Usually, people use rich language to describe the environment and scene of the five senses, and can use clear logical language to narrate the inner feelings and emotions, then painting is another way of expression. And it is a talent to express perception with art. When discussing with people the origin of artistic talent, which is invisible and traceless, and neither inherited nor accumulative. So where does it come from?

Temple Of Inner Light, oil on canvas, 220 cm x 180 cm, 2024

Barbora Kachlikova, a young artist from the Czech Republic and living in Finland, is quiet, elegant, and intellectual. However, the verve of her paintings suggests that beneath their calm appearance is wildness, and there can be antiquity flowing in contemporary abstract paintings. Time, memory, emotions, etc., everything that cannot be said and cannot be said, flows slowly on a still canvas. Wittgenstein once said that "What can be said at all can be said, whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent”, so is painting expressing the speakable or the unspeakable?

Unspoken Mandates, oil on canvas, 250 cm x 200 cm, 2024

She loves China, Chinese culture, Chinese food, especially the ancient traditions of China, which is palpable in her paintings. I have often found myself lingering in front of her works for long periods, trying to decipher her unique visual logic through the lens of a Chinese cultural sensibility. Firstly perplexed, then intrigued, eventually stunned, and finally moved. It took time, but I came to truly love her works. Heavy colors, rough brushstrokes, smooth backgrounds, with flowing focuses, these highly tense paintings are from the hands of a young female artist … an encounter with her woks is unforgettable.

Between The Heartbeats, There Is Shadow, oil on canvas, 220 cm x 180 cm, 2024

Don’t worry about which school she comes from, don’t pursue what internal skills she has cultivated, her unique and recognizable artistic creation belongs only herself, originate from her talent.

Charles Luo

7th April, 2025 in Beijing

Barbora Kachlíková

Barbora Kachlíková (*b.1988, Czech Republic) is a visual artist based in Ratula, Finland. For Kachlíková, old relics from the Finnish countryside, farming neighborhoods and forest industry embody narratives which she translates through abstract paintings. Kachlíková received her MA degree in painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Brno, Czech Republic, in 2016. She studied at Tartu Kõrgem Kunstikool (Estonia, 2013) and at Lahti University of Fine Arts (Finland, 2015).

Her works have been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in Finland (Cable Factory), the Czech Republic (Art Gallery Brno), Slovakia (Gallery PARTER BSC), Germany (GEDOK Gallery), China (Kurume Friendship Museum),Japan (MONONOAharewo Gallery), Estonia and India.

She participated in artist residencies at Gedok (Germany, 2016), Artist’s Point (India, 2018), Banska Stanica Contemporary (Slovakia, 2023 and 2022), Tao Hua Tan (China, 2023), Megafield 339 (China, 2024) and Studio Kura (Japan, 2024). Kachlíková’s work has been awarded stipendiums and artist working grants by the Finnish Cultural Foundation (2024, 2022), The Scandinavia - Japan Sasakawa Foundation (2024), Arts Promotion Center Finland (2021), and Luc Art Fund, Czech Republic (2021)