Contemporary Czech Glass

13 March - 3 May 2003

Czech*mania, Contemporary Czech Glassmakers, flow

First exhibition of contemporary Czech glass and jewellery in London

From March till May 2003 the British public will have a unique opportunity to discover the charm of contemporary Czech design in glass and jewellery at a number of London venues.

Czech design may be better known for cubism and pre-war functionalism that contemporary style but Prague has recently become a hotspot of young talent.  The most striking examples can be found in glass, which successfully draws on long-term tradition know how, production facilities and independent workshops producing innovative designs.

The most renowned field of Czech design - glass- can be considered a European phenomenon. Young talented glassmakers, Dagmar Horokova, Zdenek Lhotsky, Lada Semecka, Jitka Skuhrava will present the renowned Czech technique of cold casting of glass. Barbora Skorpilova, who as an interior/product designer has also worked in glass, has produced a range of new acrylic jewellery for the show.

Dagmar Hovorkova

Dagram's functional glass has a very stark quality about it. The tubular, drinking vessels of strong architectural shapes have been inspired by boats rocking on the waves.

Zdenek Lhotsky

Glassmaker and designer, Zdenek Lhotsky, focuses on the development of mould melted glass techniques and their application in design, sculpture and architecture.

Studio Lhotsky uses original techniques to give glass objects a new and unusual look and is one of the largest of the two existing workshops of this kind in the world.

Lada Semecka

Lada creates both sculptural and functional pieces. Her more sculptural vessels are based on a sense of landscape, horizontal layers on mass, exposed to the effect of gravitational forces. Two bowls commissioned for flow, " Naiads" and " Sirens" owe their name to the nymphs of antiquity emphasising the fluidity and femininity of their movements.

Jitka Skuhrava

Jitka Skuhrava aims to communicate information about her personal view of the world and how she investigates it. Trust in the material is gained through immediate and consistent contact. Jitka believes that her table glassware 'is a challenge to get to know glass as a material; not merely to discover visually its optical properties, but also the actual experience it offers. The glass with which I share my life can be more than just tableware; it can become an expression of my lifestyle'.

Barbora Skorpilova

Renowned architect and interior/product designer, Barbora has recently designed a range of jewellery in clear acrylic. She believes that all her design is about communication between materials, object, environments and people. 'Even geometry in the right context can speak to the user in a poetic tongue and tell dramatic and adventurous tales'.