http://www.varvararozagalleries.com/

varvararozagalleries, 8 Duke Street St James's, London (2026)

07/05/2026

Deepfake 2019-2020 by
Oil on canvas, 170 x 240 cm
Photo by Paul Plews
Represented by

Step into the world of Hynek Martinec, a Czech-born, London-based British painter who doesn’t just redefine hyperrealism, he elevates it into philosophical territory.

Educated at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, Martinec absorbed a reverence for pre-modern oil techniques: meticulous glazing, chiaroscuro, and Renaissance-level draftsmanship. He later sharpened this discipline during residencies in London and New York, evolving a visual language that draws as much from Rubens and Titian as from Caravaggio and Ribera.

Martinec’s canvases are spaces of philosophical tension. He often begins with vintage photographic references, staging scenes that feel historically anchored yet digitally disrupted. Through this, he probes questions of authenticity, temporal layering, and the sacredness of image-making in a post-truth era.

His subjects — often ghostlike figures, empty chairs, or fragmented icons — evoke both personal memory and collective myth. Catholic symbolism appears not as doctrine, but as allegory: meditating on themes like transcendence, death, and the illusion of permanence.

In 2007, his intimate portrait Zuzana in Paris Studio won the BP Young Artist Award at London’s National Portrait Gallery, catapulting him into a wider public consciousness. Since then, Martinec has exhibited at institutions including the Nationalmuseum Stockholm, Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki, the National Gallery in Prague, DOX Centre for Contemporary Art, Prague and Parafin Gallery, where he continues to shape contemporary figurative painting with an almost spiritual rigour.

His brush speaks in centuries. His gaze sees through them.
Martinec invites us to witness not just a subject, but the metaphysical weight behind their image — the layers of time, myth, and mortality woven into every stroke.

Painting as metaphysics and hyperrealism. Tradition in rebellion.

02/04/2026

Untitled (Post-war Painting in a Sculptor’s Studio 6)
2025 by
Archival pigment print, acrylic varnish, Soluvar, silkscreen ink, acrylic, and oil on canvas; dry-lined with polyester
Overall: 200.6 x 260 cm(3 cm gap between each canvas)

Represented by

Following the end of “ZOT”, this work continues to reflect Paul Hodgson’s investigation into process, instability, and the shifting nature of images.

British artist Paul Hodgson works fluidly across drawing, painting, photography, digital print and sculpture, restaging moments from art history to question how artworks are formed, fixed and understood. “ZOT” curated by took its title from the Dutch word meaning “fool” or “crazy,” a term adopted by Willem de Kooning in certain of his black-and-white paintings of the 1940s, where words, symbols and biomorphic forms emerge from gestural fields. For Hodgson, ZOT signals a productive sense of “misguidedness” at the heart of artistic practice, embracing uncertainty, error and change as generative forces.

The exhibition brought together 20 art works that unfold the studio as a site of testing and experimentation, where images and objects remain provisional and in flux. Moving between analogue and digital processes, Hodgson appropriates and subverts visual fragments from other artists, inverting positives into negatives, collapsing figuration into abstraction and text, and allowing material processes to rub against digital information. In works such as Untitled (Zot), 2024, and Untitled (Zot 3), 2025, recycled lithographic aluminium plates are shaped by hand into sculptural forms that recall the compressed gestures of John Chamberlain, while retaining a light, provisional expressionist immediacy. As Hodgson reflects, “With each ‘finished’ work, the viewer is presented with something that appears stable and familiar. And yet, the language and tropes of ‘fixedness’ have been used to deconstruct and destabilize.”

Available works from the exhibition can be viewed by appointment.

📩 [email protected] | Varvara Roza Galleries

02/04/2026

Untitled 4 by
2025
Archival pigment print, acrylic varnish, Soluvar, acrylic, and oil on canvas, over wooden panel
75.2 × 100.2 cm

Represented by

Following the end of “ZOT”, this work continues to reflect Paul Hodgson’s investigation into process, instability, and the shifting nature of images.

British artist Paul Hodgson works fluidly across drawing, painting, photography, digital print and sculpture, restaging moments from art history to question how artworks are formed, fixed and understood. “ZOT” curated by , took its title from the Dutch word meaning “fool” or “crazy,” a term adopted by Willem de Kooning in certain of his black-and-white paintings of the 1940s, where words, symbols and biomorphic forms emerge from gestural fields. For Hodgson, ZOT signals a productive sense of “misguidedness” at the heart of artistic practice, embracing uncertainty, error and change as generative forces.

The exhibition brought together 20 art works that unfold the studio as a site of testing and experimentation, where images and objects remain provisional and in flux. Moving between analogue and digital processes, Hodgson appropriates and subverts visual fragments from other artists, inverting positives into negatives, collapsing figuration into abstraction and text, and allowing material processes to rub against digital information. In works such as Untitled (Zot), 2024, and Untitled (Zot 3), 2025, recycled lithographic aluminium plates are shaped by hand into sculptural forms that recall the compressed gestures of John Chamberlain, while retaining a light, provisional expressionist immediacy. As Hodgson reflects, “With each ‘finished’ work, the viewer is presented with something that appears stable and familiar. And yet, the language and tropes of ‘fixedness’ have been used to deconstruct and destabilize.”

Available works from the exhibition can be viewed by appointment.

📩 [email protected] | Varvara Roza Galleries

artcollectors

01/04/2026

Blue split, 1988 by
Mixed Media on Canvas
180 × 168 cm

Represented by

A painting that unfolds as both structure and sensation.
Created in the early 1990s, at a moment marked by the visual and psychological intensity of the Gulf War, Head for Algebra reflects Philip Tsiaras’s attempt to process a world saturated with images, movement, and fragmentation. What emerges is neither narrative nor abstraction alone, but a layered visual system where thought and instinct coexist.

The Topology series, developed over more than three decades, represents one of the most intellectually rigorous and conceptually rich bodies of work in the artist’s practice. Drawing from the principles of topology, the mathematical study of transformation, continuity, and spatial relationships, Tsiaras constructs his compositions through an underlying geometric architecture: intersecting lines, shifting planes, and suspended forms.

Yet this structure is never fully revealed.

The image resists clarity. The central subject, here, a fragmented “head”, is partially concealed beneath gestural layers of paint, as if in a state of constant transformation. Elements surface and dissolve: mechanical fragments, symbolic forms, traces of language. The painting oscillates between order and disruption, logic and emotion.

Embedded within the surface is what has been described as a form of “mysterious calligraphy”, a coded, almost subconscious inscription that gives the work its psychological intensity. There is tension, but also a persistent energy, a sense of movement that never resolves.

These are paintings that demand time.
They unfold slowly, revealing themselves through attention.

Today, with increasing institutional recognition and growing attention from leading international galleries, this body of work is being recontextualized within the broader narrative of contemporary art.

The Topology series stands not only as a historical moment within Tsiaras’ practice, but as a body of work that continues to resonate with particular relevance today.

01/04/2026

Head for Algebra, 1995 by
Topology Series
Mixed Media on Canvas
76 × 76 cm
Represented by

A painting that unfolds as both structure and sensation.
Created in the early 1990s, at a moment marked by the visual and psychological intensity of the Gulf War, Head for Algebra reflects Philip Tsiaras’s attempt to process a world saturated with images, movement, and fragmentation. What emerges is neither narrative nor abstraction alone, but a layered visual system where thought and instinct coexist.

The Topology series, developed over more than three decades, represents one of the most intellectually rigorous and conceptually rich bodies of work in the artist’s practice. Drawing from the principles of topology, the mathematical study of transformation, continuity, and spatial relationships, Tsiaras constructs his compositions through an underlying geometric architecture: intersecting lines, shifting planes, and suspended forms.

Yet this structure is never fully revealed.

The image resists clarity. The central subject, here, a fragmented “head”, is partially concealed beneath gestural layers of paint, as if in a state of constant transformation. Elements surface and dissolve: mechanical fragments, symbolic forms, traces of language. The painting oscillates between order and disruption, logic and emotion.

Embedded within the surface is what has been described as a form of “mysterious calligraphy”, a coded, almost subconscious inscription that gives the work its psychological intensity. There is tension, but also a persistent energy, a sense of movement that never resolves.

These are paintings that demand time.
They unfold slowly, revealing themselves through attention.

Today, with increasing institutional recognition and growing attention from leading international galleries, this body of work is being recontextualized within the broader narrative of contemporary art.

The Topology series stands not only as a historical moment within Tsiaras’ practice, but as a body of work that continues to resonate with particular relevance today.

13/03/2026

“ZOT” by
Represented by
Curated by

We warmly invite you to visit “ZOT”, a unique solo presentation by , marking the artist’s debut exhibition with .

📅 Exhibition dates: 27 February – 25 March 2026
Monday–Saturday, 10:00 am – 7:30pm

📌 Location:
8 Duke Street, St James’s, London SW1Y 6BN

British artist Paul Hodgson works fluidly across drawing, painting, photography, digital print and sculpture, restaging moments from art history to question how artworks are formed, fixed and understood. ZOT takes its title from the Dutch word meaning “fool” or “crazy,” a term adopted by Willem de Kooning in certain of his black-and-white paintings of the 1940s, where words, symbols and biomorphic forms emerge from gestural fields. For Hodgson, ZOT signals a productive sense of “misguidedness” at the heart of artistic practice, embracing uncertainty, error and change as generative forces.

The exhibition brings together 20 art works that unfold the studio as a site of testing and experimentation, where images and objects remain provisional and in flux. Moving between analogue and digital processes, Hodgson appropriates and subverts visual fragments from other artists, inverting positives into negatives, collapsing figuration into abstraction and text, and allowing material processes to rub against digital information. In works such as Untitled (Zot), 2024, and Untitled (Zot 3), 2025, recycled lithographic aluminium plates are shaped by hand into sculptural forms that recall the compressed gestures of John Chamberlain, while retaining a light, provisional expressionist immediacy. As Hodgson reflects, “With each ‘finished’ work, the viewer is presented with something that appears stable and familiar. And yet, the language and tropes of ‘fixedness’ have been used to deconstruct and destabilize.”

Looking forward to seeing you at the gallery and experience this exciting body of work.

📧 [email protected]
📞 +44 (0)7708 250089
🌐 varvararozagalleries.com
📸

04/03/2026

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/varvara-roza-galleries-2749710?fbclid=IwVERDUAQUeqFleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEeroFF10qDkX-B2MUP2oVqMkzHvJxNsbWvsckTqVG0li8Eo89xky60nD7hOIk_aem_r_fxRELn9BL5vnYYWoAMpA

04/03/2026

An extraordinary moment yesterday at the National Portrait Gallery for the unveiling of the new portrait of Sir Elton John and his family by the remarkable Catherine Opie

History to be seen through the lens of the present.

Few artists have shaped contemporary portraiture with the intellectual depth and humanity that Catherine Opie has brought to the medium for more than three decades. Equally, few cultural figures have left a global imprint as profound as Sir Elton John, not only through music, but through his enduring commitment to art, philanthropy, and cultural life.

It was a true honour for to support this important commission contribution, helping bring this powerful portrait into the Gallery’s permanent collection . The first portrait of Sir Elton John to enter the National Portrait Gallery since 1991.

The unveiling coincided with the opening today of Catherine Opie: To Be Seen, the artist’s first major museum exhibition in the United Kingdom, now on view at the National Portrait Gallery. The exhibition presents a landmark survey of Opie’s photographic practice, spanning more than three decades and exploring themes of identity, community, family, and representation.

A meaningful moment celebrating portraiture, artistic vision, and the enduring dialogue between artists, institutions, and cultural legacy.

Grateful to be part of such a meaningful occasion.

01/02/2026

We are delighted to invite you to the Private View of : “ZOT”, marking the artist’s debut exhibition with .

📍 Private View: 4 March, 6:30–10pm
📅 Exhibition dates: 27 February – 27 March 2026
📌 Location:
8 Duke Street, St James’s, London SW1Y 6BN

British artist Paul Hodgson works fluidly across drawing, painting, photography, digital print and sculpture, restaging moments from art history to question how artworks are formed, fixed and understood. ZOT takes its title from the Dutch word meaning “fool” or “crazy,” a term adopted by Willem de Kooning in certain of his black-and-white paintings of the 1940s, where words, symbols and biomorphic forms emerge from gestural fields. For Hodgson, ZOT signals a productive sense of “misguidedness” at the heart of artistic practice, embracing uncertainty, error and change as generative forces.

The exhibition brings together 20 art works that unfold the studio as a site of testing and experimentation, where images and objects remain provisional and in flux. Moving between analogue and digital processes, Hodgson appropriates and subverts visual fragments from other artists, inverting positives into negatives, collapsing figuration into abstraction and text, and allowing material processes to rub against digital information. In works such as Untitled (Zot), 2024, and Untitled (Zot 3), 2025, recycled lithographic aluminium plates are shaped by hand into sculptural forms that recall the compressed gestures of John Chamberlain, while retaining a light, provisional expressionist immediacy. As Hodgson reflects, “With each ‘finished’ work, the viewer is presented with something that appears stable and familiar. And yet, the language and tropes of ‘fixedness’ have been used to deconstruct and destabilize.”

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