15/4 – 11/6 2021
Czech studio glass has a renowned name in the world. Perhaps not surprisingly, Czech artist are sought upon lecturers and teachers in schools and universities all over the world. Apart from other European countries, this includes places such as Turkey, the U.S. or lands in the East. Although not exclusively, these are mostly short-term courses and demonstrations. For almost thirty years now, the Toyama Institute of Glass Art invites Czech glass artists, those able to connect both the artistic intuition with hand-crafting skills, to teach at the institute. In a way, artists from the very heart of Europe arrive as both teachers and students, enveloped in a completely foreign cultural environment with novel ideals. No wonder that in such an exchange, both sides leave traces on each other, traces that are tangible enough for years to come.
Václav Řezáč (*1977) is one of those with an experience in this mythical land of the Samurai. A graduate of both the High School of Applied Arts and Glassmaking in Železný Brod and the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague (specifically Vladimír Kopecký’s studio), Řezáč worked as a manager of Zdeněk Lhotský’s cast glass studio. Excelling in his own artistic and designer practice, his interests were originally in hot shaped and flat glass. Upon arriving to Toyama in 2016, where he spent the next three years, cast glass sculpture was among the few things that captured his imagination. Even though he previously knew all its technological aspects, his experience in this technique consisted of occasional experiments here and there. All it took was a journey to Japan for him to find his own way of approaching it. There, he learned that the Western tradition of saying all or nothing is not interesting enough, what he excels at is the Eastern tendency to say everything and nothing at the same time.
Through this understanding, Řezáč was able to connect two seemingly unconnected things – the formal perfection of cast glass sculptures with an almost proverbial wild nature of hot shaped glass. His timid yet full objects with perfectly cut areas are consciously eroded and deformed by hot glass matter applied to them. The unexpected result is a testament not only to his patience, but also to a kind of bravery, one that intertwines order with chaos, creating a fleeting sequence of moments out of eternity. Řezáč’s works are refined and sophisticated, especially in their technological prowess, they are charming and prove that glass art still allows plenty of room for experimentation. One does not even need to put aside their craft and resign to the today’s obsession for concepts, those that transform glass into a mere material – to be abused rather than used.
Petr Nový
Chief Curator of Museum of Glass and Jewellery in Jablonec nad Nisou
Curator of Galerie Kuzebauch