Vladimíra Klumpar
* 1954
“The whole earth, visible and invisible, lives mysteriously within man …” The timeless words of Czech poet Otokar Březina from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries could be a leitmotif for the life journey of Vladimíra Klumpar – and a motto for her art. In Klumpar’s case, art and life are bound together by experience, adventure and inspiration from surprisingly diverse environments, starting with the picturesque towns of ¬Bohemia’s foothills – first Potštejn, where Klumpar was born and grew up, then Železný Brod and the local glass school where she attended secondary school. During her university years, the beauty of historical Prague undoubtedly influenced the young artist’s sensibilities, but the main influence on her talent came from the time she spent in the famed studio of professor Stanislav Libenský at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design. Thanks to this charismatic teacher, Klumpar developed a genuine relationship to glass as a distinctive artistic material. Soon thereafter, a series of important events opened up the world for her. She arrived in the United States with an academic title, but here another school was waiting for her, this time the hardest of all – the school of life. It is from this school that she learned the most. It taught her to take an independent approach to art and gave her the space for experimenting with fused and slumped glass or combining glass with plaster and various laminates. It encouraged her to engage in patient trials that enabled a novel approach to the grinding and painting of glass and helped her find unconventional approaches to the modeling of various materials for molten glass sculptures. Her subsequent long-term stays in Mexico influenced not only her aesthetic style, but also provided her with a new outlook on the importance of colors. From here, we can trace her original approach to the magical colorfulness of glass objects and their inner spaces. Vladimíra Klumpar’s art alternates between an emphasis on geometric forms and organic forms. Sometimes her works contain a hidden inspiration from the dynamism of America, while at other times they possess a yearning for peace, harmony and being in consonance with Czech or Mexican nature. Generally speaking, however, her work is characterized by a philosophical subtext and poetic playfulness that makes it accessible to sensitive and perceptive audiences throughout the world.
Oldřich Palata
Solo Exhibitions
2013 Broft / Van der Horst Galleries, Hague, Netherlands
2012 Tajemství světla, Východočeská galerie, Pardubice, Czech Republic
2011 Heller Gallery, New York City, NY
2009 Imago Gallery, Palm Desert, CA
2008 Habatat Gallery, Tysons Corner, VA
2007 Marx Saunders Gallery, Chicago, IL
2006 SOFA Chicago—with Heller Gallery, Chicago, IL
2005 Marx Saunders Gallery, Chicago, IL
2005 Galerie Pokorná, Prague, Czech Republic
2004 SOFA Chicago—with Heller Gallery, Chicago, IL
2004 Habatat Gallery, Boca Raton, FL / with Michael Pavlik
2003 Vladimira Klumpar—Works from 1986 to 1998, Chappel Gallery, New York City, NY
2003 Imago Gallery, Palm Desert, CA / with Michael Pavlik
2002 Galerie Pokorná, Prague, Czech Republic / with Michael Pavlik
2001 Heller Gallery, New York City, NY / with Michael Pavlik
2000 SOFA Chicago—with Habatat Galleries, Chicago, IL / with Michael Pavlik
2000 Habatat Gallery, Boca Raton, FL / with Michael Pavlik
1999 Gallery Bershad, Somerville, MA
1998 Bohemian Gallery, Astoria-Queens, NY
1997 Sculpture and Drawings, Drury Gallery, Marlboro College, Marlboro, VT
1993 Winds, Channels and Drops, Canal Gallery, Holyoke, MA
1991 Heller Gallery, New York City, NY
1991 Holsten Gallery, Palm Beach, FL
1990 Sanske Gallery, Zürich, Switzerland
1989 Habatat Gallery, Chicago, IL
1988 Holsten Gallery, Palm Beach, FL
1984 Heller Gallery, New York City, NY
Group Exhibitions
2013 Glass International, Habatat Galleries, Royal Oak, MI
2013 Prag Festival, Galerie Pokorná, Prague, Czech Republic
2013 Art in Hainan 2013, Levant art gallery, Shanghai, China
2013 Shantz Galleries, Stockbridge, MI
2012 Glass International, Habatat Galleries, Royal Oak, MI
2012 Shantz Gallery, Stockbridge, MA
2012 Imago Galleries, Palm Desert, CA
2012 Glass 2012, Shanghai, China
2011 Glass International, Habatat Gallery, Royal Oak, MI
2011 Prague Festival 2010, US Cultural Center, Prague, Czech Republic
2011 SOFA Chicago (with Heller Gallery, New York City), Chicago, IL
2011 Glass Invitational, Habatat Gallery, West Palm Beach, FL
2011 Shantz Gallery, Stockbirdge, MA
2009 Prague Festival 2009, Mexican Embassy, Prague, Czech Republic
2009 Glass Invitational, Habatat Gallery, West Palm Beach, FL
2009 Connections, Prague, Czech Republic
2009 Shantz Gallery, Stockbirdge, MA
2009 Galerie Pokorná, Prague, Czech Republic
2009 Glass Invitational, Habatat Gallery, Royal Oak, MI
2009 The Museum of Arts and Crafts, Zagreb, Croatia
2008 Reflections of Contemporary Glass, New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM
2008 České a slovenské sklo v exilu / Czech and Slovak Glass in Exile, Slovenská
2008 národná galéria / The Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava, Slovakia
2008 Glass International, Habatat Gallery, West Palm Beach, FL
2008 Glass Invitational, Habatat Gallery, Royal Oak, MI
2008 SOFA Chicago, Chicago, IL
2007 Glass International, Habatat Gallery, Royal Oak, MI
2007 Glass Invitational, Habatat Gallery, Boca Raton, FL
2007 České a slovenské sklo v exilu / Czech and Slovak Glass in Exile, Moravská galerie v Brně, Brno, Czech Republic
2007 Holsten Gallery, Stockbridge, MA
2006 Glass Invitational, Habatat Gallery, Boca Raton, FL
2006 Glass International, Habatat Gallery, Royal Oak, MI
2006 Czech Glass, the Corning Museum of Glass, NY
2006 SOFA Chicago, Chicago, IL
2006 Sklizeň, Regionální muzeum v Mikulově / Regional Museum, Mikulov, Czech Republic
2005 Glass Invitational, Habatat Gallery, Boca Raton, FL
2005 Glass International, Habatat Gallery, Royal Oak, MI
2005 SOFA New York, New York City, NY
2005 SOFA Chicago, Chicago, IL
2004 Glass International, Habatat Gallery, Boca Raton, FL
2004 Group Exhibition at Imago Gallery, Palm Desert, CA
2004 Síla ženy, Bayer & Bayer Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic
2004 SOFA Chicago, Chicago, IL 218 219
2003 Glass International, Habatat Gallery, Boca Raton, FL
2003 SOFA New York, New York City, NY
2002 SOFA Chicago, Chicago, IL
2002 SOFA New York, New York City, NY
2002 Glass International, Habatat Gallery, Boca Raton, FL
2002 Glass International, Habatat Gallery, Royal Oak, MI
2001 Group Exhibition at Imago Gallery, Palm Desert, CA
2001 SOFA Chicago, Chicago, IL
2001 Glass International, Habatat Gallery, Boca Raton, FL
2000 SOFA Chicago, Chicago, IL
1998 Glass International, Habatat Gallery, Boca Raton, FL
1995 Glass America, Heller Gallery, New York City, NY
1995 Group Exhibition at Holsten Gallery, Stockbridge, MA
1994 Glass America, Heller Gallery, New York City, NY
1994 Group Exhibition at Sandra Ansley Gallery, Toronto, Canada
1994 Group Exhibition at Holsten Gallery, Stockbridge, MA
1993 Group Exhibition at Heller Gallery, New York City, NY
1993 Composition Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1992 Recipients of Mass—Artist Foundation Fellowship, Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, MA
1992 Gallery Society of the Arts and Crafts, Boston, MA
1992 Group Exhibitions at Heller Gallery, Holsten Gallery, Habatat Galleries
1991 Glass America, Heller Gallery, New York City, NY
1991 International Glass Invitational, Habatat Gallery, Boca Raton, FL
1991 The 1991 Glass Invitational, Holsten Gallery, Stockbridge, MA
1990 Glass America, Heller Gallery, New York City, NY
1990 Composition Glass Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1990 Sandra Ansley Gallery, Toronto, Canada
1990 International Glass Invitational, Habatat Gallery, Detroit, MI
1989 Glass America, Heller Gallery, New York City, NY
1989 17th Annual International Glass Invitational, Habatat Gallery, Farmington Hills, MI
1989 Glass Invitational, Holsten Gallery, Stockbridge, MA
1989 Fire & Ice, Piedmont Gallery, Salem, NC
1989 Small Scale Detail, Habatat Gallery, Detroit, MI
1988 Glass America, Heller Gallery, New York City, NY
1988 Glass Invitational, Holsten Gallery, Stockbridge, MA
1988 Glass International, Habatat Gallery, Detroit, MI
1988 International New Art Forms Exposition, Chicago, IL
1988 Small Scale Detail, Habatat Gallery, Detroit, MI
1984 1984 Glass Invitational, Holsten Gallery, Stockbridge, MA
1984 Glass International, Habatat Gallery, Detroit, MI
1984 Gallery Gotchalk-Betz, Frankfurt, Germany
1984 Československé sklo ’84 / Czechoslovakian Glass, Museum of Decorative Arts (UPM), Prague, Czechoslovakia
1983 Group Exhibition at Galerie Groll, Nuremberg, Germany
1983 Galerie Rob van den Doel, The Hague, The Nederlands
1983 Skleněná plastika / Glass Sculpture, Brno House of Arts / Dům umění, Brno, Czechoslovakia
1983 Galerie Karolina, Prague, Czechoslovakia
1982 1st Interglass Symposium Nový Bor, Cultural House Bohemia, Nový Bor; Museum of Decorative Arts (UPM), Prague, Czechoslovakia
1982 Dan Klein Gallery, London, Great Britain
1982 Czech Glass, Erfurt, Germany
1982 Exempla ’82—Young Creation, Munich, Germany
Selected Collections
Uměleckoprůmyslové museum (UPM) / Museum of Decorative Arts, Prague, Czech Republic
Seven Bridges Foundation, Greenwich, CT
Regionální muzeum v Mikulově, Mikulov, Czech Republic
Sklářské muzeum / Glass Museum, Nový Bor, Czech Republic
Severočeské muzeum v Liberci / North Bohemian Museum of Liberec, Czech Republic
Muzeum skla a bižuterie v Jablonci / Museum of Glass and Jewelry, Jablonec nad Nisou, Czech Republic
The Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY
Lannan Foundation, Palm Beach, FL
Wusham Museum of Art, Rucine, WI
Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC
American Arts and Craft Museum, New York, NY
Cafesjian Museum Foundation, Yerevan, Armenia
Awards and Grants
1981 School Award of the Academy of Applied Arts, Prague, Czechoslovakia
1991 New England Artist Foundation Fellowship
1991 Massachusetts Artist Foundation Fellowship
1997 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant
2007 Corning Museum Award Winners, Invitational Habatat Galleries, MI
2010 Corning Museum Award Winners, Invitational Habatat Galleries, MI
2013 Award winners 41st Annual International Glass Invitational Habatat Galleries, MI
