Martin Janecký

Martin Janecký (1980) is one of the most renowned glass sculptors worldwide. He gained his experience mainly in the USA, where he studied at the Pilchuck Glass School under the guidance of the eminent artists Richard Royal and William Morris. He subsequently became a sought-after lecturer at many art and craft schools from Alaska to Australia. In 2019, he founded his own glass Janecký Studio in Prague’s Kampa district. His works are part of state and private collections at home and abroad, and he exhibits in galleries and museums around the world. Perfectly mastered craftsmanship and at the same time deep artistic sensitivity can be seen at first sight in Janecký’s sculptures. He works primarily with a demanding technique that few people in the world have mastered – hand-shaping glass from the inside a hot bubble (‘inside bubble sculpting’). Janecký’s second technique is fusing glass in a mould, for which the artist uses 3D printing. With its help, he can create sculptures much larger in size and thus work not only with the gallery space, but also with the public space. Unlike a blown sculpture, a fused sculpture is made of solid glass. The most frequent subject of Janecký’s sculptures are human heads and busts, in which one can read his predilection for ancient cultures, Baroque and Classicist sculptural portraits and the work of the greatest master of the beginnings of modern sculpture, Auguste Rodin. By its overall impression, Janecký’s art takes us into the thoughts and moods of the artist himself, and – although it does not bear his physical form – it is in essence a self-portrait of the sculptor.