BLOK ČESKÉHO SKLA
MARIAN KAREL
Exhibitions:
• 1990 Kunstmuseum, Dusseldorf, Germany
• 1991 Prague Glass Prize Libenský/Brychtová Award for Excellence in the Art of Glass, Czech Republic
• 1991 Contemporary Glass, Yokohama Museum of Art, Japan
• 1992 Installation in the Czechoslovak pavillon at Expo´92 in Sevilla, Spain
• 1992 Glass Sculpture of Today, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Laussane, Swiss
• 1992 The Morris Museum, Morrsitown, NY, USA
• 1994 Old Town Hall, Prague, Czech Republic
• 1995 Space-Light-Glass, Ball Game Hall and Royal Gardens, Prague Castle, Czech Republic
• 1996 Form-Light-Glass, American Craft Museum, New York City, USA
• 1996 Couleurs et transparence, Musée de la Ville de Dunkerque, France
• 1996 Venezia Aperto Vetro, Venice, Italy
• 1998 Aucland Museum, New Zealand
• 1998 Glass and Space, Czech Museum of Fine Arts, Prague, Czech Republic
• 1999 International Open-Air Symposium at Klenová granary, Czech Republic
• 1999 Global Art Glass – Borgholm Castle, Sweden
• 1999 Glass and Space, Czech Centre, Paris, France
• 1999 Together, Museum Teplice, Czech Republic
• 1999 Museum Kampa, Praha, Czech Republic
• 1999 ART 99, Kunstmarkt Nurnberg, Germany
• 1999 A Grand Design, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England
• 2000 The Prague Contemporary Glass Art Exhibition, Grand Crystal Museum ,Tai Pei, Taiwan
• 2000 Umělecká Beseda, Mánes, Praha, Czech Republic
• 2000 Via 2000 Project, kostel sv. Václava Na Zderaze, Praha, Czech Republic
• 2000 M.Karel, A.Šimotová, J.Sopko, Obrazy sochy, hala banky Praha, Czech Republic
• 2000 Hida Takayama Museum of Art, Light Transfigured, Japan
• 2000 Heller Gallery, New York, USA
• 2001 Profesor Stanislav Libenský a jeho pokračovatelé, Severočeské muzeum, Liberec, Czech Republic
• 2001 Třista let českého užitého umění, Museum of Art v Takasaki, Japan
• 2002 Art faire Florida, USA
• 2002 Projekt Golem 2002 / 5763, UMPRUM, Praha, Czech Republic
• 2002 Un Salon Tchéque – 14 tchéques architectes et Marian Karel – Artiste ingote, IFA,Paris, France
• 2003 Look Light,The Moravian Gallery in Brno, Czech Republic
• 2003 El Golem 2003-5764, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina
• 2003 Umělecká Beseda 1863-2003,The Metropolitan Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic
• 2004 Vetri. Nel mondo. Oggi, Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettereed Arti, Venecia, Italy
• 2004 Statue for astronomer Zdeňek Kopal, Litomyšl, Czech Republic
• 2005 Cube, Borgholms, Slott, Sweden
• 2006 Sochy nad Prahou, Congress center, Prague, Czech Republic
• 2006 Marian Karel, Galerie Pokorná, Prague, Czech Republic
• 2008 Astronále, Prague airport, Prague, Czech Republic
• 2009 Marian Karel, Museo Madrid, Madrid, Spain
• 2009 Pražský festival, statue at the garden of the U.S. ambassy in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
• 2009 5x Marian Karel, Church of St. Anthony of Padua, Sokolov, Czech Republic
• 2010 Time gate and Historiogram, statue on the square of the King George, Cheb, Czech Republic
• 2010 New Sesitivity – Czech Sculpture from 1960 to 1980, National Art Museum of China, Peking, China
• 2010 Karel 66, Galerie Zdeněk Sklenář, Prague, Czech Republic
• 2010 8x Cube, statues in front of Belveder, Prague Castle, Prague, Czech Republic
• 2011 Glass, Galerie Nová síň, Prague, Czech Republic
• 2011 Marian Karel – Intersections, Museum Kampa, Prague, Czech Republic
• 2011 National Award for Art in Architecture, Prague, Czech Republic
The glass work of Marian Karel (* 1944) significantly interferes with architecture and draws on post-war minimalism and neoconstructivism. His works excel in purity and refined geometry, which causes the viewer uncertainty. Marian Karel pushes the boundaries and strains and disrupts our elementary perception of the possible. It creates a special stress between the fragility of glass and the weight of eg steel or stone. He allows the materials he works to balance on the edge of physical forces and creates a visual illusion. A bent cube stopped in a fall, a fragile glass plate trapped in a block of granite, or a heavy stone block on a glass base seem to deny gravity. Marian Karel unmistakably connected his work with the reconstruction of the Owl Mills in Kampa, Prague, where, according to his design, a glass tower with a staircase was created, topped by a monumental iron cube, which creates an illusory impression of instability. Similarly, a glass footbridge is designed, terminated by another atypical iron cube or stream, which divides the buildings into two branches. Today, Marian Karel is one of Stanislav Libenský's most important pupils. He became famous for many realizations in public space both in our country and abroad. He is a professor and head of the studio of industrial and experimental design at the Faculty of Architecture of the Czech Technical University in Prague.