Alena Matějka

Among the artists who have the gift of engaging narrative is sculptor Alena Matějka. After glass school in Kamenický Šenov, she completed her master’s and doctoral studies in the glass studio of Prof. Vladimír Kopecký at the Prague UMPRUM, including a two-month internship at the Glasgow School of Art in Scotland. Today she lives in the Czech Highlands, but spends part of the year in Sweden and Italy. She enjoys collaborating with her husband, stone sculptor Lars Widenfalk.

Although Alena Matějka’s material is not limited to glass, it is irreplaceable in her work. What other material could also combine the transience of the moment with eternity, literally freezing in time and creating a seemingly static cabinet of curiosities, in which reality and fiction, empathy and irony are dynamically intertwined? Alena Matějka’s fused glass sculptures, often in combination with other elements (including stuffed animals), make the viewer uncomfortable, do not give him a comfortable feeling of certainty and force him to react.

She does not tell her stories in a linear way, on the contrary – she revels in paradoxes, plot twists and surprising contexts. He manages to organically combine what theorists sometimes call high and low art. She works brilliantly with hyperbole and provocation, which is why her narrative is so engaging and inspiring.