PF 2021

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to our friends, co-workers and partners from all of
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Alena Matějka – Cabinet of Curiosities

The exhibition by Alena Matějka called Cabinet of Curiosities will be in Galerie Kuzebauch from 17th December 2020 to 26th February 2021.

One such artist possessing a gift of storytelling is the sculptor Alena Matějka. After graduating from The Glass Art School in Kamenický Šenov, she studied in the Glass Studio of professor Vladimír Kopecký at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague, with a two-months internship at the Glasgow School of Art in Scotland. Nowadays, Matějka lives partly in the Vysočina region, as well as alternating between Sweden and Italy. She often collaborates with her husband, the stone sculptor Lars Windenfalk.

Though not working with glass exclusively, it has an irreplaceable position in Matějka’s body of work. What other material would be able to connect the transient with the eternal, freeze time and create a seemingly static cabinet of curiosities, that would tumultuously intertwine reality with fiction, empathy with irony. Alena Matějka’s cast glass sculptures, often in the combination with other elements (such as stuffed animals), unsettle the viewer, providing no comfort and forcing them to interact.

Jiří Pelcl – Sevenvases

You can see the exhibition Sevenvases from Jiří Pelcl in Galerie Kuzebauch from 1st October to 11th December 2020.

As an established Czech architect, designer and long-term professor at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague, Pelcl has been interested for a long time in topics on the intersection of sustainability and the seductive forces of consumerism.

Nowadays, environmental issues are part of the golden fund of all intellectual discussion, even amongst artist and designers. These issues became part of mainstream topics, thus lessening their impact, often resulting in mere demonstrations or descriptions of the status quo. Fortunately, there are still those, who can take this topic and transform it without any grand gestures into strong and impressive pieces. Jiří Pelcl (*1950) is among them.

The Sevenvases collection can be understood as a story of rebirth: seven materials, each designated for different applications, repurposed within the universal framework of a vase – like the ancient amphora from the early years of our civilisation. For someone, these can represent seven layers of heavens, seven spheres of the world, seven symbols aspiring towards a perfect harmony; for others, these are “merely” curious interior artefacts. However, Jiří Pelcl was able to revive seven banal, seemingly unattractive and uninteresting materials and give them back a sense of meaning and value. He is able to quietly convey to those interested that design can be more than just a pop-cultural idol.

František Jungvirt and Barbora Kotěšovcová – Fashion Glass

From 7th August to 25th September you can see an exhibition of František Jungvirt and Barbora Kotěšovcová in Galerie Kuzebauch called Fashion Glass.

The glass artist František Jungvirt (*1996) and fashion designer Barbora Kotěšovcová (*1997), both students of the Academy Arts, Architecture and Desing in Prague (UMPRUM), went a even further in their collection for Galerie Kuzebauch. Not only do they combine glass and textile, they also worked together from the very beginning. The result is a collection of organic creations, evoking previously unknown alien life-forms, or organisms invisible to the human eye living with us unseen for millennia. The aesthetics of individual objects and their use of materials is conceptually and functionally connected, just like on the runway, the body of a model is connected with their clothing, or the way a glass object touches its plinth. Thus, the title Fashion Glass, referencing the environment of fashion shows and art presentations.

Veruschka – Photo by A. Willow

Despite all existing theoretical works, art is still an incomprehensible entity. There is no guaranteed recipe to access it. There is no objective idea of what it does or does not constitute, which is a view that shifts with new generation of critics. František Jungvirt and Barbora Kotěšovcová came up with a concept that is not self-serving. It very articulately shows that there are numerous paths towards the finish line, even though its direction may not be certain at the first sight. In the spirit of the ancient saying – Seek and ye shall find!

Claudia – Photo by A. Willow

 

Lada Semecká – Haiku

From 12th June to 31st July you can see an exhibition of Lada Semecká in Galerie Kuzebauch called Haiku.

For many years, Lada Semecká lived in Japan. It is this experience that formed a crucial aspect of her creative identity, whether it is the power of contemplation, a certain depth of thought or a naturally minimalist expression. Her honesty, humility and modesty, is never contradicting the artistic confidence, but on the contrary, it provides strength and makes her art authentic. For self-reflection, in her case, is truly a knowledge of the self, rather than a mere a show for the audience.

Its Snowing!, 2020

Lada Semecká’s objects evoke Japanese haiku – three short, lyrical phrases that she adores. One can read these poems in mere seconds, or it can take their entire life. Semecká’s art can be viewed in a similar fashion, as lyrical poetry about nature and its relationship to humans. It deals with the experience of the permanent, the fleeting; the fixed and the changing. It asks for an attentive reader. Protagoras is believed to have said in a similar spirit: “Of all things the measure is man, of things that are, that they are, and of things that are not, that they are not.” Thus, for some Lada Semecká’s work pose as aesthetic object, for others they are the bridge between inner and outer worlds that are barely sensed at first, as if perceived through the depths of a lake. It is up to the individual to accept this invitation and dive in.

Petrovice – Church Vistas

Achema 2021

Even though the internation trade fair and congress for chemical engineering, environmental protection and biotechnology is taking place next year, the preparations are in full swing since the end of 2019! Achema is going to take place from 14th to 18th June 2021 in Frankfurt am Main, after a three year pause.

If your company is interested in exhibiting on the trade fair, you can find all important information about registration on the official website.

If you would like to come to Achema as a visitor, all the information including exhibitiors, journey and halls can be found on the Achema website in the visitors section.

Looking forward to see you in Frankfurt next year!

Zuzana Kubelková – Heads ‘n Tails

Galerie Kuzebauch is closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, so you can visit  the exhibition  by appointment only (from 19th March to 5th June). Should you like to visit us, please contact us via mail or phone (+420 732 160 181). All objects from this exhibition are available at Artsy.net.

Shrimp, 2019

Zuzana Kubelková (born 1987) is among those of her generation of glass artists that has developed an affinity for interspersing black and white colours, as well as contrasting the front and reverse sides of her art objects. Additionally, Kubelková has developed a reputation for experimentation with different materials and techniques, as well as seeking artistic solutions both internal and external. Which means that her natural field of artistic creativity is not three, but rather four-dimensional. Whether melting down fibreglass, conjuring up facial visages wrapped in fibreglass cloth, or combining various materials, Kubelková’s works are guaranteed to be both bold and original. Indeed, Zuzana Kubelková’s interactions with glass undoubtedly go far deeper than a mere summertime romance.

Tremors, 2019

Galerie Kuzebauch at Collect 2020 – Metaphors of Nature

During Collect 2020 (27th February – 1st March) in London, Galerie Kuzebauch will showcase for the second time the exceptional pieces of Czech studio glass, created mainly by a generation of artists born after the 1970s. Their work with glass as a material consists of both differences and similarities.

Klára Horáčková, Evolution Space I, detail, 2018.

The exhibition presents two distinct ways through which the natural world influences the works the few selected artists. Firstly, artist such as Klára Horáčková and Anna Polanská draw directly from the morphology of the environment around them. Inspired by tectonic shifts, the erosion of soil or by natural elements – their pieces represent nature in its purest form, as a force to be reckoned with. The other three artist presented derive inspiration mostly through geometry – an organic vocabulary of shapes, colours and surface structure. Such are the works of Ondřej Strnadel, Petr Stanický and Milan Krajíček.

Ondřej Strnadel, Vessel, 2020.

In the Metaphors of Nature exhibition, Galerie Kuzebauch explores these different, yet connected approaches to glass art in an attempt to find a common reason behind such a powerful inclination to the natural world.

Vladimir Klein – The Depths of Contrast

From 24th January to 13th March you can see a new exhibition of Vladimír Klein in Galerie Kuzebauch called The Depths of Contrast.

Vladimir Klein, a graduate of, and subsequently also a director of, the Secondary School of Glassmaking – Kamenický Šenov (SUPŠS), and a student under the noted Czech glass artist Stanislav Libenský at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague (UMPRUM), is a globally renowned Czech glass artist. He was the first Czech to teach at the prestigious Japanese Toyama City Institute of Glass, which has since become a major hub for artists from the “Heart of Europe”.

Orange Balls, 2019

As a dexterous and inventive cutter of glass, Klein has developed his own method for decorating custom-made optical glass works, cutting surfaces with the aid of a video-assisted hand tool.In his current art collection, the artist utilised fused glass to a significant degree for the first time. Whereas earlier, his cast glass pieces were mainly based around geometric principles, this new technique has enabled the creation of almost naturalistic shapes evoking huge water lily leaves or slices of exotic plant life.

Orange Boat, 2017

Despite working with glass for more than half a century, Vladimir Klein hasn’t come close to recycling past ideas and we can still see his insatiable appetite for creation.

pf 2020

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to our friends, co-workers and partners from all of

Happy Materials!

We will be back in office on the 2nd of January.