Page 113 - ART POOL : 11 Contemporary Art Profiles

TOMAS HLAvInA | CzeCh repUBliC
www.hlavina.info

Tomas Hlavina was born 1966 in Decin, a small town in the north
of the Czech Republic. From 1986 - 1989 he studied art restoration
and from 1989 - 1992 at the studio of Intermedia Studies under Prof.
Milan knizak at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, graduating with
a Masters in 1992. In 1989 he received a five-month scholarship
at the Academy of Fine Arts in Tbilisi (georgia) where he studied
medieval georgian painting and architecture.

Hlavina has been exhibiting internationally since 1990, including
Ludwig Forum in Aachen (1994), Museum of Modern Art in vienna
(1999), Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona (2000) and Museé d’art
Moderne in Saint-Etienne (2004), Prague Biennale 2 (2005), SITE
Santa Fe (2006) and the national gallery in Prague (2007) and most
recently as a part of the large permanent collection of Hlavina’s
works at the wannieck gallery in Brno.

Hlavina is a recipient of grants from the Pollock-krasner Foundation
(1997), the Land niedersachsen kultusministerium in germany
(2003), and the Lannan Foundation (2006) and was an artist in
residence at the MacDowell Colony (2004), Santa Fe Art Institute
(2006) and the International Studio & Curatorial Program in new
York (2009-2010).
Hlavina’s objects and installations are usually very minimal pieces,
very simple ”models” from wood, metal, plastic and string. There is
no one single intention or interpretation for any piece, his objects
are more a visual metaphor that is open to various contexts and
interpretations. One could say that Hlavina’s minimalistic works
are more closely related to medieval art and to the art of ancient
civilizations than to contemporary art. One remarkable feature is
the underlying humour that pervades throughout his work.

Tomas Hlavina lives and works in Prague, Czech Republic.

| FloAT, 2003 oBJeCT (meTAl, wood) 43 in. | 109 Cm.
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