FOR THE SPACE, FOR THE BODY, FOR THE MIND

The Czech Center New York is proud to present an exhibition of works by Eva Eisler, who enjoys an international reputation as a multi-disciplinary artist and designer.

The exhibition will feature her recent work in sculpture, drawings, jewelry, and tabletop products – the mono cimetric series – manufactured by mono, Germany.

Eva Eisler’s work is represented in some of the world’s most prestigious museum collections, such as the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum and Museum of Arts & Design in New York City; Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C.; Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, Quebec; and Museum of Decorative Arts, Prague. Today she is considered one of the world’s most creative forces in the field of art and design of the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st Century. Eva also designs furniture and interior accessories, is also involved in the fields of interior and exhibition design as well as curatorial and educational activities.

Trained as an architectural designer in Prague, Eva blends her foundation in Czech modernism with a cutting edge sensibility firmly rooted in contemporary ideology. Her dramatic pieces combine structural precision with lyric grace. This is particularly true of the stainless steel jewelry that brilliantly defies the constraints of form and scale often imposed by its very wearability, to become necklaces, bracelets, brooches and rings, which possess the same formal properties as sculpture, yet enhance the human body. Inversely, the sculptures, some of which are redolent of brooches in the mobiüs strip series, can be regarded as monumental jewels, suggesting that scale is unimportant in the assessment of Eva’s aesthetic. The mono cimetric series, inaugurated in 2002, manifests grand sculptural qualities, as well. The three-dimensionality of the elongated forms that make up the stainless

steel trays and utensils are created with gently raised edges, whose shapes are defined by folded curves, reminiscent of scored sheets of paper. These lofty objects also address issues relating to size and usage. Although large and minimal, like the jewelry, the visually powerful domestic objects function perfectly. An unqualified success, mono cimetric won a prize from the German Association for Arts and Crafts Form 2003, at the design fair last year in Frankfurt.

Eva’s drawings are graphic representations of her three-dimensional ideas. Deceptively simple, they are, in fact, complex renderings, achieved through her unique process, which consists of incising outlines of geometric shapes into heavy paper, then rubbing the surface with powdered graphite. These studies in black, white and grey have a calming effect on the viewer, gently inducing a contemplative mood through the subtleties of their tonal variations.

For the past year, Eva has been working side by side with her husband, architect John Eisler, who recently established his own firm after more than two decades as an associate partner with Richard Meier. She has contributed to several of Eisler’s competitions in the Czech Republic. Eva has also designed many exhibition installations, on her own, both in the United States and abroad, including this one at the Czech Center.

In addition, she has taught for a number of years at prominent colleges such as New York University, Parsons School of Design and Rhode Island School of Design, and has curated exhibitions.

Amongst her countless devotees, architects, in particular, wear Eva’s jewelry. Zaha Hadid, winner of the 2004 Pritzker Prize is an enthusiastic admirer, as is Billie Tsien or Lella and Massimo Vignelli. Selections of the jewelry and entire domestic line for mono are currently available at Moss, 150 Greene Street in Soho. In the fall, they will additionally be sold at the MoMA design stores.

About Czech Center NY

As of 1995, the Czech Center NY builds dialogue among the Czech Republic and American public particularly in the areas of culture, business and tourism. Under the helm of Iva Karolina Raisinger, the Czech Center NY is primarily focused on presenting the latest and most innovative works of Czech artists to the U.S. The Czech Center NY is part of a network of 19 Czech Centers abroad under the umbrella of the Czech Centers Administration in Prague.

To learn more about the Czech Center New York please visit

www. czechcenter.com.