Štěpán Zàvrel, an artist of air and stone, always gazed at the sky like an ancient pilgrim guided by the stars. He sought and transformed rock, leaving traces of this existential journey in every one of his works, imbued with his faith. Here, we rediscover a part of the work of an artist who unites his signature style within illustration, revealing its moments as if they were geological layers. It is a small journey through his sediments, his colors, his materials, his ideas, and his dreams.
Hills and landscapes unfold through successive layers of colors and shapes, trails of chimerical geometries, and ethereal palaces; his reflections emerge in every overlapping of rich and watery materials, shaping forms in a fantastical way.
This corner of Sàrmede thus becomes the metaphysical map of an artist, his own topography or morphology. Wood, sand, earth, memory, fiction, color, ideas, philosophy—a sculpted poetry, an accumulation of layers that reminds us of the very essence of artists: air and rock, formed just as mountains are.
Text by Gabriel Pacheco