Romani community member Ladislav Mucha aka Maxim Muchow is a talented artist and technical illustrator for Siemens who loves doing things "to the max"
In two and half years he has already produced four solo exhibitions. His most recent, called "Eternal", is on view in Prague's Vnitroblok Holešovice venue until 9 August.
The exhibition opened on Friday, 14 July and offers 29 paintings by Ladislav Mucha, who creates and paints under the pseudonym Maxim Muchow. The exhibition is his most extensive to date, covering the subject of eternity, the meaning of life, and what is essential to it.
Jarmila Balážová has filmed an interview with the artist as part of the “Ten Minutes Plus” (Desetiminutovka Plus) series on ROMEA TV. Mucha is from a Romani family and is interesting not just as an exhibiting artist who studied at the Faculty of Arts and Design in Plzeň, Czech Republic.
He has also been working for six years as a technical illustrator in the Development Department of the renowned international corporation Siemens. What does that work entail, and is it possible to “use” the knowledge gained from it, in the good sense of the word, in his artistic creations as well?
Answers to those questions can be found in the interview profiling him. Balážová also asked why the native of Rakovník, who has been painting since childhood, first applied to attend college preparatory school, which was the real breakthrough for him at age 13, instead of going straight to a secondary school for the arts.
“That was for my parents, they wanted me to have a more realistic basis to my education. It’s not always easy to make a living through art. I was a good student and my parents wanted me to become a lawyer, so I went to college prep school, it was a kind of insurance policy. Then art found me and I studied at a faculty and in a department that fundamentally perfected me, enriched me, put me on a path, and aided me with finding my own style and refining it,” Mucha said in the interview.
His technique joins together elements of classicism, pop-art, graffiti and information technology. His interesting paintings involve a deep, masterful technique.
“I love hip hop, rap, street culture and stuff. That inspires my work where, in addition to classic brush painting, I also use spray paint, different types of computer fonts and so forth. I have spent years on creating my own style, my own handwriting,” Mucha said.
Why did he choose the artistic nickname Maxim Muchow? “I wanted to be unique, to differentiate myself from the great fine artist Alphonse Mucha, the painter. I wanted to remain faithful to my own surname, so from ‘Mucha’ I created Muchow. And Maximum? That’s because I approach life, work and art to the max,” he explained.
Is anybody else in his family artistically gifted? “Unfortunately not, my younger brother is technically focused, our family rather were musicians, not painters or any other type of that profession. In any event, my family really supports me, though, and I am grateful to them for that. My parents have always done that. My father is unfortunately no longer alive, but my mother is an excellent baker, so in addition to being my fan, she takes care of the catering at my exhibitions,” Mucha told ROMEA TV.
