Obic (CZE)

Jakub Uksa aka Obic, a native of Rokycany permanently living in Prague, belongs to a strong generation of writers who entered the graffiti scene in the 1990s. His work is based on a gradual reduction of form, which led to geometric abstraction and typographic purism in painting. The typeface, which is still present in his paintings, is now radically cropped, while certain playfulness and simplicity is reflected in the intricate code of lines. Currently, Obic is focused on his inner world, a space that is not visible and into which he tries to encode his momentary moods and thought processes.

In his Pilsen painting, Obic partly returns to the past. He had not painted on the wall for a long time, and so in connection with his return to mural art he decided to follow up his street art expression of that time. His biggest inspiration is the surrounding space, including the one we cannot see, i.e. a certain possibility of hidden parallel worlds in which we sense some mystery. At the same time, Obic has lifelong adherence to a line as a vehicle for his ideas. He encodes colours into it or develops it dramatically. On the technical building, we see four cubes drawn in pure red and white lines, in which, if we look carefully, we can gradually make out distorted letters. Moreover, the typographic idea hiding the coded nickname OBIC relates to the surrounding architecture of the apartment blocks and creates a geometrically arranged unit that fits perfectly with the surroundings.