Artist of the Month
December 2025
Václav Cigler 2025
Since the 1960s, Václav Cigler has gained international recognition through major exhibitions, from the Milan Triennale, to MoMA, to Expo 67, where he earned an honorable mention. His 1960s jewelry was featured at the V&A’s Cold War Modern show. Honored by the Czech Ministry of Culture in 2019, he is celebrated for innovative, perceptually rich work. Cigler is represented by DSC Gallery, Prague, Czechia. Click on each photo to the right for a full picture.
Red Half Egg 1/6, 2023; 29 x 32.5 x 29.5 centimeters, red composite glass
Blue Halfspheres, 2019; 14 x 27.5 x 19.5 centimeters; blue optical glass
Big Cylinder with Curved Surfaces 1/6, 2022; 59.5 x 59.5 x 5 centimeters; clear optical glass
Uran egg III 4/6, 2020; 29.5 x 42.5 x 29.5 centimeters; uranium glass
Sphere, 2021; 30 centimeters; optical glass
Pink Horizon I, 4/6, 2020; 30.5 x 30.5 x 6 centimeters; pink optical glass
Clear Plated Gold Egg 1/6, 2024; 28.5 x 42 x 28.5 centimeters; clear optical glass
From DSC Gallery's Ab Ovo exhibit, 2024
From DSC Gallery's Ab Ovo exhibit, 2024
Václav Cigler 2025
About Václav Cigler 2025
Václav Cigler’s art explores how light and space shape perception. Working with precisely cut optical glass, he creates prisms and lenses that reveal movement, distance, and invisible spatial phenomena. Drawing anchors his process, guiding fabrication that demands exacting collaboration and refinement to achieve specific optical effects. Extending beyond objects, his architectural and landscape projects use glass, water, and mirrors to transform sites through subtle reflections. These interventions encourage attentive looking and spatial awareness, aligning with minimalist clarity and land art’s sensitivity to place while remaining rooted in the unique language of optical glass.
Thanks to his participation in international exhibitions around the world, Cigler’s name has been well known since the 1960s. From prestigious showcases such as the Corning Museum of Glass in the USA (1959), the Milan Triennale (1957 and 1960), and Expo 58 in Brussels, to the Museum of Modern Art in New York (1964) and the world Expo 67 in Montreal—where his prismatic sculpture received an honorable mention—Cigler has consistently pushed the boundaries of glass art.
In 2008, the exhibition Cold War Modern / Design 1945–1970 at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum presented Cigler’s jewelry from the 1960s, highlighting his unique interconnection of the body, object, and environment, and positioning his work alongside major figures such as Mario Merz of the Arte Povera movement, the Italian group Superstudio, and the Vienna-based collective Haus-Rucker-Co.
For his exceptional contribution to art and education, he received an award from the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic in 2019. His work—universally comprehensible yet conceptually profound—combines brilliant intuition with a rare ability to offer the viewer a new perceptual experience. Cigler ranks among the most significant artists of his generation; his oeuvre is innovative, contemporary, and continually inspiring.
Photo: Václav Cígler (foreground) and Michal Motyčka
Acknowledgment of Gallery:
We are grateful to DSC Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic, for providing the Artist of the Month.
The Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass (AACG) is a not-for-profit organization and leading resource for glass collectors, art enthusiasts, artists, gallerists, museum personnel, and educators on all things related to glass art. AACG provides a collaborative place for robust conversations about glass art, including its production, techniques, and trends. We also encourage and support the glass community through annual grants and artist scholarships.
