Josef Divín

Josef Divín was born in 1982 in Valašské Meziříčí and graduated from the local glass art school, from where he went on to the Prague UMPRUM, where he attended studios under the guidance of professors Vladimír Kopecký and Vladimír Vančát. Josef Divín’s work balances between two poles: it alternates between glass paintings and objects made of blown glass; it oscillates between the cold nature of molten metal and the heat of burning glass. For the most part, the artist names his objects simply: Vessels. These works made of glass blown partly freely, partly into wooden or plaster moulds, often look almost raw, almost unprocessed; the artist is, in his own words, attracted to ancient Etruscan and Byzantine morphology. And indeed – his creations evoke a kind of modern variation on shapes from ancient history. He thus goes back to archetypal savagery and the aforementioned rawness becomes a means of expressing emotionality and perception of the world. “These are not just vases,” says the artist, “I work with them as a compact morphology. I give up utility, they become objects in their own right, which I perceive as vessels.”