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Maxim Velčovský |
Maxim Velcovsky was born on 17 September 1976 to a family of artist Josef Velčovský. Between 1991 and 1995, he studied the High School of Applied Arts in Uherské Hradiště and, between 1995 and 2002, the Academy of Art, Architecture and Design in Prague where he graduated from the studio of ceramics and porcelain with Professor Šerák. It was already during the preparation of his thesis when he realized that it did not make sense to work on the design of porcelain set as he had planned. The reason was the fact that the contemporary ceramic industry is not interested to manufacture new products, and especially not those by the beginning artists. Maxim Velcovsky thus rather decided to design a collection of home accessories which today rank to his most famous realizations. The first one was a bowl in the shape of the Czech Republic which brings a high-value alternative to the kitschy souvenirs, but at the same time can work as an aesthetic object on its own. The plastic cup cast in porcelain (while the more famous designer, Marc Newson, came up with the same idea in the same time) was to popularize the undeservedly ignored shape and at the same time emphasize that the contemporary fast-food generation is most probably not going to leave anything valuable behind, since most of the objects of commonplace use is of throw-away character. The famous Digi Clock smartly combines kitschy historicism that decorates many Czech households with futuristic display. The porcelain cake-candlelight can bring festive atmosphere of a birthday celebration to an ordinary day solely by lighting a candle. And finally, there is the porcelain gum boot which elevates the scorned hillbilly shoe to a luxurious flower vase. Velcovsky’s thesis anticipated much of his future work. Velcovsky the freelance designer mainly works with the concept of transforming objects from their usual materials to porcelain and glass. He is also fond of working with artifacts characteristic of the pre-1989 period in the Czech Republic (matryoshkash, busts of communist leaders, trabant car). He decorates glazed porcelain with gilding or serigraph prints from the sphere of food-production and pharmaceutical industries, or the so-called onion patter which became so downgrade and profane during the so-called period of normalization in the Czech Republic. Velcovsky also loves to finish or remake already finished objects – whether it is kitschy porcelain figures or designer’s icons like Philippe Starck’s juicer or Werner Panton’s chair– while he used the latter in his most famous architectonic realization, the reconstruction of the St Bartholomew church in Chodovice. Quite controversial was Velcovsky’s ergonomically shaped laminate cross whose biggest variant (h. 4.5 m) can be found in the church of priest Ambrosius, designed by Josef Gočár, in Hradec Králové. Here, the designer points out at the fact that the cross – which once used to be a commonplace interior accessory of Christian households – did not undergo any development in form during the almost two thousand years of its existence. Maxim Velcovsky participated at dozens exhibitions and his works are part of numerous museum as well as private collections, e.g. those of the Museum of Applied Arts in Prague, the National Gallery in Brno and the Mudac collection in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Artworks of this author offered by Prague Art & Design
Maxim Velčovský
* 17.9.1976, Prague
Education
1991-1995 The Secondary School of Applied Art
1995-2002 Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design, Prague
Collections
The Museum of Decorative Arts, Prague, Czech Republic
National Gallery, Brno, Czech Republic
Mudac, Lausanne, Switzerland
Group Exhibitions
2003
Designblok 2003
2004
Maxim Velcovsky - Designblok 2004
2005
Exhibition Konsepti by Qubus design
Czech 100 Design Icons
2007
Maxim Velcovsky - Designblok 2007
CZECH GRAND DESIGN 2007
2008
Exhibition Chair 1 + 6
Designblok 2008
Form and Volume
ExperimentaDesign
Křehký by Designblok Prague, Milan Design Week
ICFF New York
100% Design Tokyo
2009
Maison et Objet Paris
