Jiří Šuhájek

Graduated from the Secondary School of Glassmaking in Kamenický Šenov, Czechoslovakia, 1961. After two years of working in the Moser Glassworks in Karlovy Vary, Czechoslovakia, 1962–1964, he continued his education in the studio of Professor Stanislav Libenský at the Academy of Applied Arts in Prague, Czechoslovakia, 1964–1968, and at the Royal College of Art
in London, Great Britain, 1968–1971. In 1971 he was designing for Italian glass factories: Venini, Murano and Venice.

Employed as a glass designer at the Moser Glassworks, Karlovy Vary, 1972–1994; ÚBOK
(the Institute of Interior and Fashion Design) in Prague, 1979–1994, and the Bohemian Art Glass, Vsetín, Czech Republic, 1993–2002. Glass instructor at the Art Glass School in Valašské Meziříčí, Czech Republic, 1999–2009, and at the Tomas Bata University in Zlín, Czech Republic, 2009–2010.

Since 1974, he has regularly participated in glass symposia in the Czech Republic (Crystalex – Nový Bor, Moser – Karlovy Vary) and around Europe. He has been sharing his experience with other generations of glass designers, lecturing and guest teaching in the USA, Belgium, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Sweden, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine.

He has been granted many national and international awards for his design and art. In 2010 he was honoured with the title Doctor Honoris Causa of Lviv National Academy of Arts, Lviv, Ukraine. He has participated in 50 individual exhibitions in Czechoslovakia, the Czech Republic, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Switzerland and in the USA, and in nearly 80 group exhibitions, both national and international: Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany, Great Britain, Finland, France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, and the USA.

His works are represented in many world museums and galleries, including: the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, USA; Hokkaido Museum
of Modern Art, Sapporo, Japan; Glasmuseet Ebeltoft, Ebeltoft, Denmark; the National Gallery in Prague and Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague; Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, Germany; Frauenau Glass Museum, Frauenau, Germany; European Museum of Modern Glass, Kunstsammlungen der Veste Coburg, Rosenau, Germany.

Towards the end of the 1960s he started to model original art works, including blown and hot-shaped glass objects and his own figurative sculptures to wire. Later, he blew rounded
and smooth figures, mainly female shapes. In the last few years, he has been working in free composition on giant figurative sculptures: The Four Seasons of the Year, the Venice Biennial, Italy, 1980; The Burning Bush, Shanghai, China, 2004; Bush, Dream House Rublovka, Moscow, Russia, 2006; Flower, Hotel Kempinski, Shenzen, China, 2006; Coral Tree, Dubai, 2008.