Sabina Jankovičová
The NOVA Gallery announced the second year of a competition for visual artists working with glass. The event seeks to allow competition among various creative approaches and to promote glass art. Glass is a material for processing of which special technologies and sizeable sum of money are required which is a problem for many young visual artists. The NOVA Gallery Award means a grant that may contribute significantly to their creative work. The gallery will assist other participants, shortlisted by a panel of judges to be presented at the exhibition, in presenation of their work. An exhibition catalogue will be published. The NOVA Gallery Award is for the Czech and Slovak glass makers without age limit. The competition is announced every two years; the competition in 2007 received positive response, particularly from young visual artists.
This year´s competition seems to beat the success of the initial competition – number of registered applicants has grown to 85 and diverse works have been registered. Various creative approaches such as utility glass, objects and installations combining glass and new media have registered. Panel of expert judges selected 22 applicants to the grand finale. Martin Múranica became the winner of this year´s competition. He received a Bachelor of Arts title in the glass studio of Professor J. Gavula in 1999. He also studied in Prague, Czech Republic under guidance of Jan Hendrych and in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia. He graduated from the Arts Academy in Wroclaw, Poland in 2005. He applied for the NOVA Gallery competition with Being asleep (2007), an artwork the judging pannel liked for employing a new creative approach.