kochankova@gmail.com
10.12.1979
Praha
+420777839228
kokogarden.cz hruskaartschool.cz
https://www.facebook.com/jana.kochankova.7
kokokingart
https://www.artlist.cz/jana-kochankova-5658/
The nature of my work is diverse–moving across sculpture, large-scale installation, performance, ornamental painting and printmaking to clothing design. My current themes use natural materials such as beeswax, wood, feathers and natural pigments that I make and use for painting, ceramics, and fabric production for my clothing brand KOKO. I combine all this with a postmodern approach, craft, personal transcendental experiences. I am inspired by native peoples, shamanism, Vedic meditations, my personal transcendental experiences, my personal travels to Mexico and New York, and postmodernism. Artists who have influenced me include Vladimír Skrepl, Jiří Kovanda, Veronika Šrek Bromová, Miloš Šejn, and Josph Beuys. I am also inspired by Viktor Schauberger, Claude Lévi-Strausst, Boris Tichanovki, Nikola Tesla, Masaru Emoto, Socrates Tendencies: use of natural materials, ecology Specific to my work is the ability to constantly experiment or renew strategies in working with artistic mediums. And yet a certain character of my art and personal attitude towards contemporary reality is maintained–the pursuit of transcendence. My approach is mainly intuitive. It's about expressing my inner feelings and experience and connecting it to the material world. I like to create outdoors the most. I always prepare my materials and often learn a new craft that I need in order to realize the work. The themes emerge from my inner world, which, due to my interest in shamanism, is very rich. Lately I've been interested in female mythology and female mysteries. The search for the essence of woman. I'm interested in the theme of the Great Goddess, which has been depicted in prehistoric times. The search for the Great Goddess in today's civilization. My vision is a vision of a "New World". I use more natural materials including pigments. I love to work with ceramic. My long-term dream is a fountain that structures water, called flow forms. or Goddess sculpture in a public space.
I was born in Prague and I live and work here. After primary school, I entered a mathematical high school and then I studied biology at university. I have always been interested in visual arts and I also created a lot. 2000: I had my first trip and stayed in New York USA and Mexico 2001: I was accepted to the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, to the Studio of Conceptual Art led by Miloš Šejn 2003: I transferred to the studio of Vladimír Skrepl and Jiří Kovanda 2006: Internship at Cooper Union in New York City 2008: Graduated from AVU 2012: I founded my design brand KOKO, which specializes in clothing - hand screen printing and hand sewing. 2012-2020: Big artistic break- finding myself 2020: My husband and I took over the Hruska Art Association and founded Hruskaartschool.cz. It is an art course with a different approach. In 2020 I returned to the art world. During my studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, I had a lot of exhibitions. This continued successfully after graduation. However, I burnt out in 2012. And I guess I had psychological problems as well. I retreated from the world of galleries into my studio, into my inner world. At that time I was very unstable, anxious, and sick. The desire to be healthy and not depressed led me to yoga, meditation, different exercises with body and breath, shamanic techniques, and different ways of looking at the world. All this got me back on my feet and I started creating and living again. Thanks to these different teachings, I learned to live with perspective so that I could be mentally at ease and not invite to my body and mind all the problems of our civilization and our times. Rather, I am interested in changing different paradigms, behavior patterns, and thought processes–changing the settings of our civilization. Since 2020 I have reconnected myself to the art world. I am building on my previous work, only enriching it with my deep inner world, which is based on my experiences of altered states of consciousnes
