition, the evening continues with a live performance by Střešovická Kramle, with Simon Deschamps and Club Ecology as the opening act.
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Curator
Tereza Špinková is a theorist, curator, and educator. She studied art history at Charles University and the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. She teaches at the Faculty of Social Studies at Masaryk University in Brno, where she is completing her PhD in environmental studies.
Špinková's work focuses on the relationship between art, ecology, and posthumanism, particularly human–animal relations in contemporary art. She has published in Artalk, Alarm, Art Antiques, and Flash Art, and is an editor at the audiovisual platform Artyčok.TV.
Exhibiting Artists
Václav Girsa (*1969, Prague) is an artist working across painting, object, installation, and performance. His work is marked by an expressive use of color and a distinctive visual language that blends everyday reality with imaginative and subconscious elements. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague and the Royal Academy of Art and Design in The Hague, and has exhibited internationally, including in Berlin, New York, and Frankfurt.
Tomáš Hrůza (*1979) works primarily with photography and video. His practice focuses on poetic reflections on landscape and the relationship between humans and nature, often in an ecological context. He is a co-founder of Fotograf 07 and ArtMap, is involved in the initiative Pilgrim – Wandering University of Nature, and is a member of Střešovická Kramle.
Tom Kotik is a Brooklyn-based artist, curator, and musician. His work explores the relationship between visual art and music, translating rhythm, tone, and structure into abstract compositions. He has exhibited internationally, including at Gallery SPZ in Prague, Lesley Heller Workspace in New York, and the Joan Miró Foundation in Barcelona, and has served as Curator at Large for Arts Brookfield since 2013.
Ladislav Kouba (*1980), also known as Bony Volta, is a Czech visual artist and musician, and a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. He is an established calligrapher and visual artist working in film, collaborating with Czech and international productions, and has also created book covers and illustrations. His independent practice centers on large-scale paintings, especially life-size horses and animal portraits, alongside original alternative music that moves across genres. He is an active guitarist and vocalist, currently focused on the grunge-indie project Bony-Fuzz, and is also a member of Střešovická Kramle.
Michal Mariášek (*1976) is a Prague-based audiovisual artist and educator working at the intersection of interactive media, experimental game development, and audiovisual performance. His work combines image, sound, and interaction into immersive environments and includes collaborations across performance, dance, and expanded projection.
Jan Ságl is a Czech photographer, pioneer of color photography, and a prominent figure of the Czech underground movement. He collaborated with the bands The Plastic People of the Universe and The Primitives Group, becoming a key documentarian of the underground music scene and the community surrounding it. His intimate and authentic photographs capture not only performances, but also the everyday life of the so-called “second culture.” Alongside his iconic images of the underground, he is also known for his landscape photography exploring environments shaped by human activity and cultural transformation.
Daniel Vlček (*1978) is a Prague-based artist working across sound, painting, and installation. His practice explores the intersections of acoustic phenomena, material processes, and ecological systems, often translating sonic and biological signals into visual and spatial forms. He has exhibited internationally, including in Venice, Brussels, Vienna, Berlin, and Ottawa.
