Roman Košťál

Bio

Roman Košťál (*1999, Ústí nad Labem) is currently studying in the Drawing Studio led by Alice Nikitinová and Matěj Smetana at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. His practice moves between drawing and painting and is distinguished by a distinctive visual language. In his melancholic charcoal drawings, he depicts coloured figures representing the living and monochrome figures symbolising the dead. His work has long explored themes of death, spiritualism, Satanism, and horror. His compositions often portray figures suspended between dream and reality, the world of the living and the realm of the dead. Košťál studied Applied Painting and Glass Processing at the Secondary School of Glassmaking in Kamenický Šenov. In 2022, he was admitted to the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, where he joined the Drawing Studio led by Jiří Petrbok and Martin Gerboc. Since 2023, he has been studying under Alice Nikitinová and Matěj Smetana. He received the Oskar Ostrava Award for his figurative painting, winning first prize in 2019 and third prize in 2017.