Alena Matějka

We all have our own unique view of the world, but few people have the desire, courage and talent to compellingly express their perceptions and share their ideas with others. Artists, on the other hand, have always delighted in fearlessly telling their stories, opening our eyes and broadening our horizons.

One such artist is Alena Matějka, a multi-award-winning sculptor and glass designer whose insatiable curiosity about life and joy in experimentation have enabled her to create an extraordinarily wide-ranging oeuvre. Her unusual sculptures, objects and installations are exhibited and collected worldwide.

Rather than working exclusively with glass, Matějka also incorporates other elements such as stone, marble, ice and organic materials, often in combination. But glass still occupies a special place in her work. In this medium she creates a fantastic cosmos of opposites, such as truth versus poetic imagination, compassion versus irony. Her impactful sculptures and installations confront viewers with great immediacy, sometimes having an unsettling effect and demanding a reaction. Matějka’s artful storytelling never presents us with a linear narrative but is instead rife with metaphors and unexpected twists. She is a master of exaggeration, paradox and provocation, making the tales she tells with her works all the more suspenseful and inspiring.

Alena Matějka was born in 1966 in the South Bohemian town of Jindřichův Hradec in the Czech Republic. After training at the Kamenický Šenov School of Glassmaking, she studied until 1997 in the glass class taught by Prof. Vladimir Kopecký at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague, earning her doctorate there in 2005. Today she lives alternately in the Czech Republic and Sweden with her husband, the stone sculptor Lars Widenfalk.

In our new exhibition, we invite you to discover Alena Matějka’s art, as powerful as it is poetic. On view are around 40 wall and floor installations, along with sculptures and work groups, all of which reflect the versatile artistic repertoire of this exceptional artist.

Photo above: Alena Matějka, Aimable Amie, 2008 – Foto Gabriel Urbánek

Photos (from left):

Alena Matějka, She is not me, 2018 – Foto Gabriel Urbánek

Alena Matějka, Water, 2020 – Foto Gabriel Urbánek

Alena Matějka, Moren Clai Moor of Ptarmigan + Barabas an Clachan of Kilmur, 1998 – Foto Hildegard Morian

Alena Matějka, Between Heaven and Earth, 2015  – Foto Ondřej Kocourek

Alena Matějka, Aimable Amie, 2008 – Foto Gabriel Urbánek

Alena Matějka, Feast (table), 2013 – Foto Gabriel Urbánek (Detail)

Alena Matějka, Feast (table), 2013 – Foto Gabriel Urbánek

Alena Matějka, The House of the Six Hawks, 2007 – Foto Ondřej Kocourek

Alena Matějka, Cuckoo´s Nest, 2015 – Foto Gabriel Urbánek

Alena Matějka, Rose, 2007 – Foto Gabriel Urbánek

Alena Matějka, Treasure Guardians, 2020 – Foto Gabriel Urbánek

Alena Matějka, My Dear, Hunter from Lavondyss, 2009 – Foto Gabriel Urbánek