The prestigious international Stanislav Libenský Award is awarded every year to young graduates of art colleges who have used glass in their thesis project. This, the ninth year of this award and competition exhibition put on by the Prague Gallery of Czech Glass in cooperation with the DOX Centre, features works by thirty artists from nine countries, who were selected in the first round by an international jury comprising respected experts and glass artists.

“I would like to highlight the exceptional space, excellent scenography, and balanced presentation of works in this year’s exhibition. As far as the selection of winning works is concerned, though it will sound like a cliché, I have to say that though I’ve been on a number of international juries, choosing the winner of this year’s Stanislav Libenský Award has been probably the most difficult for me. We compared a broad spectrum of works involving glass ranging from the craft through design to conceptual works, which is very demanding,” said the president of this year’s jury, Jeroen Maes, artistic director and one of the founders of the GlazenHuis glassmaking centre in Lommel, Belgium.
The jury picked three winners from among the thirty participants and handed out one special prize.

This year, the first prize remains in the Czech Republic. The author of the winning work is Martin Opl (CZE), a graduate of the University of Jan Evangelista Purkyn? in Ústí nad Labem. His installation Visible and Invisible (2017), which uses a simple light polarization scheme – polarization by reflection from the glass surface, was chosen by the jury for its excellent work with space, artificial light, and its reflection. The first prize includes a three-week stay for the winner at the Pilchuck Glass School in the USA.

Second place went to George William Bell (GBR), a graduate from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. His work entitled Specimen of Abstraction (2017) was chosen by the jury due to its technical qualities and workmanship, a sort of dynamic canvas of lines, colours, and movement. The second prize includes a work term for the winner at the Ajeto glassworks in Nový Bor and Lindava in the Czech Republic.
Third place went to Patricia Šichmanová (SVK), a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava. Her work entitled Fluidity (2017) focuses on the study of motion and kinetics, based on water movement, its variability and light properties. The jury praised the idea, the contrast between the composition and technique and its unusual execution. The third prize includes a two-day programme that includes a visit to the AGC Technovation Centre flat glass research centre in Charleroi, Belgium.
The special prize, which involves an intensive two-week course in the studios of the Corning Museum of Glass in the USA, went to Jinya Zhao (CHN) for her work Foggy (2017).

The Stanislav Libenský Award 2017 exhibitionis a tribute to Stanislav Libenský, a glassmaking legend along with Jaroslava Brychtová. Together they advanced the artistic technique of mould melting, which they infused with artistic emphasis, monumentality, and timelessness. Their works are exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the world.

International juryKaren LaMonte/ US artist and sculptor
Mária Gálová / director of the Czech branch of the Dorotheum auction house
Marta Gibiete / Latvian glass artist
Jaroslav Polanecký / design teacher, historian, and theoretician of applied art and design
Jeroen Maes / artistic director and one of the founders of the GlazenHuis glassmaking centre in Lommel, Belgium.
Consultant Milan Hlaves, head of the glass, ceramics, and porcelain collection at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague

Exhibiting artists Alys Rainbird, Anna Józefowska, Anna Varnase, Annik Mätlik, Ayaha Fujiwara, Baiba Dzenite, Barbora Stefánková, Daniel Kinský, Dylan Martinez, Gabriela Osiniak, George William Bell, Gunag Wen Weng, Jinya Zhao, Karlis Bogustovs, Kristýna Venturová, Lenka N?mcová, Maki Hattori, Mari Tamura, Maria Gogola, Martin Opl, Patrícia Šichmanová, So?a Dermeková, Tomáš Krej?í, Tomás Prokop, Xiaoyan Lin, Yangchen Zhao, Yaxin Ye, Yoko Kanai, Yuyuan Zhang, Zuzana Skalická and Stanislav Libenský & Jaroslava Brychtová

The exhibition is open to the public at the DOX Centre from 22 September – 20 November 2017 daily except for Tuesday: Mon 10–18, Wed and Fri 11–19, Thu 11 – 21, Sat-Sun 10–18 

 
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DOX CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART
Poupetova 1, Prague 7
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