Michaela Spružinová is a member of a younger generation of visual artists with a very specific sense of artistic expression. A graduate of Ilja Bílek’s Glass Studio at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Ústí nad Labem, where the artist subsequently also worked for a brief period as an assistant. This was followed by curatorial studies in the same northern Bohemian town – and is a field to which Spružinová continues to occasionally devote her energies. The artist is also no stranger to foreign studies, having completed internships in Pésc, and Jerusalem. Currently teaching at the Glass, Space, Object studio at Tomas Bata University in Zlín’s Faculty of Multimedia Communications.
The artist’s works represent exciting narrative elements that showcase, mirror and communicate the themes resonating in our contemporary society. Michaela Spružinová’s works do this via a distinctive, simplified form and also via a method of shorthand drawing that evidently takes its inspiration from the worlds of pop art and the grotesque. Materials are adapted with the light touch of a confident master, subordinating them to existing drawing and painting concepts, with adornments and other such aristocratic excesses entirely expunged.
The resulting works display an expressive lightness-of-touch and sense of conviction, entirely masking the intensive behind-the-scenes efforts to meticulously craft each individual art object. Indeed, often slow and painstaking construction of a painting or object is required via the individual by-hand removal and assembly of glass threads from a molten mass. It is also not out of place to observe that Spružinová’s artworks are brimming with a very deliberate sense of feminine energy and emotion. Such space and illusory images serve as a stage on which to re-enact events suggested by an observation of life, our dreams and the harsh journalistic reflection that is part and parcel of learning about our world. For Galerie Kuzebauch, Spružinová has additionally created a site-specific installation of works featuring glass from the recently defunct Egermann glassworks. The output of this traditional and famous glassworks served as an inspiration for Spružinová, resulting in a distinctive mix of external and internal influences.
Michaela Spružinová’s works have been exhibited at numerous domestic and international exhibitions through renowned galleries. These include: the Elizabeth R. Raphael Founder’s Prize Award and Exhibition; the Pittsburgh Center for Contemporary Craft (US); Made by Fire, Moravská galerie, Brno; and Venice Glass Week, Giudecca Art District, Venice. Spružinová was also the winner of the Jury Prize at the 2023 Biennale of Glass in Dublin, Ireland.
In Zlín, Silvie Stanická
Exhibition curator
Zlatý déšť, 2024 — glass — 90x60cm — foto Jiří Dvořák
