Patrik Illo: Something nothing

The exhibition Something is Nothing will present Patrik Illo, who is one of the most prominent figures in contemporary Slovak glass art.

Patrik Illo (1973) is one of the most prominent figures in contemporary Slovak glass art. Throughout his nearly thirty-year career, he has created around a thousand designs, prototypes, collections, and authorial objects – ranging from commercial utilitarian design to art design and free creation. He realizes new conceptual projects every year, collaborates with other artists, works as a university educator, curator, and organizer of art symposiums. The title "Something is Nothing" refers to the intensity, concentration, and paradox that are inherent in Illo's work. "Despite the formal breadth of his work, three key principles permeate all areas: fluidity, interaction, and kinetics. These motifs create a metaspaces in which Illo, as an author, operates and which allows him to explore the very 'technology of creation' – the process of the work's emergence, its variability, and internal dynamics," comments the exhibition curator and chief curator of the Glass and Costume Jewelry Museum in Jablonec nad Nisou, Petr Nový. Illo's works often enter into a dialogue with the viewer. They provoke, unsettle, and exchange questions for answers – not with ironic detachment, but with gentle humor and an effort to share the process of discovery. The viewer thus becomes a partner and co-creator of meaning. His work has long been represented in the gallery design shop DOX by Qubus, but for the first time, it will be presented solo directly in the exhibition space here as part of exhibitions for passing audiences. The exhibition "Something is Nothing" conceptually stems from the structure of the current monograph Patrik Illo (SK-LLO, Slovart, 2025), which maps the author's artistic career so far and provides an overview of the author's work over the last 30 years. Curator: Petr Nový