Foyer Cinema Světozor, Prague (18. 6. 2020 - 30. 8. 2020) —
Graphic artist, graphic designer and teacher / working in Brno.
In total, 130 posters by Jan Rajlich are being held in our collection.
Jan Rajlich was born on June 10, 1950, in Vyškov, Moravia. He graduated in architecture at the University of Technology in Brno (studying there 1968–1974) and then, he was an interior architect at the State Project Institute of Commerce in Brno until 1980. During the years 1983 to 1989, he taught industrial and graphic design and its typography at the High School of Arts, Design and Architecture in Brno. Since 1987 he has been lecturing graphic design externally, and since 1994 internally at the University of Technology in Brno, where he also became the head of the Department of Industrial Design at the Institute of Construction, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering (1996–2014). He was awarded a degree of a senior lecturer in Graphic Design at the University of Arts, Design and Architecture in Prague (1995).
So far, he has lectured abroad (India, Iran, Japan, Lithuania, Mexico, the Netherlands, Austria, Russia, Scotland, Slovakia, Taiwan, Ukraine and the USA) and was a member of many international juries (e.g. Kharkov, Mexico, Moscow, Rzeszow, Tehran, Taipei, Trnava, Zagreb, Žilina, etc.).
Member of the SČVU (1988–1990), Sdružení Q Brno (since 1990), from 1992 Association of the Biennale Brno (and its chairman since 1999). He was also a member of the organizing committee of the International Biennial of Graphic Design Brno (1985–2004) and the president of its three years (1993–1998).
He organized already about 30 collective exhibitions, published 200 articles on graphic and industrial design, is working as the editor of SBB – the news from the world of design (since 2000) and the newsletter of the Q-Bulletin (since 2008).
He organized 28 exhibitions of posters, graphic design, serigraphy and of paintings (e.g. Ahmedabad, Bratislava, Brno, Emmerich, Fort Collins, Moscow, Olomouc, Osaka, Ostrava, Prague, Vyškov, Warsaw, Vienna, etc.) and exhibited at 250 collective exhibitions both at home and abroad (Brno Biennale, Fort Collins, Chaumont, Lahti, La Paz, Lille, Mexico, Mons, Moscow, Ningbo, Northridge, Ogaki, Oostende, Paris, Quito, Rzeszow, Sharjah, Shenzhen, Sofia, Taipei, Tehran, Tokyo, Trnava, Warsaw, Wroclaw, Zagreb, Zilina, etc.).
The main domain of his work is drawing, but painting adds up in the 70‘s and 80’s, too. Since the mid-1980‘s, he has been one of the pioneers of computer graphics in our country. With the use of the serigraphy technique, he was creating free graphics. In recent years, he focused on author posters with so-called automatic texts, similar to concrete poetry. He printed around 150 posters, 50 serigraphs, and about 500 smaller graphic works (catalogs, anthologies, newspapers, magazines, brochures, programmes, calendars and so on). From the 70‘s, he cooperated with his father Jan Rajlich Sr. on the unification of the visual style of BVV and other various pictographic systems (e.g. Výrobní družstvo, Slovácké strojírny, Adast, Hotel Morava Pohořelice). He elaborated the design manuals for Orgrez, MEZ Mohelnice and Olšanské papírny. He designed many corporate brands, coats of arms of 6 city districts in Brno, orientation maps of the city of Brno and further on.
Since 1974, he collected various prizes in professional competitions in brand and poster designs, the 1st prize for painting at the Trienniale 15/30 Brno (1978), honorable mention for Painting at the Young Artists Festival Brno (1980), The City of Brno Prize in Applied Arts (2001) and a silver medal of the University of Technology in Brno (2017).
The exhibitions being held in Aero, Oko and Světozor cinemas in 2020 are supported by the Prague’s City Hall.