Biography | Andrej Jakab GLASS DESIGNER
Slovak glass designer and glass artist.
- Born 15. 1. 1950 in Bratislava, Slovakia
- 1965 - 1969 Secondary School Of Electrical Engineering, Bratislava, Slovakia
- 1969 - 1972 Faculty Of Electrical Engineering, Slovak Technical University, Bratislava, Slovakia
- 1973 - 1980 Optics, n.e. Bratislava, technician
- 1989 Member of ZSVU
- 1989 Became a freelance artist. Prolific glassmaker.
My works are included in international art collections like Corning Museum Of Glass USA; Museum Jan Van Der Togt Amstelveen Holland; Ernsting Stiftung Coesfeld Germany. Exhibited in USA, Canada, Japan and Europe, mainly in the Rob van den Doel Gallery in The Hague, Netherlands. Private Collections Sir Elton John. A major publication by Judith Miller: 20th Century Glass (London 2004, Bratislava 2005) gives a comprehensive overview of developments and technologies in the glass industry worldwide. The chapter on contemporary studio glass has profiles of 81 glass artists, including Andrej Jakab.
Andrej Jakab gives his works the titles indicating possible sources of inspiration and meaning.
The natural environment is represented for instance by lava, corals, a tree, a delicate dragonfly and a flying bird.
The human world is presented in the symbolic form: Icarus, Arcimboldo, Salvador (Dalí), a monk and a clown, Nemo and Man.
Andrej Jakab materialises and reflects in the shapes, stylisation and composition psychological states, feelings and processes; metamorphoses and concurrency; a dialogue between couples and also universe; dimensions and space.
Perhaps his works also display the crystalline origin and glass infinity...
Glass is an amazing material because it reflects everything on and under the surface. It is not possible to cheat, with glass. It has the fourth dimension, and this may be the reason of his fascination for this material.
Work with glass is a “confidential talk” for him. “It requires endless patience and humility.”
This glass is a real and “magical” aesthetic. It acts as visual signals and beacons, radiating light and colours. Such an opus is like a glass “monstrance”. It produces the light of artistic faith. It extols the glass catharsis. It is an illusion of a glass castle. It is a form of “nobility” amongst the artefacts of Modernism and Postmodernism.
In the silence of the glass we can see and hear its reflections, mirroring and the crystal tones of its music. The glass artist Andrej Jakab is its composer and conductor.