Filip Raclavský
born 1976 in Olomouc, Czechoslovakia
lives and works in Velký Týnec, Czech Republic
solo exhibitions
2025 Moment of Balance, CAESAR Gallery, Olomouc
2020 Unstable Alliance (?), JANÁČEK Gallery, Přibyslav
2017 Energy, GalerieZET, Velká Bystřice
2016 Painting No. 344, ZÁMECKÁ Gallery PRO JEDEN OBRAZ, Velký Týnec
2007 Return of the Energy, PATRO Gallery, Olomouc
group exhibitions
2024 Ateliers/24, Olomouc City Gallery
2024 Pre-auction exhibition, ETCETRA ART, Praha
2022 Ateliers/22, Olomouc City Gallery
2020 10. Anniversary, GalerieZET, Velká Bystřice
2020 30. Anniversary since UVUO foundation, Olomouc City Gallery
2020 New Members UVUO, Olomouc City Gallery
2019 Road to Freedom, PAVELČÁKOVA, Olomouc
2019 Moravian Theatre and Philharmonic, 8 UVUO members selection, Olomouc
2019 White Red Blue, Gallery BAVIERA, Centro Cultural de la República Checa, Málaga, Spain
2018 Ateliers 2018, Olomouc City Gallery
2008 Gallery selection, Galerie SKÁCELÍK, Olomouc
paintings in collections
Robert Runták collection
Municipality Velký Týnec collection
Filip Raclavský is collected by various private collectors in Czech Republic, Germany, Spain, Hungary and USA
cv
Hejčín High School, Olomouc (1990-1994)
Palacky University - Faculty of Education (2001-2006)
UN mission in Kosovo (1999-2000)
EU mission in Afghanistan (2007-2009, 2010-2012)
Member of Union of Fine Artists of Olomouc (2018-2025)
War veteran
publications and press
Filip Raclavský is offering energy; Galerie PATRO exhibition review, olomouc.cz, 2007
Energie – exhibition catalogue; published city Velká Bystřice, 2017
10 years galeriezet; published city Velká Bystřice, 2020
POST-WAR & CONTEMPORARY ART AUCTION; ETCETRA ART, Praha, 2024
CAESAR Gallery Olomouc, exhibition Moment of Balance, 2025
Video: Report from the exhibition Moment of Balance, 2025; TV Morava
Filip Raclavský is a painter based in Velký Týnec whose work represents a fascinating synthesis of profound life experience, inner stillness, and raw material expression. He has been active on the Czech art scene for more than two decades. Following an intensive three-year departure into figurative painting, his current work marks a return to his roots—pure geometric abstraction, which he nevertheless transforms into a living, vibrating organism.
Filip’s life path has endowed his artistic expression with a thoroughly unique depth and urgency. As a former criminal investigator in a special operations department (witness protection), a participant in international missions in Kosovo and Afghanistan, a social worker in child protective services, and a coordinator helping crime victims, he spent years standing on the front lines of human suffering, chaos and malice. These intense life circumstances shaped his inner world and perception of reality. Consequently, geometry in his rendition is neither cold mathematical calculus nor mere aesthetic exercise. It is a conscious establishment of universal order, the architecture of cosmic silence, and an autonomous expression confronting the sensory overload and pressures of the modern era. His painting does not arise as an attempt to escape, but as pure expression from within the artist.
Filip’s signature technique is a tactile dialogue between destruction and structure, wherein a key role is played by the physical inscription into the medium itself. He first applies a layer of dense structural medium to the canvas, into which he carves deep lines with a knife and imprints foundational geometric shapes. Into the resulting cracks and crevices, he then rubs rich color, which he overlays with coats of white acrylic. The color tones thus bleed through from the depths of the painting to the surface like a hidden source of inner energy.
The artist deliberately avoids excessively sharp edges. He disrupts geometric lines with a dry brush, setting the shapes into an inner vibration, and further confronts their precise order with subtle splatters in the spirit of action painting. In the final stage, he literally caresses the entire canvas with his palms coated in a delicate layer of paint. In doing so, he creates maps and frames upon the raised textures, imprinting the painting with a definitive patina of human presence. The resulting works by Filip Raclavský function as sovereign visual spaces. They are sites of concentrated contemplation which, against the backdrop of geometric order, slow down time, suppress ambient noise, and reveal the fragile yet unwavering harmony of human existence.