ZUPNIK Peter, photography

Biography

Peter Župník was born in Levoča, Slovakia, in 1961. Trained at the Secondary School of Arts and Crafts in Košice, he studied artistic photography at the FAMU University in Prague. During his years in Prague, Peter Župník participated intensely in the Slovak New Wave movement, a group of young Slovak photographers gathered around Professor Jan Smok. He graduated in 1986 and became a freelance photographer in 1987. He left Prague in 1995 and settled in the Paris region. His career as a photographer then developed mainly between France, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. 

His photographs are exhibited in galleries all over the world. His works are included in numerous public collections: Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Centre Georges Pompidou, Fond National d'Art Contemporain, Musée de l'Elysée in Lausanne and in other institutions and private collections. 

Considered as the most poetic photographer of the Slovak artistic movement "New Wave", member of the MOST group ("the bridge"), Peter Župník proposes a creation where the real is articulated with the subjective. Through his choice of composition, his formats, his diptychs and above all by the finesse of his pastel interventions on the prints, Peter Župník reaches a surrealist dimension, sometimes dreamlike, always inhabited by fantastic visions, stemming from a collective imagination linked to myths. 

Peter Župník lives and works in Issy les Moulineaux, in France

Selection of exhibitions

2020  Paříž, věčná láska, Východočeská Galerie, Pardubice, Czech Republic 
Anima, Galerie municipale, Levoča, Slovakia 

2019  Kabinetky, Sabina Shuckert place, Slovakia 

2018  From a Shattered Church, Litomysl, Czech Republic 
Anima, Galerie M. A. Bazovsky, Trencin, Slovakia 

2017  Pohlad/Looking, Musée de Spis, Levoča, Slovakia
Prague, mémoires nocturnes, Nikon Photo Gallery, Czech Republic 
Petits tableaux de Chantilly, Ville de Chantilly, France

2015  Bratislava à Paris!, K.gallery, Slovakia
ART symposium, Mikulov, Czech Republic
The Best of Peter Zupnik, Galerie Baudelaire, Anvers, Netherlands
Animalia, Galerie Arcturus, Paris, France 

2014  Day Dreams, Galerie ArtInBox, Prague, Czech Republic 

2013  The Slovak new wave, Maison de la photographie, Prague, Czech Republic 

2012  De l’infiniment près à l’infiniment loin, Peter Zupnik/Tim Hall, Galerie Arcturus, Paris, France 
The Phantom of Eastern Europe, see+ artSpace/gallery, Beijing, China

2010  Simple Things, Nostress Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic

2008  Face à face Kalvar / Zupnik, Galerie Arcturus, Paris, France

2005  Personal exhibition, Maison de l’Europe, Paris, France

2004  Art Paris, galerie Arcturus, Carrousel du Louvre, Paris
Personal exhibition, Galerie Josef Sudek, Prague, Czech Republic
Photographie maximale, château de Prague, Prague, Czech Republic 

2003  Photographie slovaque 1925-2000, Bibliothèque municipale, Prague, Czech Republic
Mémoires nocturnes, Czech Cultural Center, Paris 
Réalités poétiques, Galerie Arcturus, Paris, France 
Petites grandes choses, Museum Quartier, Vienne, Austria 
Saison tchèque, Fontainebleau, France 

2002  KunstRai, Galerie Rob van den Doel, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Petites grandes choses, travelling exhibition in Slovakia
Photographie slovaque 1925-2000, Slovakia National Gallery, Bratislava, Slovakia

2001  Collective exhibition, Galerie Le Pont Neuf, Paris, France 

1999  Personal exhibition, Galerie 4, Cheb, Czech Republic 
Mois de la photographie, Bratislava, Slovakia

1998  L’Art de la collection, Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland 
Fotofest, Houston, USA
Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, USA 

1997  Exposition personnelle, Galerie Le Pont Neuf, Paris, France
Halle rencontre Prague, Halle, Germany 

1996  Nox, National Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic 
Inszenierte Fotografie die Prager Fotoscene, Museum of photography, Braunschweig, Germany 

1995  Génération 60, Photofusion, London, United Kingdom

1994  Trois regards », Vidéothèque de Paris, Paris, France 
La Bretagne, French Institute of Prague, Czech Republic

1993  Rencontres photographiques de la Normandie, Rouen, France 
Maison pragoise de la photographie, Prague, Czech Republic

1991  Photo biennale, Enschede, Netherlands
Parco Gallery, Tokyo, Japan 

1990  L’année de l’Est, Musée de l’Elysée , Lausanne, Switzerland 
Fotofest, Houston, USA 
Rencontres internationales de la photographie, Arles, France 

1989  Czecoslovak Contemporary Photography, Amsterdam, Netherlands Photographie tchécoslovaque 1945-1989, Manes, Prague, Czech Republic 

1988  Out of Eastern Europe, Private photography, travelling exhibition in different American cities (New York, San Francisco, Portland, Chicago), USA