Liberated Colours

The Liberated Colours exhibition will present a selection of works from the Studio of Joyful Creation (Ateliér radostné tvorby, A. R. T.), with a focus on the unique use of color by artists with learning disabilities or who have experienced mental illness.

Each artist has his or her own particular way of working with color. They compose their works without any preconceptions, unfettered by established canon or by a knowledge of complementarity. Their work with color possesses an individual symbolism; it is dramatic and poetic while always captivating us with its absolute freedom. The colors do not copy reality, but come to life with an immanent energy that is an authentic expression of the artist’s feelings, perceptions and imagination. They are like maps showing the climatic zones of the artist’s experience, only partially influenced by the surrounding reality.

Society looks at people with learning disabilities or mental illness as people in need of help. But this hierarchy of “strong” vs. “weak” does not exist in the field of art. These artists are an enrichment and a source of inspiration for society precisely because they violate its ingrained conventions. An awareness of the fragility of our certainties and the opening up of new, previously unseen horizons can be not only a source of self-discovery and a release of the individual’s repressed abilities, but also a catalyst for cultural liberation – and thus also evolution.

Liberated Colors aims to show that there is no justification for placing majority society above artists with learning disabilities. It reminds us that it is we whose imagination is impoverished, and that our supposed normalcy may in fact be robbing us of our freedom – at least when it comes to creativity.

Curator: Terezie Zemánková

The exhibition takes place at DOX café.