The realization of the expressive quality besides objective realism resulted in the recognition of photography as an art form itself, moving away from being treated as an aid to painting.  Over the years, different manipulations of the printed image have been developed – cyanotype, emulsion lift and lumen print etc – trying their best to enhance the expressiveness of photography.  Michal Macků pushes the boundary even further when he invented ‘gellage’ (a term formed by gelatin and collage) – a medium in which the artist is able to separate the ‘gelatin’ which is a bonding agent in the photographic film.

By the deconstructing and constructing process, Macků multiplies and tempers the image, which is often his self-portraiture. Not only has Macků succeeded in manipulating the image, he is able to transfer it onto three-dimensional glass or ‘glass photo sculpture’ as people call it.  His black-and-white male nudes are testimony to the discovery of the self and the real physical structure that is absent in classic photography.

Michal Macků was born in Czechoslovakia in 1963.  His works are in the collection of Museum Ludwig, Cologne; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Museum for Fotokunst, Denmark; The Royal Library of Denmark; Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris; Harvard Visual Centre, Massachusetts; The Art Institute of Chicago; Moravská  galerie v Brnĕ, Czech Republic; Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego; The Mary Alice and Bennett Brown Foundation Inc, USA. As the former curator for photography and new media in Museum Ludwig in Cologne, Reinhold Misselbeck, puts it, ‘Macku’s expressive experimental photography struck many people’s core of current existential fears in a time of political and economic change.’1

This is the artist’s first exhibition in Hong Kong. His carbon prints, gellages as well as glass photos will be shown in the exhibition.