MARTIN JANECKÝ: STARMEN AND OTHER STUDIO WORK IN GLASS

Curator: PhDr. Sylva Petrová
Exhibition design: Ing. Dušan Seidl
Exhibition graphics: Ondřej Zeman
Films: Josef Horák

Martin Janecký has a transnational glass making charisma built on his mastery of hot glass techniques and is an international icon in his field.  His style of work, including his choice of subjects, is very different.   In our environment, he is a glass solitaire of a new type. His talent was able to grow not only because of his absolute concentration on his work, but also because the conditions and changes that this country has gone through in the last thirty years coincided with his personal setup.

Martin Janecký started blowing glass at the age of thirteen in his father’s glassworks in Poděbrady and, thanks to the open borders, was able to spend long periods of time travelling outside the country after the mid-nineties. He used his stays in Africa, India, Alaska and other places, especially in the USA (in Pilchuck – Seattle, in the studios of the Museum of Glass in Corning, etc.) for his professional development.  As a result, he has mastered the technique known in the Anglo-American parlance as insid sculpting – shaping a glass flask from the inside from the free hand at the kiln. Janecký, however, adapted this technique, which is mastered by only two other people in the world (but not in our country), to his own ideas, and thus became very different and famous.  He travels all over the world, teaching, demonstrating his skills and creating his original pieces.   In the Czech environment, Janecký’s mastery, diligence and results inspire great appreciation, but sometimes questions about where he will go from here. Martin Janecký will probably give an answer to this question in his exhibition, for which he is also preparing fused large heads of Stargazers, which will be realized by Studio Zdeněk Lhotský in Pelechov near Železný Brod. The Museum of Decorative Arts is presenting to the domestic and international public a large showcase of the productions that this young artist (born 1980) has recently created.