INTRODUCTION

Rosana de Montfort is a native of Ostrava, who has been creating since early childhood under the influence of mentors, role models and teachers such as Karel Žaluda, Věra Špánová- Boudníková, Jiří Stejskal, David John Lloyd, Jaroslav Domiter, Giovanni Petretta and Ladislav Maria Wagner.

Her main themes of depiction are issues of civilizational continuity, technological development, emotional maturity and the relationship to values ​​that we inherit and newly construct. Her work can be characterized as imaginative realism - a distinctive painting language that connects the real with the mythical, the physical with the inner, and imagination with analytical observation of today's world. The media she uses for her paintings are mostly canvas, acrylic, oil paints, synthetics, sand and plaster, varnishes and pencils. In plastic and sculpture, she prefers materials such as expanded foam, acrylic, glass, cement, polyurethane, aluminum and wood.

From the age of 5 she attended the studio of Akad. mal. Karel Žaluda, where she continued as a pupil of the Primary School and a student of the Secondary School of Fine Arts in Ostrava. She also attended the studio of figure drawing by Jaroslav Domiter and the studio of Ladislav Maria Wagner in Ostrava. She commuted with her parents to private lessons in portrait painting with Jiří Stejskal in Olomouc. In 1991 she participated in external teaching and auxiliary work with a restoration team in Venice under the leadership of Giovanni Petretta. In 1994 she worked in Munich as a member of a team of restorers focusing on the painting of Alexander Koester.

In 1995 she opened the art hub and music club Matador in Kunstpark Ost in Munich, where she also created exhibition spaces. Between 1999 and 2003 she lived in Prague, where she joined a group of street art artists as one of the first girls in the Czech Republic. Here she participated in the production of graffiti jams in Těšnov, Orionka, Barrandov bridges and others. She led her life in the hip-hop scene not only through graffiti, but also through music production. She founded a recording studio in which she recorded several rap albums.

The move to the London scene in 2004 was followed by an offer to collaborate with JPM recordings. It was in Great Britain that she was able to reach the widest audience and at the same time develop her style with several new modern techniques and media. In addition to classical painting, she also created sculptures, street art and large-scale murals. Exhibitions and commissions for artistic and musical productions for British television channels such as Channel U, BBC Channel 4 and Lion TV followed. In 2009, she founded her company De Montfort Ltd. in London, which she still owns today.

Since 2020, she has been living more stably in the Novyjicin region on an old farm, where she enjoys painting and artistic activities in a reconstructed cowshed. She organizes art courses, teaches painting at a grammar school and organizes exhibition projects with Czech and foreign artists. Since 2021, she has been a member of the Union of Fine Artists of Olomouc, where she works in projects at the Olomouc City Gallery not only as an exhibitor but also as an organizer.

She runs the Moritz Gallery at Bílovec Chateau, and since 2019 has also been organizing exhibitions and discussions with artists at the small MonAmi Gallery. In 2025, after a 10-month renovation, she and her husband Russell will open the De Montfort Gallery in Nový JIčín and the Pavilon community center in Bílovec. Since 2022, she has been living in Malá Strana, where she studies Baroque art, attends training and consulting in technology and conservation.
Thanks to her participation in non-profit projects, she has received several awards, including recognition from the White House and the San Francisco City Council, as well as several Citizen of the Year awards and recognition for supporting and developing regional culture. Her dream is to leave behind values ​​and experiences that are worth remembering.

• Certificate of Merit from the City and County of San Francisco 2010
• “President´s Volunteer Service Award” from Barrack Obama 2010
• International Velazquez Prize, MAOM Barcelona 2019
• International Michelangelo Prize in Rome 2019
• Finalist “International Contemporary Masters“ Santa Barbara June 2019
• Finalist “International Contemporary Masters“ Santa Barbara August 2019
• Award of the City Council of Bílovec for Merit in Culture 2021
• Finalist “Circle Art Awards” Circle Art Foundation Paris
• Award of the City Council of Bílovec for Merit in Culture 2024

(Edward Charles Marsh, London 2025)

Prizes and Awards