Telephone

Matěj Dereck Hard was born in 1985, in the capital city of Czech Republic - Prague, where he currently resides and creates. Master of Fine Arts from the Institute of Creative Photography in Silesian University of Opava, Czechia. His artworks are a comprehensive series of styles based on pop art photography with a clear concept and explicit meaning. He focuses on staged photography - mainly still lifes, self-portraits and photographs telling a story. He is interested in art form of photography, in which he does not hinder the joke. He often criticizes himself and the contemporary social problems, the topics that matter to him. Dereck also reflects the contemporary environment of the modern city. He uses photographs using conventional photographic techniques (f.e. multiple exposure), but using digital camera. Of course, using post-production as well, but he doesn't create collages or photo montages.

He publishes authorial art books with a story (f.e. fairy tale ZUličníci or comics PHOTOMAN!) and has regular exhibitions at home and abroad. In addition to his free art work, he collaborated with Red Bull between 2016 and 2021 - creating his own photographic sections, LIVI´N, WORKI´N, RIDI´N and others. He is currently creating original photo series for the Footshop blog.

Between the years 2010 to 2016 he was photographer, publisher and editor in chief of magazine about street culture called Are We BASTARDS?!, which was published free of charge in printed and digital format. Dereck was the official ambassador of Canon in the Czech Republic between 2014 and 2015. The current ambassador of Casio G-Shock.

Honors:

Trierenberg Super Circuit 2021, Series and sequences - gold medal

TIFA - Tokyo International Foto Awards 2019, Fine Art / Still Life - gold medal

TIFA - Tokyo International Foto Awards 2019,Fine Art / Moving pictures - gold medal

TIFA - Tokyo International Foto Awards 2019, People / Seflportrait - bronze medal

TIFA - Tokyo International Foto Awards 2019, Book / Other - honorable mention

TIFA - Tokyo International Foto Awards 2019, Fine Art / Still Life - honorable mention

ND Awards 2019, Special: Open Theme - 2nd place

ND Awards 2019, Fine Art: Conceptual

IPA - International Photography Awards 2019, People / Seflportrait - 2nd place

IPA - International Photography Awards 2019, Book / Other - 3rd place

IPA - International Photography Awards 2019, Fine Art / Still Life - honorable mention

IPA - International Photography Awards 2019, Fine Art / Still Life - honorable mention

IPA - International Photography Awards 2019, Still in motion / Other - honorable mention

IPA - International Photography Awards 2019, Fine Art / Still Life - honorable mention

PX3 - Prix de la Photographie Paris 2019, Book / Other - silver medal

MIFA - Moscow International Foto Awards 2019, Fine Art / Moving pictures - gold medal

Czech Press Photo 2018, Lifestyle category - double finalist
Czech Press Photo 2017, Grant of Prague - winner
Czech Press Photo 2010, Canon Junior awards - winner

Solo exhibitions:

No! in nature, Křížová chodba, Old Town Hall, Prague, 25.6-10.7.2021

CLOSED, (A)VOID Gallery (cell nr. 10), Prague, 29.4.-11.5.2020

9, Dudes & Barbies Gallery - Kavárna co hledá jméno, Prague, 8.11.-15.12.2019

What Autism Reflects Us, DSC Gallery, Prague, 8.4-11.4.2019

LIVI´N – My Prague Home, Czech Photo Centre, Prague, 16.1.-24.2019

Love is HARD, Vnitroblock / Pasáž Českého Designu / The Chemistry Design Store, Prague, 7.11.-30.11.2017

Dereck Hard is... ARTELLIGENT, Gallery Portheimka, Prague,1.4.-1.5.2016

KILLING ME HARDLY, Caffeine, Prague, 28.12.2015-8.1.2016

we are FAT animals, Náplavka Rašínovo nábřeží, Prague, 14.-.28.11.2015

SHOW, Galerie Opera, Divadlo Jiřího Myrona, Ostrava, 20.3.-22.5.2014

SHOW, Art Salon S, The Dancing House, Prague, 30.1.-28.2.2014
STREET KIDS, Blink Club, Prague, 7.-.15.12.2012
Evil & Good, TV Tower, Prague, 8.-.31.7.2011
Are We BASTARDS?!, NOD / ROXY, Prague, 16.3.-31.3.2011

Collective exhibitions:

Three Decades, Dům u Černé Matky Boží, Prague, 19.6.-27.9.2020

Czech Press Photo 2019, Staroměstská radnice, Prague, 23. 11. 2019 - 30. 1. 2020

Transfiguration, Orchard Galerie, New York, USA, 7.9.2019

Detective, Центр фотографии "Март", Yekaterinburg, Russia, 25.5.-24.6.2019

Czech Press Photo 2018, Galerie Františka Drtikola, Příbram, 8.2.-31.3.2019

Czech Press Photo 2018, Staroměstská radnice, Prague, 22.11.2018-30.1.2019

Czech Press Photo 2017, Staroměstská radnice, Prague, 22.11.2017-30.1.2018

Art Prague, Kafkův dům, Prague, 28.2.-5.3.2017

Čtvrtstoletí ITF, Dům fotografie, Prague, 31.5.-18.9.2016
Prague Photo, Kafkův dům Prague, 19.-24.4.2016

25 let ITF, Dům umění, Opava, 14.5.-28.6.2015

Ukradené akty, Artinbox, Prague, 30.5.-20.6.2014

OFF STATION, Moving Station, Pilsen, 17.5.-1.6.2014

OFF festival, Pisztoryho palác, Bratislava, Slovakia, 8.-.29.11.2013

Prague Photo, Kavkův dům, Prague, 22.-.28.4.2013
Jeunes Photographes, a Galerie Le Lac Gelé, Nimes, France, 27.3.-17.4.2013

Interpretace aktu, Dům umění, Opava,9.11.-30.12.2012

Já, ty, my, Prague Photo – DOX, Prague, 23.-29.3.2012

Já, ty, my, Dům umění, Opava, 20.1.-4.3.2012
Filmový festival CINEMATIK, Piešťany, Slovakia, 9.-.15.9.2011
Czech Press Photo 2010, Staroměstská radnice, Prague, 9.11-31.12.2010

Own publications:
ZUličníci, 2018

PHOTOMAN!, 2014

Classic Steps, 2014

STREET KIDS, 2012

Collective publications:

30. Trierenberg Super Circuit, 2021

Special Themes Circuit, 2021

Three Decades, 2020

Katalog 25 let ITF, 2015

Interpretace aktu, 2012

Já, ty, my, 2012
Obraz, v kterém žijeme, 2011