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Oil on canvas, 100 x 150 cm Signed on reverse: “Jan Mikulka 2017” Still Life with Limes II displays a clear reference to the Old Masters, specifically to Dutch still life masters such as Willem Claesz Heda (1593/1594 – approximately 1680/1682) and Peter Claesze (1597/1598 – 1660) and, in Mukulka’s use of austere still life design, to the great Spanish master Francisco de Zurbarana (1598–1654). However, it also displays a clear reference to photography, purity of composition, work with reflections and mirroring, which bring us to the work of Hiroshi Sugimota and to Mikulka’s own paintings from 2014–2015 (Water series). In his still lifes, Jan Mikulka toys with the viewer’s perception of reality and the illusion of space. In preparing the still life, the installation of objects for the painting took up several square meters so that the objects on the canvas would have the effect on the viewer’s perception that the artist wanted. The objects themselves form a complex visual matrix of relationships between the selected objects themselves, the artist, and his intention towards the public. Jan Mikulka, who studied under Professor Zdenek Beran at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, is one of few Czech painters to receive recognition at international competitions and commissions from elite customers in the United Kingdom and Persian Gulf. Mikulka has won repeatedly at the BP National Portrait Awards in London, the most prestigious portrait competition in the world held annually by the National Portrait Gallery. At the exhibition, which artists from around the world apply to join, visitors chose his portrait as their favorite. In addition to this recognition, The Royal Society of Portrait Painters named Mikulka the winner of the 2013 SELF prize at Mall Galleries. Her Majesty The Queen attended the exhibition opening. In 2013 Mikulka was a finalist for the prestigious Threadneedle Prize. Mikulka has won acclaim not only in the United Kingdom, but also in Spain, where he came in second place (of 3,000 artist) at the Figurativas 15 held by the MEAM Museum in Barcelona in 2015. He is a candidate for membership in the Royal Society Of Portrait Painters, and the founder of the term photorealism, Louis K. Meisel, selected him for his gallery in Soho for the year 2020. There is now a twelve-month waiting list for new works by the painter, who was once unsure of his future.