KAI SEBEK
Kai Sebek (1997) is Czech visual artist, photographer, and illustrator based in Prague. Her interdisciplinary work explores the boundaries between reality and fiction, often blurring the line between the natural world and imagined realms. Deeply inspired by wilderness, organic patterns, and the quiet language of remote places, her practice revolves around long-term environmental storytelling.
Her main focus is Woven Worlds, a hybrid narrative project that merges documentary and fiction to raise awareness about fragile ecosystems through visual narratives, field research, and character-based fairytales.
She often works in the field, spending extended periods in solitude among forests, mountains, or frozen landscapes, with a camera and sketchbook in hand.
Her work opens up new ways of exploring the world – beyond screens and outside the bounds of consumer tourism. Through visual storytelling, she draws the viewer into the narrative of Woven Worlds, inviting them to become the main character within.
The world is outside.
ARTIST STATEMENT
I grew up in fantasy worlds and adventure stories. They were my refuge, a place of freedom and play. That need never left me. Even as an adult, I continue to shift between reality and imagination, and my artistic practice has become a way of exploring where that in-between space exists now. I believe the wonder we carried as children is worth protecting. Imagination is not something we outgrow, but something many of us simply forget how to use. Through playful visual storytelling, I try to awaken a sense of discovery, empathy, and respect for the natural world and its hidden rhythms.
My goal is not to moralize. I want to invite the viewer to become an explorer, the protagonist of their own story. And perhaps, in doing so, rediscover something about the world they thought they already knew.
And it’s breathtaking.
Waiting to be rediscovered.
CAREER EXPERIENCE
• 2017-2019 Graphic and illustration services for commercial projects
2018 Photography of commercial projects and charity events, including documentary work in cooperation with several homeless foundations
2018 Street Photography and Documentary Photography in New York, a project called "Authentic Personality”
2018 Illustration of the project for the Prague City Hall (Children’s Oncology Day foundation project)
2018 Street photography in Dresden under the guidance of Jan Šibík
2018 Photography of the social project Contrasts in Cape Verde
2019 Obtaining a tattoo license and establishing a tattoo practice
2020 establishing own art studio Kapitola
2022 Personal illustrative-photographic project "Woven Worlds”
2022-2025 Woven Worlds photo expeditions (Tenerife, Madeira, High Tatras, Alps, Iceland, Spain, High Artic…)
Publications, Exhibitions, Awards, Residences :
2013 Publication of a short story in the anthology Rytiny (fantasy/sci-fi)
2014 Publication of a poem in the anthology Rytiny (fantasy/sci-fi)
2015 Art Group Exhibition Human (author's work on the theme "Fables and Slavic Mythology”), Prague
2015 prize Prague Literary Competition Čapkoviny (prose)
2015 prize Trutnov Dragon Literary Competition (prose)
2015 Face2art Prize (short story category)
2016 Face2art Prize (photography category)
2016 Prize in the literary competition "My World" (prose category)
2017 Prize in the literary competition "My World" (poetry category)
2016 Prize in the Prague literary competition Čapkoviny (prose)
2018 solo art exhibition “Carnivore” (linocuts, pen drawings)
2024 publication (interview) at magazine Visual art journal
2024 exhibition A Glimpse into the Woven Worlds
2025 participant at The Artic Circle Artist and Scientist Residency Program, Svalbard, Norway
2025 publication (interview) at magazine Collect Art
2025 selected on NORTHERNNESS International Exhibition by LoosenArt gallery
2025 selected on PhotoPlace Gallery exhibition TRAVEL: People, Places, Things, + honorable mention
2025 publication at Al-Tiba9 Contemporary Art Magazine ISSUE19