Back On The Road

Designers and glass artists Milan Krajíček and Václav Řezáč will hold their first joint exhibition of utility glass in the DOX BY QUBUS design shop. The Back On The Road exhibition will feature unusual glass pieces and attractive design, two perspectives on the usefulness of glass.

The artists studied together while they were still attending the High School of Applied Arts for Glassmaking in Železný Brod in Rony Plesl’s studio, and then at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague in Prof. Vladimír Kopecký’s glass studio. After graduating they went their separate ways, and twelve years on they decided to hold a joint exhibition of their new works.

The exhibition opening will take place in DOX BY QUBUS design shop on 3 October at 6 pm.

Aside from creating his own artwork, Václav Řezáč also designs drinking glasses that are manufactured in Czech glassmaking companies. He is currently working on a project whose goal is to interconnect the world of the sighted with the world of the blind via the glasses we all drink from on a daily basis. Řezáč decorates the glasses with Braille for the blind, who can then use the glasses for education or to distinguish materials according to need (wine, water, etc.). However, the glasses can also help give the sighted a glimpse into the world of the blind. Each Braille symbol is paired with a symbol used by the sighted, for example a letter.

“Although the asymmetric design of the glasses at first glance elicits a sense of uncertainty, they are actually quite stable. This is an important aspect, inasmuch as one target consumer group is to be the blind. From the perspective of exploring the world via touch, this set of works provides, not only for me, interesting variety and a reason for playful changes in the position of the fingers and palm while drinking. Another element whose nature combines well with the entire expressive concept of the set of works is the artist’s design of the sandblasted or engraved Braille lettering décor. This thus provides opportunity for free variations with writing for the blind, but sighted people can also learn to read the symbols. Václav Řezáč’s glass art is developing in a deliberate fashion in both as art and design, and is definitely bears closer examination.” This is how Mgr. Ivo Křen, curator of the glass collection at the Museum of East Bohemia in Pardubice evaluates Václav Řezáč’s work up to now.

Milan Krajíček works in the areas of design, fine art and teaching. He designs glass for companies such as Česká pojišťovna, Palmolive-Colgate, and Foxconn. For his studio called Animus m. r., he designs and produces limited-edition glass collections in which he searches for original and fresh technical possibilities and procedures. Since 2003, he has been the head artist at the Academy of Art and Design in Světlá nad Sázavou. Since 2005, he has been teaching art-related subjects in the Glass and Ceramic Restoration bachelor’s programme at the Institute of Chemical Technology in Prague.
In the exhibition at the design shop, he is mainly presenting his works created at the 2012 Vysočina International Glassmaking Symposium.

 “At this symposium, I created my vase objects only in the furnace. Red-hot glass bubbles were encrusted with large colour shards. The sharp edges of the shards were melted in a glass furnace so that they seem sharp, but aren’t dangerous to touch. I wanted the shards to become both the decoration of the vase and part of the object. The result is several vase objects that I am pleased with and that inspire me to further develop this technique,” said Milan Krajíček when explaining the fundamentals of his work at the symposium.