New Art Gallery GALERIE MARIENBAD opens in Mariánské Lázně

June 2025

In the heart of Mariánské Lázně, on the town’s historic colonnade, GALERIE MARIENBAD has opened as an exciting new space for visual art, exhibiting contemporary works.

GALERIE MARIENBAD opened on 9th May with an exhibition of the visual artist Václav Malina, a Czech Postwar & Contemporary painter who was born in 1950. This exhibition, titled, Václav Malina: LANDS – LANDSCHAFTEN, is also a tribute to the 75th anniversary of the artist.

Throughout the year, GALERIE MARIENBAD will present curated exhibitions by Czech and international artists, with three exhibitions per year. Visitors will discover exhibitions alongside informative videos about the life and work of the exhibiting artist. Catalogues, posters and other exhibitor materials are also available at the gallery.

This new cultural offering hopes to enrich cultural events for local citizens, but also for a large international audience of tourists, spa guests and visitors to Mariánské Lázně.

The gallery premises are situated within a modern extension, which is immediately architecturally related to the 19th century neo-Baroque colonnade. The addition of the new space to the colonnade on the first floor began in 1976. It was completed and inaugurated in 1982. One of the two adjacent rooms of the new building to the colonnade was intended from the very beginning as an exhibition hall, and the other as a relaxation room for spa guests. From the Velvet Revolution until 1st April 2025, these spaces had a different commercial use.

The re-establishment of the gallery was made possible thanks to several enthusiasts. Much respect goes to the enlightened thinking of Karel Kalivoda and his team from Ensana, who, together with the Marienbad patriot, entrepreneur and hotelier David Folprecht, have realised this idea to rebuild the gallery.

The artistic management of the gallery has been taken over by Alena Mrovcová, who has many years of experience in this field.

Gallery Owner David Folprecht said:

“I hope that the opening of the gallery will contribute to the enrichment of cultural events for local citizens as well as for the numerous international audience of visitors to our beautiful city.”

Curator Alena Mrovcová said:

“As the first artist, I would like to present the paintings of Václav Malina, a native of Pilsen. At the same time, Malina’s exhibition will be a tribute to his 75th anniversary.”

Václav Malina, a native of Pilsen, is a truly exceptional figure in Czech art. He became famous on the Czech art scene not only as a painter and graphic artist, but also as a gifted writer, curator, gallerist (in 2001-2013 he was the director of the Pilsen City Gallery) and teacher (his first teaching career was even connected to Mariánské Lázně). Since his youth, Malina has been fascinated by Impressionism, to which he pays tribute with his diploma thesis Light in Post-Impressionism. Nature and its phenomenon of light and colour are interwoven in his painting, not only in the Impressionist view of the landscape, but also in the periods of geometric work, where he strives for a new conceptual view of the landscape. In recent years, he has returned to landscape, which he connects through personal experiences, but also through literature, poetry and music. Since 1969, Malina has exhibited regularly at home and abroad. His works are represented in public and private collections in the Czech Republic and across the world. He lives and works in Pilsen and Radkovice, near Pilsen.

As is known, the only expert and critic of his work is the artist himself: “Not the drawing and its additional colouring, but the painting is an indicator of colour relationships. This is the essence of colourism, which cannot be imitated, but only understood.”

Pure sensualism means more to Malina than all the profound socio-political, genre and other considerations combined. Malina often emphasises that the best school of painting is nature itself, and still paints passionately in the open air, where he finds space not only for thinking but also for dreaming.

The gallery’s official opening took place on 9th May, coinciding with the start of the spa season. The Gallery’s exhibition spaces are open year-round, from 1pm – 5pm every day.

Ticket prices, accessibility information and more on the current exhibition are available on https://galerie-marienbad.cz/