Jiří Dlask (1951–2013) was a Czech painter, graphic artist, and philosopher whose surrealist work drew extensively on dreams, the subconscious, and the landscapes of the Bohemian Central Highlands. He lived and worked in Ústí nad Labem throughout his life, developing a personal visual language in which mysterious landscapes and dream imagery became recurring subjects.

Born in Ústí nad Labem in 1951, Dlask studied at the Secondary School of Glassmaking in Kamenický Šenov and trained as a glass grinder in Nový Bor. He later graduated from the Václav Hollar Art School in Prague, specializing in promotional and applied graphics. He also studied at the Secondary School of Applied Arts in Brno, where he studied promotional graphics under Dušan Pavlů and Jan Rajlich.

Dlask worked across painting and graphic art while also pursuing philosophy and writing. He regularly explored the landscape of the Bohemian Central Highlands, which became an important source for his imagery. Dreams were equally central to his practice. He described them as a kind of cipher for waking experience and a partially open door into the human mind, ideas that informed the mysterious and introspective character of his paintings and prints.

Alongside painting and graphic art, Dlask worked in applied graphics, creating logos, posters, postcards, and other graphic materials. He also designed the flag of the statutory city of Ústí nad Labem. In 2012, he wrote the travel essay Do Čech se vrti draci. His body of work includes approximately 270 paintings, serigraphs, drawings, collages, and works incorporating vinyl.

Dlask died in 2013. His work was later presented in Ghosts in the Landscape, an exhibition at the Regional Museum in Ústí nad Labem examining his paintings, graphic work, and connection to the landscapes of the region.

Jiri Dlask