JOSEF MAREK
Czech Republic/Cyprus sculptor
Home:00357 99601024
Cell : 00420 607736581
Email: pepikm@yahoo.com
Website:www.josefmarek.com
Education
1978-1982 Secondary school of glass art, Kamenický Šenov
1990-1996 University of Arts and Architecture ,Prague-Glass in Architecture
1994-1995 Alfred University N.Y., USA
Work Experience
1982-1986 glass worker , Crystalex , Nový Bor
- Art and craft Teacher, SOÚ sklářské, Kamenický Šenov
1989-1990 Designer and director of art glass experimental workshop, Umělecká řemesla, Prague
1997-2000 Visiting Professor, Toyama City Institute of Glass Art, Japan
Lectures: University of Sunderland UK, Contemporary Art Glass Society UK,Staffordshire University U.K.
Selected Exhibitions:
1991 Galerie Václava Špály, Praha
1991 Water Reservoir, Barcelona
1993 Hrad Sovinec
1994 Holsten Gallery, USA
1994-1996 Rob Van Den Doel Gallery, Holandsko
1995 Umělecko-průmyslové muzeum, Praha, Cena Swarovského
1995-1996 Galerie Langův Dům, Frýdek
1996 Národní technické muzeum, Praha
1998 Chappell Gallery, USA
1998 DAY.I.Can, Toyama, Japonsko
1998 Aichi Prefectural Ceramic Museum, Seto, Japonsko
1998 Museum of Modern Art, Takaoka, Japonsko
1998 Enomoto Gallery, Osaka, Japan
1998 Venezia Aperto Vetro 98, Italie
1998 Auction in aid of Sue Ryder Foundation, The Studio Glass Gallery, Londýn
1998 Glasgalerie Hittfeld, Německo
1999 The second contemporary glass exhibition in Satsuma, Japonsko
2000 Japanese Connections, The Studio Glass Gallery,Londýn
2002 Stone and glass, Czech Embassy, Tokyo, Japonsko
2004/05 Praha/Aichi-Japan-EXPO 2005~“V zajetí světla a prostoru“
2006 Masters of Modern Munchen
2006 SOFA Chicago
2007 SOFA Chicago
2008 Reflections on Contemporary Glass,Museum of art,santa Fe,New Mexico
2008 20 Jahre glasgalerie hittfeld:“Drei generationen“
2009 Connections-Contemporary european glass sculpture.
2012 Lei see,Koru contemporary art gallery Honk Kong
2015 Masters of Modern Munchen
Solo Exhibitions:
1999 Josef Marek – Glass Sculptures, Kaki Gallery, Toyama, Japonsko
2002 Give and Take, The Studio Glass Gallery, Londýn
2003 Josef Marek-skleněné plastiky,Galerie Langův dům,Frýdek
2010 Josef Marek-sculptures/ galerie Frank Picon,Paris
2013 Josef Marek-glass space,Galerie Minerva,Malmo,Sweden
2013 Josef Marek –glass sculptures Broft galéry Den Haag
2014 Josef Marek –glass sculptures ,Broft Gallery Leerdam
2014 Josef Marek-illusive space.Stoelting gallery ,Hamburg
2015 Josef Marek-glass sculptures,gallery of cultural center Cvikov CR
Work in Public Collections:
Toyama Museum of Glass,Japan
Glasmuseum,Ernsting Stifftung,Coesfeld,Germany
Barbara Achilles stiftung,Hamburk,Germany
Blioteka Alexandria,Egypt
Východočeské museum Pardubice
Competitions awords:
New glass review competition – 1992, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000,2005, Corning, USA,
Price of Daniel Swarowski – 1995
Art Buzz 2008 collection the bookUSA -second price
Nicosia Conference center art competition,3d price.
I believe I am not the first to notice that what Josef Marek has achieved in his visions and has materialised in his glass sculptures is certainly extraordinary and hugely
important. It is a monumental contribution to the cause of consciously attaining our totality in beauty and beatitude, to the cause of the knowledge of our Self in a state of silent and humble methexis (μέθεξις)* of the Primordial Beauty.
“We mostly live in Shadows. Greatest mysteries, silent all pervading Truths,
are written in the language of myths and poetry and in the silent language of sculptures”.
Are we guessing at shadows in firelight? Are we trapped in sensory modalities?
This is the essence of the platonic Myth of the Cave. Can one positively experiment on the Myth? I must answer "yes".
And this is how to do it sculpturally:
Ideas, universal Forms, come and seize your mind. It simply happens. The rest is just hard work. Carefully stage lines and surfaces,volumes and cavities, presence and absence, paths of light and shadows, all in glass, all in various degrees of transparency. Set up the alchemical laboratory of the senses and the perceiving mind. Then... snap ! An undeniable illusion is suddenly standing in front of our very own puzzled eyes. The ordinary senses are ceasing, stopping, slowing down from wandering endlessly. An illusion with no tangiblematerial/ substratum has opened the gate that leads from the tangible to the Idea. Nous (Mind) emerges, seeing inside itself, coming to itself,
seeing beyond the spatiotemporal, mainly proccessual, functional walls and boundaries raised by the gravity and the opacity of the sensible three dimensional, limited, commonplace objects.
Freed from gravity and opacity, the Mind is sliding over academic chatter, to enter into this silent,non verbal visual lab and ponder on the eternal non-individualistic truths about our hidden Oneness, our one and only essence as responsive and experiencing beings. In full splendour and with convincing power,
aided by Marek distinctively clear sculptural visualisation , the most abstract elements of the platonic Myth of the Cave are facing us, ready to discuss with us, but impossible to argue with us –since Ideal Beauty excludes the option of arguing. This is the summit of the human mysteries.
“We mostly live in Shadows.
Greatest mysteries, profound Truths
are written in the language of myths, poetry and in the silent language of sculptures”.
Antonios Sophocleus Evangelinos, Aioleus,
physicist,ontologist, philosopher 14.02.2014, Lesvos
* methexis (μέθεξις as written in Greek) means wide awake conscious ( or even super
conscious) participation, assimilation, corroboration and ontological union, in the most profound, deep, meaningful and holistic non-fragmentary way.