working with the 4th dimension…

An interview with Pavel Novak by Schantz Galleries Associate, Katy Holt.

SG: Tell me about your studio space?

PN: My studio is attached to my home. It is an intimate space packed with machines and raw glass. I tend to work in a whirlwind, and have many pieces in various states of being made at any given time.

  SG: Where do you get inspiration from?

PN: My work is inspired by clean lines and vivid colors. I work hard to create complex, kaleidoscopic reflections within a seemingly simple outer shape. My work has a geometrically architectural feel that often contains a surprisingly complex interior, and changes as the viewer moves around the piece.

SG: Can you tell me a little bit about your process? Do you design everything ahead of time? How much do you improvise? 

PN: I keep a sketchbook of ideas, and oftentimes, I make a 3 dimensional model in Styrofoam before I even touch the glass so that I can ensure the finished piece  will be balanced before I waste any material finding out the hard way that my idea will not work. I like to say that I know exactly how my pieces will turn out before I start, but in reality, I’d say that I start with 80% of the idea, and leave myself some room for experimentation. Often times a new direction comes to me while I’m working with the glass in my hands that couldn’t have come to me in any other way.

SG: At what point in your career did you start working with these reflections in your work? What was the process of learning how to do that like?

PN: I choose to work in the manner that I do because, I realized early on in my glass education that the type of glass that I use, optical glass, is the only material with 4 dimensions. The first three are obvious, but I consider the reflections to be the 4th dimension. I try to exploit the reflections to their limits because, to me, it is the most important quality of my materials, and no other material can produce the same effect.

After working with optical glass for almost 30 years, I’ve come to embrace the angles and geometry that go into the creation of the reflections I so desire, but in reality, there is always a small element of surprise when I see the finished piece.

SG: You still have a lot of family and ties to the Czech Republic and visit often correct? For our Studio Focus we like to highlight the ways each artist lives have been affected by the current Covid situation and the ways it has impacted the world our gallery readers may not be as aware of… I was wondering if you know how things have been in the Czech Republic? How is your family overseas?

PN: The truth is that the Czech Republic had a much earlier start in prevention. Mask wearing was mandated almost from  the very beginning, so the rate of transmission was not nearly happening in the same numbers that we see here in the US. They returned to a somewhat normal version of life, and the numbers spiked again, and starting this Sunday, they will be on a nationwide 30 day lockdown.

At the moment, my main focus is my family here. I have a 11 year old son who is attending the 5th grade virtually. While this has certainly been a challenging period of time, it has brought my family closer and given us time together that we wouldn’t have had in any other situation. 

A sampling of works by Pavel Novak:

The cold-work glass by artist Pavel Novak stands out for its stunning reflections and planes of color that shine prismatically. Using lenses in his laminated, optic crystal glass work, Novak’s pieces often cause the viewer to question what is physical, and what is reflected. Through his lenses the inner corners of the sculpture, colored planes, and/or etched patterns all reflect each other to create a unique composition that is revealed through the lens. This optical illusion is a hidden secret waiting to be revealed to viewers in each work that makes Pavel Novak’s pieces truly extraordinary.

Novak works with the “coldworking” process, which begins with a large piece of optical glass he then grinds and cuts away at to create his work using different grades silicon carbide. His next step is to polish the work using a felt wheel with pumice and cerium oxide, before finally coloring etching, sand blasting and/or laminating the glass to achieve his result. This type of glass work is traditional in his home country of the Czech Republic, where Novak began his education and subsequent career in glass at the age of 14.

Novak was introduced to glass by a family friend, who gave him a tour of the glass factory he worked in as part of Pavel’s search for a career (young adults chose their career after completing middle school in, what was still at that time, Czechoslovakia). Instantly drawn to the medium, Novak began studying at Glass School in Novy Bor, widely famous for its exquisite glass. It was there that a school aptitude test showcased his skills in geometry and math which lead him to the cold-working process of glass sculpting that is now his trademark.

After a short stint working at one of the largest glass factories in the Czech Republic, Crystalex, Novak went back to the Novy Bor to teach. A year and a half into his time teaching, he met Vladimira Klumpar who hired him to be an assistant to her husband Michael Pavlik here in the US on summer breaks from teaching. It was Michael Pavlik who then introduced a young Pavel Novak to Martin Rosol, his long-time friend and fellow Czech glass artist. This time working in the US sparked an interest in Novak to move to the states where he could work more freely and be better recognized for his talents. Something he eventually achieved after years of six-month long stints in the United States. A full American citizen as of 2012, Novak still has many ties back home in Czech Republic and carries in his heart and his work a love for his home and its long-standing glass working tradition.

Now able to develop his own body of work and fully explore his creativity, Novak is constantly playing with the effect of light and reflection. His pieces often feature lenses, beautifully illustrating how glass has the unique ability to create optical illusions and compositions that change with perspective and light. Novak has seemingly endless possibilities for his planes of color and never-ending corridors of kaleidoscopic geometry.

IN THE GALLERY: