Jiří Petrbok – Patient's Diary at DOX

The exhibition Jiří Petrbok's Patient's Diary at the Centre for Contemporary Art DOX (24 April – 16 August 2026) focuses on the theme of self-portraiture and presents the artist's work from the 1990s to the present as a continuous record of a constantly changing, perpetually questioned "self". The exhibition is not arranged chronologically like a classical retrospective – paintings from different periods placed side by side create a whole that resembles a diary more than anything, full of returns, repetitions, and various emotions. It traces how the principle of self-portraiture manifests across different periods of the artist's work: from early images of bodily and existential transformation through motifs of masks, protective suits, and fragmented figures to works in which family, institutions, public space, and language enter the self-portrait. The exhibition title does not refer to illness, but to the broader human experience of being subject to the effects of institutions, social expectations, and one's own body – the "patient" is one upon whom the world bears down, yet who simultaneously keeps their own record. The exhibition is curated by Otto M. Urban. Through a combination of different techniques – from drawing through painting to collage – dynamic, often provocative images emerge with melancholic and decadent undertones, linking grotesque, dark humour, and existential themes. Petrbok's work is represented in public collections, including the National Gallery Prague and the Gallery of the City of Prague.