Crossroads Shimmer like Hesitant Stars
(In Czech, the phrase for ‘to spend time’ literally means ‘to digest time.’)
Every time I encounter Jakub’s work, I find myself wondering how much time he actually asks of you— how much attention you’re willing to spare in order to read it. Because it’s layered, with a capital L. Layered to the point where you begin to feel the weight of those layers, their accumulation, their resistance. And it’s not just that he thrives on assigning meaning to every particle of it—from dust to the dawn of the material—but that the atmosphere itself, the saturation of the material world, becomes the very point of departure.
For a long time, this density in his work was bound to the question of human interference within the digital—a kind of gameplay logic, where each decision carried the trace of your online footprint. The works unfolded like an algorithm of choice and consequence, poetic in their systemization. Yet, in the more recent pieces, Jakub seems to be tracing other genealogies. Something more rooted, perhaps—a return to rural legacies that have quietly structured his way of assembling things all along. There’s an echo here of Stano Filko’s vast, systemized cosmology, an ideological and formal layering that speaks not only of permanence but of the convergence of what is “latest” and what is “initial.”
The exhibition centers on three main objects. They appear as three bodies—meaning body/heads—that seem to guard the space, enclosing it, watching over it. Their presence suggests that movement, even in its smallest form, is never accidental; it unfolds within the logic of a system that precedes and defines it. Aesthetically, this construct emerges through faint recollections of digital environments—artificial terrains where control, observation, and immersion become indistinguishable.
In Jakub’s work, these terrains are not virtual but visceral. On top of everything, the space is filled with chestnuts, probably one of the most significant symbols of this area. It’s a bit late in the season, though, so it’s again a stage of slight decay that kind of drives your choreography through the show, making a connection with the lower parts of the works, where you can see different kinds of old food materials glued to the surface or lying underneath. it’s all kinda pre-digested for you. Like with everything, the decision has already been made, while you were gone.
Jakub Choma (*1995, Košice, Slovakia) graduated in 2023 from the painting studio of Jiří Černický and Michal Novotný at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. Already during his studies, he was awarded the Jindřich Chalupecký Award for 2020 – the most prestigious Czech art prize for emerging artists. Mixing diverse media such as painting, assemblage, sculpture, sound, and video, he creates complex installations addressing our bodily existence within the present digital infrastructure. Choma exhibits prolifically both at home and abroad. His solo projects include Life for Dummies (2017) and Stepping on a Lego (2018) at Polansky Gallery in Prague, Living the Gimmick (2018) in VUNU Gallery Košice, Resilience (2019) in Vilnius’ Editorial, Distant Hum (2021) in Prague’s NoD space, Childishly Fresh Eyes (2022) at Zaazrak Dornych in Brno, Metallic Aftertaste (2023) presented at Vienna Contemporary, Cold Cord (2024) in Olomouc’s Basement Project, We Are Smelly, Atomised, Chemical, Vanilla (2024) at Galerie Smečky in Prague, and most recently he presented his first institutional exhibition as well as first solo exhibition in Germany entitled Healing Through Fatigue (2025), at Heidelberger Kunstverein. His work has been a part of many group exhibitions across numerous countries, including shows at Basis in Frankfurt, Galeria Municipal of Porto, and Cuchifritos Gallery in New York, as well as several others in Stockholm, Vienna, Budapest, Wales, Riga, and more. Choma’s pieces were also featured in several off-site shows and are often present on online curatorial art platforms such as O Fluxo, for which he created online projects Wounds Heal Faster in a Metallic Mouth (2020) and Beta Ground (Delirium Obstacle) (2019). Despite his young age, Choma has already twice participated in Liste Art Fair Basel, both alone (2021) and in collaboration with Pakui Hardware (2019). Most recently he also participated in Art Cologne New Positions with a solo presentation (2024). He was awarded a residency in New York City with Residency Unlimited (2022). He lives and works in Prague.