Matěj Janák, Bailey Keogh, Jan Slanina: Bromance

Bromance brings together the works of Prague-based artists Matěj Janák and Jan Slanina alongside Berlin-based artist Bailey Keogh. While Janák and Slanina have previously exhibited together at Urban Spree as a duo, this exhibition presents all three artists as distinct voices, united by a shared interest in the complexities of contemporary identity, intimacy, and human connection in a post-internet and increasingly technological era.

Working across painting, objects, digital media, and installations, the artists examine how personal emotions, desires, and vulnerabilities are shaped by the social and technological conditions of the present. At its core, the exhibition asks a simple yet urgent question: What happens when people are unable to communicate their emotions? The suppression of desire, affection, and vulnerability can generate consequences that extend beyond individual lives, influencing broader social dynamics, conflicts, and forms of radicalization.

The title Bromance serves as a symbolic framework rather than a literal description. It points to a broad spectrum of contemporary questions surrounding intimacy, emotional expression, and the difficulties of human connection in an era defined by hyperconnectivity and increasing social fragmentation. The exhibition examines what happens when emotions remain unspoken, when desires are displaced, and when technologies designed to connect people instead produce misunderstanding, illusion, and isolation.

Within this theme, each artist approaches intimacy from a distinct perspective. Matěj Janák's paintings explore emotional vulnerability and personal experience through a visual language shaped by post-internet aesthetics, fragmentation, and autobiographical reflection. Bailey Keogh's multimedia practice, represented through works from her series Remember Me, investigates questions of identity, desire, and interpersonal relationships in an age of endless reproduction and rapid forgetting. Jan Slanina approaches these themes through unexpected narratives informed by technology, internet culture, and satire. His works, such as L'amour Toujours, examine the increasingly blurred boundaries between living organisms, machines, and artificial forms of life, raising questions that appear simultaneously futuristic and almost biblical in their ethical implications.

Although their artistic approaches differ, all three artists share a critical perspective on the trajectory of contemporary society and the growing influence of digital technologies on human relationships. Historical narratives intersect with internet aesthetics, virtual identities, and emerging technological realities.

BROMANCE

Matěj Janák, Bailey Keogh, Jan Slanina

Curated by Sarah Adnanová

Poster Design by Kristyna Kulikova

Vernissage: Saturday, June 13th 2026 from 16:00 to 20:00

Exhibition: 13.06 - 11.07 2026

Urban Spree Galerie 

Revaler Str 99

10245 Berlin

BIOGRAPHIES

Matěj Janák

Matěj Janák is a prominent self-taught Czech painter based in Prague. Initially shaped by the graffiti scene, his expressive painting functions as an intimate visual diary of personal experiences and existential crises. Utilizing airbrush techniques and digital deformation to explore post-internet aesthetics and the disintegration of form, Janák creates emotionally charged compositions that oscillate between figuration and expression. His signature airbrush technique, mastered during a demanding rehabilitation following a serious hand injury, has become a defining aspect of his practice and a symbol of resilience in the face of physical limitations.

Jan Slanina

Jan Slanina is a Czech multimedia artist and a student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (AVU), Intermedia I Studio. Approaching art through a highly analytical angle, he employs satire to bridge the gap between emerging technologies and historically or socially charged global phenomena. His practice often combines digital production methods, sculpture, and monumental installation to create multilayered works that resist singular interpretation while examining how contemporary society navigates an increasingly technological reality. His work has been exhibited at institutions including Prague City Gallery.

Bailey Keogh

Bailey Keogh is a Berlin-based American multidisciplinary artist working across video, sculpture, installation, and performance. Combining industrial materials such as metal with digital and experimental processes, her practice investigates questions of identity, intimacy, desire, and interpersonal relationships. Through a critical and often confrontational visual language, Keogh examines the social and psychological structures that shape contemporary experience, exploring the tensions between vulnerability, power, and self-representation in an increasingly mediated world. Her work has been exhibited internationally at institutions and events including the Museum für Fotografie, Art Basel Miami Beach, Torrance Art Museum, and the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Alicante.