Glass made by women is often far more courageous, more experimental and created under very demanding conditions. Meet these 4 artists – Lada Semecká, Klára Horáčková, Eva Eisler and Vladimíra Klumpar – who disrupt the perception of Czech glass as a mostly male domain.
Vladimira Klumpar, Reveal,, Galerie Kuzebauch.
Vladimíra Klumpar is one of the best-known contemporary glass artists from Czech Republic. She gained an international acclaim with her cast glass sculptures that stems from the tradition of one of the greatest figures in the history of Czech glass: Stanislav Libenský. She is the recipient of a prestigious Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant and the Massachusetts Artist Foundation Fellowship.
Her long-term stays in Mexico and United States influenced her style and her artistic expression. Her works have been exhibited in galleries all over the world, and are included in the collections of The Corning Museum of Glass, the American Arts and Craft Museum in New York and many others. Her cast glass sculptures are inspired by either rigid geometric or biomorphic shapes. In her work light and the depth of space play crucial role.
Lada Semecká, Universe, 2014, Cast Basalt, 80x80x4 cm. Photo: Gabriel Urbánek.
Lada Semecká tells stories through unique properties of given materials and their origin. She has worked with glass, ceramics, sandstone, basalt, porcelain or paper. She studied glassmaking and engraving at the Secondary School of Glassmaking in Kamenický Šenov and later used her expertise when working as an engraver at the Carlsbad ́s Moser factory. She continued studying at the Institute of Art and Culture JEPU in Ústí nad Labem and later graduated at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague under prof. Vladimír Kopecký. She attended many different glass symposia and travelled abroad as an artist in residence. The other prestigious schools where she studied were in Riga and St. Petersburg and later in the USA, where she attended the Pilchuck Glass School. She also taught at AAAD in Prague before being invited to teach in Toyama City Institute of Glass Art, currently she teaches at the Faculty of Art and Design J. E. Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem.
She explores the quiet nature of glass and her fused glass hangings series “Flow” evoke fluidity and imagination. When working with basalt stone, she emphasizes its unique surface, resilience and resonance.
Klára Horáčková, White Shoots, 2018, Kilncast Glass, 12x12x41cm. Photo: Tomáš Slavík.
Klára Horáčková experiments with glass and transforms it into delicate forms. She uses her art to put forward a vision of evolution – biomorphic and almost otherworldly objects from fused glass, resembling basalt surfaces and rock formations, grand glass installations interacting with public space and interiors. “She is one of the most prominent creative personalities of her generation,” says Sylva Petrová, well-known glass curator and professor.
Horáčková is a visual artist and designer, who creates all her artwork in her studio in Prague, Czech Republic. She had earned her MgA. degree at Academy of Art, Architecture and Design in Prague at 2006 after studying at Glass Studio under the lead of prof. Vladimír Kopecký, and Sculpture Studio with prof. Jiří Beránek. Within her own art practice she often expresses the ideas through the material of glass and its diverse forms and techniques but doesn ́t limit herself solely to this medium. Her works vary from smaller sculptural objects and design to dimensional conceptual mobile installations or projects with new media.
Eva Eisler, From the Past – Amber, Galerie Kuzebauch, photo: Zdenek Porcal.
Eva Eisler is an internationally recognized sculptor, furniture, product and jewellery designer. Rooted in constructivist theory, her structurally based objects project a unique spirituality by nature of their investment with “sacred geometry.” The body of her work includes architectural installations, public spaces and exhibition designs. Eisler is also a respected curator and educator. She heads the award-winning K.O.V. (Concept-Object-Meaning) studio at Prague’s Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design.
Eisler’s work is represented in some of the world’s most prestigious museum collections, such as the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art and Museum of Arts & Design in New York, Smithsonian Institution – Renwick Gallery in Washington, Museum of Fine Arts – in Montreal, in Boston, in Houston or the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, among others.
Eva Eisler’s recent work is a manifestation of an intersection of the past and future. Together with glass sculptor Martin Janecký, she has created silhouettes from solid metallurgical glass referring to the archetypal image of goddess. The imagery stems from ancient rituals and fertility symbols.
Edited by Contemporary Lynx
COLLECT 2019
International Art Fair for Modern Art and Design
28 Feb – 3 Mar 2019
Saatchi Gallery (London)
