Globally acclaimed artist Jiří Georg Dokoupil inaugurates a new phase of his versatile and experimental artistic practice in his upcoming solo exhibition Venetian Bubbles. Curated by Reiner Opoku and supported by the Association for Art in Public, the exhibition will be on view from June 22 – August 18, 2024, at the Sale Monumentali of the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana of Museo Correr, Venice. The artist will unveil eight of his first-ever large sculptural works in glass, seven large-scale paintings, and a series of works on paper. Set in a space adorned by historical Renaissance painters like Veronese, Titian, Tintoretto and Zelotti, this contemporary intervention reflects the artist’s liberated exploration of materials and techniques, revealing new approaches to glassmaking with freedom, play and humor, while capturing the ephemerality of existence.

Dokoupil’s new glass sculptures are an extension of the artist’s renowned Soap Bubble Paintings – their temporal element is now expressed in a three-dimensional space, narrowing the distance between the viewers and the subtleties of his practice. Seven metal bottle racks (80 – 200 centimeters tall) are adorned with glass bubbles of various bright hues. The artist names them ‘Homemade Venetian Bubbles’ honoring their national origin from various manufacturers and master craftsmen in crystal glass from the Bohemia region, the Czech Republic. Playfully reframing ordinary objects into an artistic context, Dokoupil challenges traditional ways of utilizing materials, instructing the glassmakers to explore new creative dynamics in the sculptural process, consequently disrupting both the artists' established techniques and the expectations associated with craftsmanship. The glass bubbles hanging on female-shaped bottle racks bring forth a striking juxtaposition between fragility and strength, underscoring recurring existential themes of transience and permanence in Dokoupil’s oeuvre. Captured and conserved at the peak of their existence, the bubble sculptures uncover layers of complexity and nuance in their form, texture, and spatial presence, that are inherent in both the artist’s practice and his reflection on the human condition.

‘Venetian Bubbles,’ is an evolution of Jiří Georg Dokoupil’s multifaceted artistic practice – a liberated exploration of techniques and materials to express a narrative intertwining the playful with the profound. As delicate bubbles are transformed into timeless expressions of artistic ingenuity, Dokoupil's work reflects his enduring pursuit of innovation, challenging the boundaries of artistic mediums through themes of impermanence and transformation.

​

MILOSH STUDIO executed PR and communication services for the exhibition.