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Jerry Koza |
Architecture and design are very close to each other, and it thus comes as no surprise that an architect can turn into a designer and vice versa. This is also the case of Jerry Koza, the laureate of the Ladislav Sutnar Award (designed for young artists up to the age of 33) – a personality who represents a significant contribution to the Czech architectonic and designing scene. As an architect, he introduced himself by his weekend house in the Czech city of Kostelec nad Orlicí, realized in collaboration with his father-architect. No less interesting is Koza’s project of a fountain entitled “Animal” and designed for the city of České Budějovice. The fountain is composed of three parts which are connected to the columns of public lighting, while the latter at the same time work as water tanks. Between 2000 and 2002, Koza worked on the project and realization of a receptionist’s desk and the atrium interior of the new Eurotel building, developed within the studio A 8000. The receptionist’s desk, executed in a dockyard via a technology employed in building yachts, became both an inspiration and an impulse to create laminate interior objects as, for example, those entitled “Somersault”, “Lazybone”, and ”Udder”. From 2002, Jerry Koza – whose oeuvre is generally dominated by rounded forms – became more inclined to design, presenting his own collection at the 2003 exhibition “Art and Interior”. In the same year, he exhibited at the H.O.M.E. DEPOT in Vienna, at the “Das Möbel” and the “Tschechisches Design” in the same city, at the Prague “Designblok” event and other exhibitions. In 2004, Koza participated at the following exhibitions: “Designair” in Birmingham, “DesignMai” in Berlin, “Czech In!” in Vienna and the design biennial in St. Etienne. In the same year, he also established the company SYMBIO design s.r.o. with Andrey Yakovlev and Petr Malenický. In 2008, Jerry’s multi-use chair “Somersault” became part of the prestigious project eloquently entitled “The Czech Hundred: 100 Years, 100 Icons of Czech Design” and representing the most outrageous designing acts of that period. In the same year, Koza’s designs appeared at the exhibitions “Impressions” (Rudolfinum Gallery, Prague) and “Czech This Out” (Vienna). In 2006, he also participated at the Czech “Designblok” exhibition, the ”Czech design” exhibition held in the Fair Trade Palace in Prague, the “Intercity – Prague – Berlin” show and at the Zurych ”Blickfang”. In 2007, the SYMBIO Design products were presented at the exhibition “Meet Contemporary Czech Design” in the New York Czech Center, where Koza and Anna Hanzalová received the award for the best 2006 Designblok installation. In the same year, Koza and his long-term colleagues, Adam Jirkal and Tomáš Kalhous, established the studio SAD s.r.o. In 2008, Jerry Koza agreed to participate at the Seoul Design Olympiade, he and his wife Anna being awarded for the best 2008 Designblok prototype. Almost simultaneously, his family house design in Všenory was ranked amongst the 33 most prestigious projects to the yearbook of architecture
Artworks of this author offered by Prague Art & Design
Jerry Koza
* 1976, Prague, Czech Republic
Education
1995–1998 Faculty of Architecture, Czech Technical University, Prague
1998–2003 Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague, Studio of Architecture (Professors Jiří Skřítecký, Jindřich Smetana and Eva Jiřičná)
