SEEN: Icy organic glass lighting and design take over Prague shopping center

Jitka Kamencova Skuhrava Icefall (2011) takes center stage in the atrium at DBK Budejovicka, a shopping mall in Prague.

Czech glass artist and designer Jitka Kamencova Skuhrava is currently exhibiting her work at the DBK, a major shopping center in Prague. The center’s fifth floor is a gallery space devoted to showcasing up and coming work by young Czech designers. Included in her works on display will be lighting fixtures she created for Lasvit, a leading lighting design and fixture manufacturer. Her chandelier “Icefalls,” which first premiered at this year’s International Design Exhibition in Dubai as part of Lasvit’s Mysterious Forrest exhibit, will be prominently featured in the super store’s atrium. Icefalls is a cascade of glass and light emulating the way icicles are formed and inspired by time the artist/designer spent in Finland.

Jitka Skuhrava's design line entitled "Drops."

Skuhrava’s work is often nature inspired and tends to focus on nature’s small intimate workings rather than its sweeping landscapes. Her decorative vases, titled “Drops”, best illustrate how she incorporates this theme into her work. The vessel imitates the way winter ice melts as spring approaches. To replicate the way ice pools and shifts shape as it melts, she allows molten glass to form spontaneously without the aid of a mold. A pupil of Vladimir Kopecky, a Czech glass artist known for his massive installations, Skuhrava studied glass art in Finland as well as in the Czech Republic. Both her resume and artwork reflect that she is not only a fine designer but an expert glass craftsperson.

Her work will be on display for a full month at the DBK Galerie.

—Ruth Reader