Vladimir Zbynovsky is a sculptor, born in Czechoslovakia in 1964. As he had a talent for drawing, he had no hesitation in opting for an education in the arts. At the age of fifteen, he learnt the art of stonecutting at the Secondary School of Applied Arts in Bratislava, going on to enrol at the city’s Higher School of Fine Arts, where he specialised in glasswork, echoing his country’s glassmaking tradition. He graduated in sculpture in 1991 and moved to France two years later.

Since 1993, he has been creating sculptures combining stone and glass. Glass shapes, produced by casting, are cut, polished and affixed to largely uncut stones to create works alive with tension. Linked by their mineral origin, the two materials“fuse”to reveal the earth’s energy in singular fashion. With his works, Vladimir Zbynovsky reflects upon humankind’s appetite for creation, which he compares with the universe’s creative processes.

Make skilful use of moulding and thermoforming techniques, the Vladimir Zbynovsky adapts the glass to the stone, exploring forms/thresholds that come to life in the light, while examining notions of time, memory and perception. One major highlight in his career was the creation of Saint-Denis Basilica’s altar, inaugurated in 2018, which incorporates the artist’s creative principle but in truly monumental form, with a block of glass weighing 1,400 kg, which required a full 3 months of cooling. With this creation, Vladimir Zbynovsky has extended his thought to encompass the sacred.