Silica

Lukáš Novák presents a new phase of his work at the Gallery at Bethlehem Chapel. The off-site exhibition SILICA reveals a fundamental shift in the artist’s thinking about material and the very nature of the art object.

The SILICA project departs from the traditional understanding of glass as both a starting point and a final medium. Here, the material ceases to serve as the bearer of a finished form and instead becomes part of an open process, dissolving in relation to other substances. Together with concrete and mineral structures, it forms a dynamic system marked by intergrowth, tension, and constant transformation.

The exhibition focuses on the very principle of formation—on growth, layering, and pressure as fundamental constructive processes. The resulting objects do not appear designed, but rather resemble fragments of an unknown geological reality, carrying traces of past processes as well as hints of future matter. Attention thus shifts from a perfected surface to material in its mutable, unfinished state.

Novák’s practice moves here from shaping to creating situations in which the material gains its own autonomy. Transparency confronts density, fragility meets weight, control encounters chance. The result is a series of “material organisms” that emerge at the boundary between human intention and natural processes.

“I am not interested in form as a result, but in the process through which it emerges,” says Lukáš Novák.

Curator Michal Štochl emphasizes that the artist abandons glass as a discipline defined by perfection, repositioning it within the field of an open system in which material becomes an event.

At the same time, the exhibition confirms Novák’s position within the contemporary art scene; his work no longer operates on the boundary between design and art, but enters the realm of the autonomous contemporary object.

Artist: Lukáš Novák
Venue: Gallery at Bethlehem Chapel
Opening: April 21, 2026, 7:00 PM
Curator: Michal Štochl