Rony Plesl (1965)
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Rony Plesl counts among the top internationally recognised artists in the field of glass sculpture. His works are part of public and private collections in the Czech Republic and abroad. Since 2008, he has been the head of the Studio of Glass at the Academy of Arts, Architecture & Design in Prague, where he was appointed Professor of Design and Architecture in 2017. At this exhibition, he represents himself with six glass sculptures, five of which were created using the unique Vitrum Vivum technology. Rony Plesl was the first in the world to start working with this technology, which enables the hitherto unfeasible casting of monumental glass sculptures. He presented it in a global context at the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, Italy, in 2022. His art is not only engaging in terms of the technology used; he often works with timeless subject matters connected to humanity itself. His works have an intellectual depth related to his literacy and knowledge of history and art history and are emotionally and visually highly suggestive and sophisticated. Therefore, the topics chosen are often classic tasks that have always accompanied art history. Among the presented works, we would like to mention Memento Mori, a popular subject matter, especially in the Baroque period as a reminder of the finitude of human life, and Métamorphose, which can refer to both the knowledge of historically formative literature (Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Kafka’s Metamorphosis) and the natural cycle of life, as well as to Rony Plesl’s work itself based on changes. Transformations, or perhaps better said the very temporality of transformations, is captured in his works in a Baroque-Caravaggio manner. The plot seems to have stopped at a tense moment and that exact moment is presented to the beholder; like Conestabile Madonna – a cut-down tree with exposed annual rings in the shape of the classic motif of the Madonna and Child. A subject matter that refers not to religion or a specific faith but, as the artist himself says, to hope: “I don’t create religious art; I create things to remind people of the desire for hope because we all need hope.”
Selected exhibitions:
Trees Grow from the Sky, Collateral Event of the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, ITA, 2022
Sacred Geometry, V&A Museum, London Design Festival 2019, London, UK, 2019
Retrospective Exhibition, Belvedere, Prague, CZE, 2016
Three Czech Craftsmen: Rony Plesl – Ilja Bílek – Petr Stanický, Ernsting Foundation, Lette Glass Museum, Coesfeld, DEU, 2012
Vessel Gallery, London, UK, 2009
Rony Plesl counts among the top internationally recognised artists in the field of glass sculpture. His works are part of public and private collections in the Czech Republic and abroad. Since 2008, he has been the head of the Studio of Glass at the Academy of Arts, Architecture & Design in Prague, where he was appointed Professor of Design and Architecture in 2017. At this exhibition, he represents himself with six glass sculptures, five of which were created using the unique Vitrum Vivum technology. Rony Plesl was the first in the world to start working with this technology, which enables the hitherto unfeasible casting of monumental glass sculptures. He presented it in a global context at the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, Italy, in 2022. His art is not only engaging in terms of the technology used; he often works with timeless subject matters connected to humanity itself. His works have an intellectual depth related to his literacy and knowledge of history and art history and are emotionally and visually highly suggestive and sophisticated. Therefore, the topics chosen are often classic tasks that have always accompanied art history. Among the presented works, we would like to mention Memento Mori, a popular subject matter, especially in the Baroque period as a reminder of the finitude of human life, and Métamorphose, which can refer to both the knowledge of historically formative literature (Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Kafka’s Metamorphosis) and the natural cycle of life, as well as to Rony Plesl’s work itself based on changes. Transformations, or perhaps better said the very temporality of transformations, is captured in his works in a Baroque-Caravaggio manner. The plot seems to have stopped at a tense moment and that exact moment is presented to the beholder; like Conestabile Madonna – a cut-down tree with exposed annual rings in the shape of the classic motif of the Madonna and Child. A subject matter that refers not to religion or a specific faith but, as the artist himself says, to hope: “I don’t create religious art; I create things to remind people of the desire for hope because we all need hope.”
Selected exhibitions:
Trees Grow from the Sky, Collateral Event of the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, ITA, 2022
Sacred Geometry, V&A Museum, London Design Festival 2019, London, UK, 2019
Retrospective Exhibition, Belvedere, Prague, CZE, 2016
Three Czech Craftsmen: Rony Plesl – Ilja Bílek – Petr Stanický, Ernsting Foundation, Lette Glass Museum, Coesfeld, DEU, 2012
Vessel Gallery, London, UK, 2009
Trees Grow from the Sky
2022
crystal melted glass, Vitrum vivum technology
h 68 cm
No. 2/6 Crystal
ARTIST’S RECORD SALE
sold at 89th KODL Gallery Auction
Conestabile
Madonna2022
crystal cast glass, Vitrum Vivum technology
115 × 80 × 50 cm
No. 3/6
sold
Métamorphose2021
crystal cast glass, Vitrum Vivum technology
60 × 45 × 45 cm
No. 1/6
sold
Memento Mori2020
crystal cast glass, Vitrum Vivum technology
32 × 55 × 30 cm
No. 2/6
sold
Root with Roots2021
crystal cast glass, Vitrum Vivum technology
96 × 60 × 35 cm
No. 1/6
sold
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