MILAN KUZICA (*1962)

(12th November, 1962, Martin, Slovak Republic, permanently lives and works in Prague, Czech Republik)
He studied moulding and design at the Secondary School of Applied Arts in Kremnica, Slovakia. He also studied privately with Professor Jozef Kostka. In 1991, he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, Slovakia, where he had studied with Associate Professor Peter Paliatka at the Department of Design, and with Professor Juraj Meliš at the Department of Sculpture. He finished his studies at the Faculty of Education of Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia, a year later. Between 1996 and 1997, he taught at TAFE University in Perth, Australia, and at Claremont School of Art in Perth, Australia. He also completed a one-year-long sculpting internship at the Greg James Sculptor Studio in Australia. Kuzica is a director of art section in The Czech North American Chamber of Commerce & Culture Inc. He is a member of The Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences / SVU in New York. From 1997 he lives and works in Prague, the Czech Republic. He worked in art, industrial and graphic design. At present, he focuses mainly on his own independent sculptor‘s productions. Kuzica’s work is represented in private collections in Slovakia, the Czech Republic and abroad. Kuzica has had exhibitions in Slovakia, Belgium, the Netherlands, Australia or USA.
The work of Milan Kuzica is seemingly divided by its form into two categories: realist and abstract.
However, they both always express existential questions and problematic interpersonal relationships with
the environment that form and even deform people. To create his sculptures, he uses classic techniques
such as casting in bronze, but he develops his own materials and technologies as well. One of his techniques is called “inorganicbio”, which he achieved by combining naturally metamorphic shapes with the artificially-designed structure of a sculpture’s form and vivid artificial color. The contrast of natural elements with inanimate technology and unnatural appearance, often denying inner reality, expresses the workings of the contemporary world that surrounds us and frequently defies understanding. This is the case for Kuzica’s bright color scale, which ostensibly does not appear in nature. But Kuzica in fact partially exposes a world that is invisible to human beings, the ultraviolet part of the color spectrum, which is used among flora and fauna at various levels of communication. The principle of the Bionic sculptures, several of which have been completed by Kuzica, is an important contribution to sculpture.
Kuzica applied this abstract concept in 2015, when he created six sculptures – again denying own material – for the Orchard in the castle park in Dolní Počernice, Prague, where the sculptures completed individual garden compositions. Kuzica with other Czech artists – Václav Fiala, Pavel Opočenský, David Černý, Zdenek Hůla, Jasan Zoubek or Jan Kaláb – display their work in the open space of Kejřův Park in Hloubětín, Prague or in Nové Chabry, Prague. Milan Kuzica also arranges these projects of sculpture parks.
Kuzica also applies his sense of color, exceptional for a sculptor, in abstract paintings and experimental prints. It was presented several times at famous confrontational exhibitions in the independent Modern Art Gallery Kruh of Zdenek Hůla sculptor in Kostelec-nad-Černými-Lesy, Czech Republic. The paintings and graphics were also used as visual large-scale prints on an aluminium platform in modern commercial interiors of the Headbuilding Siemens in Prague.

* The author of this text is Bronislava Rokytová, art historian and exhibition curator

Solo exhibitions:

2017 – Milan Kuzica: Spring – Summer – Autumn – Winter, 22th Annual Garden Celebration Indian Summer, Dolní Počernice, Prague, CZ
2015 – up to now – Milan Kuzica: Author‘s sculpture park, Orchard in the castle park, Dolní Počernice, Prague, CZ (Permanent exhibition of six sculptures integrated into garden-architectural surfaces.)
2014 – Milan Kuzica: Relationships, 19th Annual Garden Celebration Indian Summer, Dolní Počernice, Prague, CZ
2013 – Milan Kuzica: Venus accoding to Botticelli, 18th Annual Garden Celebration Indian Summer, Dolní Počernice, Prague, CZ
2011 – Milan Kuzica: Spring Celebration, Gallery Scarabeus, Prague, CZ
2010 – Milan Kuzica: Conception of a Virgin – Exhibition about one sculpture, Gallery A, Karlín, Prague, CZ
2010 – Milan Kuzica: Sculptures, Castle Hluboš, Hluboš u Příbrami, CZ
2009 – Milan Kuzica: AVEVA, atrium of the Palace Křižík, Prague, CZ (Symbolistic sculptures whose theme was woman.)
Group exhibitions / Symposiums:
2017 – Milan Kuzica: Green Life, 21st Anniversary Bondi Exhibition, Sculpture by the Sea, Sydney, Australia
2017 – Milan Kuzica: Green Life, 13th Annual Cottesloe Exhibition, Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe, Perth, Australia
2015 – up to now – Milan Kuzica: Marilyn; Clavicula II., Sculpture park, Nové Chabry, Prague, CZ (Organizer and one of exhibiting, next participating artists are Václav Fiala, David Černý, Pavel Opočenský, Jan Kaláb or Jakub Flejšar.)
2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2017 – Studio GH and Gallery Kruh, Kostelec nad Černými lesy, CZ (Famous confrontational exhibitions with one topic in the independent Modern Art Gallery Kruh of Zdenek Hůla sculptor. Milan Kuzica exhibited there his abstract paintings, experimental graphics and sculptures.)
2016, 2013 – Milan Kuzica: The Good Spirit of Oak in Klánovice; Gluttonous Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood, Klánovice Forum Sculpting for Hedvika, Klánovice, Prague, CZ
2016 – Milan Kuzica and Jan Komárek: Daydreaming about Mr. Moore, Snow Sculptures Symposium, premise of Brewery Velké Popovice, Velké Popovice, CZ
2015, 2014 – Milan Kuzica and František Blažíček: Mrs Colombo and Bad Scamp Hugo; Johanek from the Park; Butterfly and Stag, Recycle-iron Sculptures Symposium, Studio František Blažíček, Příbram, CZ
2014 – Milan Kuzica: Rainbow Cryfish, Sculpture Symposium in the castle park, Dolní Počernice, Prague, CZ
2013 – 2015 – Milan Kuzica: Single MW, Sculpture Park Kejřův mlýn, Hloubětín, Prague, CZ (Organizer and one of exhibiting, next participating artists were Václav Fiala, Pavel Opočenský, Zdenek Hůla or Jasan Zoubek)
2012, 2010 – Pre-Christmas Art Salon, collective works: Nativity scene in Vatican; Angel, Studio Ján Kondáč, Bratislava, SVK (next participating artists ware Ján Kondáč or Monika and Bohuš Kubinsky)
2011 – Milan Kuzica and Vladimír Uhlík, 16th Annual Garden Celebration Indian Summer, Dolní Počernice, Prague, CZ
2011 – Milan Kuzica and Ján Kondáč, private exhibition, Klánovice, Prague, CZ
2010 – The Budweiser International Snow Sculpture Championships, Breckenridge, Coloredo, USA (The realization of the author‘s draft: Save Place for our Childern.)
2009 – Milan Kuzica and Ján Kondáč: Memory of Emotions, under the patronage and exhibition place of the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Brussels, Brussels, Belgium
2009, 2008, 2005 – International Sculpture Symposium Snow Kingdom, Pustevny v Beskydech, CZ
2009, 2008, 2006 – Milan Kuzica, František Blažíček and Filip Menzel, Gallery SUJB, Prague, CZ
2009 – Milan Kuzica: Eve, NeoPopRealism Starz: 21st Century Art, digital exhibition NeoPopRealism Journal and Wonderpedia, New York, USA
2009 – Milan Kuzica: bronze jewels and František Blažíček: paintings, City Museum in Chotěboř Castle, Chotěboř, CZ
2007 – The Budweiser International Snow Sculpture Championships, Breckenridge, Coloredo, USA
2007 – Milan Kuzica: Apple – „Ordinary seed“, NeoPopRealism Starz: 21st Century Art, digital exhibition NeoPopRealism Journal and Wonderpedia, New York, USA
2005 – Milan Kuzica and Ján Kondáč: Sculptures and Objects, City Gallery, Rožnov pod Radhoštěm, CZ
2004 – Milan Kuzica: Poor Congeries, Sand Sculptures Symposium, Rožnov po Radhoštěm, CZ
2003 – Milan Kuzica and Jan Komárek: Skier, Snow Sculptures Symposium, Zadov, CZ
Awards:
2017 – The Andrea Stretton Memorial Invitation to exhibit in Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi 2017 for the work: Green Life, 13th Annual Cottesloe Exhibition, Sculpture by the Sea, Cottesloe, Perth, Australia
2009 – 1st prize awarded by sculptors for the work: Absolute Female Dancer, 11th Annual International Sculpture Symposium Snow Kingdom, Pustevny v Beskydech, CZ
2008 – 2nd prize awarded by audience and 3rd awarded by sculptors for the work: ONA ON A,,, [SHE HE AND,,,], 10th Annual International Sculpture Symposium Snow Kingdom, Pustevny v Beskydech, CZ
2007 – 1st Honorable Mention for the work Apple – „Ordinary seed“, 2nd NeoPopRealism Starz International Art Competition Erotica as a hihg Artistic Aspiration, USA
2005 – 3rd prize awarded by a professional jury for the work: The Ship of Fates, 6th Annual International Sculpture Symposium Snow Kingdom, Pustevny v Beskydech, CZ
Residency:
1996 – 1997 – Sculptural intership in Greg James Sculptor Studio, Perth, Australia
Pedagogical activity:
1996 – 1997 – TAFE University Perth, Perth, Australia
1996 – 1997 – High school of Design Claremont, Perth, Australia
Selected bibiographic references:
– Milan Kuzica. Paměť emocí [Memory of Emotions], texts Miroslav Klivar, Bronislava Rokytová, Praha 2015
– Výtvarný koncept štěpnice zámeckého parku v Dolních Počernicích [The Artistic Concept of the Orchard in the Castle Park in Dolní Počernice], Jakub Víšek, Milan Kuzica, Bronislava Rokytová, Praha 2015
– Víra v hloubi naší paměti. Sochařský park v Praze – Hloubětíně [Belief in the Depths of our memory. Sculpture Park in Hloubětín, Prague], texts Bronislava Rokytová, Praha 2013