ALEX KVETON

About Alex Kveton

Sculptor Alex Kveton MFA was born in town of Ostrava, Czech Republic. From the beginning of his career he was endowed with two different points of view. His father guided him to master the timeless artisan technique, while his mother introduced him to the world of artistic imagination.

After graduation from the Technical School of Machinery Construction he followed his inner voice and enrolled the Academy of Arts, Architecture & Design in Prague, department sculpture and industrial design. At the academy he learned a fine sense of material and precision in processing, as well as absolute exploitation of the forming qualities and characteristics of material.

He designed forms of machines and tools from the giant mining excavators to miniature medals. In 1978 he obtained artist-in-residence in the Vitkovice Steel, presenting his sculptures of steelworkers and welders in several exhibitions.

At the same time he took part in great exhibitions of the Czech Artist Association, followed by series of collective exhibitions. He collaborated with architects on small details as well as monumental commissions for architecture.

One of the collaborative projects was an installation of creatively designed interior fountain in Wedding Hall of a City Hall. While working on this project, Alex demonstrated a special sense for the timeless techniques in metal art and craft, which became his lifelong endeavor.

In the following years he affirmed his exceptional sense for expression of shape in the monumental sculptures made of copper, as well as several other public commissions. During his studies, Alex was able to experience the contrast of booming of Prague baroque, balanced with the monumental to rigorous temperance of the Gothic beauty of Prague.

Its inimitable face, interwoven with Art Nouveau and modernist styles, all this uncovered the possibility to experiment with forming assets of a sheet metal. Instead of classical casting of modeled shapes, Alex came to prefer shaping of sharp sheet of metal into neat shapes by means of disciplined curves. The centuries old experience of Prague all eras artisans, led him to more artistic use of a ductile resources.

When Alex Kveton achieved a recognition as a mature sculptor, medalist and designer, he left his homeland and traveled to Austria, where he dealt with a number of public commissions. Perhaps because he felt his rational position of a designer, equal to the role of a sculptor, able to express content and to carry a spiritual message, that totalitarian regime at home was not willing to tolerate, he decided in 1983 settle permanently in New York City.

He began a challenging and very successful artistic career as a director of Art Division at one of the leading art and architectural metal fabricators in the United States. He applied his knowledge, expertise, and talent to transform vision of some well known artists into reality. At the same time he continues to create his art and carries out a series of exhibitions

He is represented in several private and public collections in North & South America, Europe and Russia. His sculpture of Porcupine Caribou, a Corten-steel ten foot tall structure, is in a permanent collection of the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, Georgia. Museum of Modern Art in New York has in its permanent collection of Architecture and Design “Titanium AlgoRythms Columns” designed and coauthored by Alex Kveton.

The contemporary style of Alex Kveton’s work was clearly born of his family upbringing tradition as well as the tradition of artistic education. Both an abstract shape and symbolist’s content are finding its implementation in his artistic approach.

So what inspires Alex Kveton today? Nature in its simplicity and beauty, nature with its magnificent structures and creations no one is able to imitate.

Nature with its richness of minerals, thanks to which author learned the beauty and capabilities of metal, indispensable partners of his work. Through their magic he creates a very distinctive type of beauty, paves his own path to take initiative, where the nature has completed its work, he humbly takes it into his hands and with a professional courage he uses it to create something very beautiful and very magical.

“My inspiration comes from studying the nature around us. The intricate structure of a leaf, robustness of grass wind blowing through an open window, or moon reflecting in the water, all create the logical harmony of our nature’s “building blocks”. The nature is pure, clean, and precious in its own creation. Such insights are on my mind when creating sculptures. Simple, yet elegant, intended to enrich, decorate and above all distinguish the space as beautiful flowers or morning sunlight would.

In my latest sculptural work I have incorporated into my abstract vision a timeless beauty of a human form. Is obviously the most loaded of all forms because we live in one. Being also introduced to printmaking, I’m now offering prints and sculptures developed together. My print work explores the visual relationships between the two artistic arenas and bridges the gap between 2 and 3 dimensions.”

ARTWORK

Dialog

Stainless Steel 20″ x 48″

Lamer

Stainless Steel 39″

Sirius

Bronze, Patina 30″ x 24″

Stela

Stainless Steel 90″

Tango

Stainless Steel 60″

SOLD

Bon Voyage

Stainless Steel 21″ x 22″ x 13″ SOLD

Butterfly

Stainless Steel 12″ x 32″ SOLD

First Kiss

Stainless Steel 44″ x 16″ x 8″ SOLD

Polaris

Stainless Steel 24″ x 20″ SOLD