Ivana Bednářová | archiv Julie Kopová
“When I paint, it’s as if I were writing poetry,” says Julie Kopová. Her abstract paintings open up space for imagination and confirm that young Czech painting has a strong and self-conscious voice.
The painter Julie Kopová (born 1995) is one of the most prominent exponents of the emerging generation of Czech visual art. She graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, where she found her authentic expression in abstraction, giving her the opportunity to combine poetry with the energy of colour and gestures. “When I paint, I feel like I’m writing poetry,“ she says. “For me, the images work as metaphors – they are not literal, but rather open up space for imagination.”
Her work oscillates between minimalism and expressionism. Some paintings remain pure, based on simple colour designs and geometric compositions, while others explode in dynamic lines and associative shapes. It is this diversity that shows that Kopová is not a single-position artist – she can work with painterly discipline as well as spontaneity of the gesture. She is also inspired by the philosophy she has studied, especially Immanuel Kant’s idea of the sublime. Kant perceived the aesthetic experience as the moment when one looks into the space of the infinite and the
ungraspable. Julie transfers this quality into her paintings, which are not literal messages but rather visual experiences that draw the viewer beyond the limits of reason and language. The results are canvases that are both intellectual and emotional.
In the titles of her paintings – Flamingo, Autumn or Asteroid – she offers the viewer a clue without depicting anything directly. Her work operates as a visual philosophy: it evokes atmospheres, moods and memories, but never encapsulates them in a clear form. This gives space for personal reading and draws the observer into an intimate dialogue.
Kopová became prominent during her studies, when her diploma thesis impressed curator Adriana Primusová to such an extent that in 2022 the latter organised the artist’s first large solo exhibition at the Gallery of the Central Bohemian Region in Kutná Hora. It was here that her ability to combine her youthful energy with a mature painterly language first fully manifested itself.
Today, Julie Kopová is one of the most sought-after artists of contemporary abstraction. Her works are represented in private collections in the Czech Republic and abroad; they appear in important exhibitions and their collector value is growing. Her painting Asteroid was even auctioned at the prestigious Christie’s auction house, confirming the international resonance of her work. From smaller drawings worth tens of thousands of crowns to large canvases valued in the hundreds of thousands – all this proves that her work not only resonates with curators, but also with the public and
collectors.
Yet she remains true to her vision. She does not follow short-term trends, but rather builds a consistent painting path that is deeply personal and yet universally understandable. Her style reflects courage, lyricism and visual power – qualities that make her a distinctive part of the contemporary art scene.
