Working across sculpture, installation, printmaking and sound, I explore ideas of inward and outward, of public and private in relation to the human body and urban environments. In my works I combine crafted ceramic and metal forms with found objects and prosaic materials including cardboard, wax and concrete. With a sensitivity towards the poetic potential of materials, I think through and across different matter, considering the interplay of hard and soft, visceral and sensual, comedic and serious. My spatial thinking is deeply influenced by the realities of different cities I have lived in, including London, Glasgow and Rotterdam. The resultant works speak to the daily demands of city-living, addressing the tension between rigid urban planning and the impromptu, fluid emergence that arises in cities. I often develop projects collaboratively with other artists, community groups and young people. Alongside my practice I've worked as an Art Educator for art institutions and universities including: Royal Academy of Art, The Glasgow School of Art, The University of Edinburgh, The Glasgow Print Studios and Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop.
![Anatomical [an approximatio], 2023](https://cdn0.artoffice.info/app/uploads/20241217162000/Lilian-Ptacek-8.jpg)
![Anatomical [an approximatio], 2023](https://cdn0.artoffice.info/app/uploads/20241217162205/LilianPtacek_GlasgowProjectRoom_ReEdit-2-2.jpg)
![Anatomical [an approximatio], 2023](https://cdn0.artoffice.info/app/uploads/20241217162225/LilianPtacek_GlasgowProjectRoom-13.jpg)
![Anatomical [an approximation], 2023](https://cdn0.artoffice.info/app/uploads/20241217162321/LilianPtacek_GlasgowProjectRoom-69.jpg)
Reading On Memory #01 with Lilian Ptáček & Johannes Hugo Stoll
Co-lead a reading session with Johannes Hugo Stoll where we explored ideas regarding material memory by drawing links between Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction and Plastic: accumulation without metabolism by Heather Davis.
Vertebrae - VLAK
Vertebrae is a site-specific sculpture that responds to the domestic yet in-between nature of the project space VLAK - a former storage room and site that once led to a staircase for a separate apartment. The work is comprised of a series of sinks made from paper pulp, underscoring the often-overlooked infrastructures that sustain us, both in body and in the home.
Anatomical [an approximation]
A solo exhibition of new work which takes the form of an installation that comprises metal and ceramics sculptures and a large scale monoprinted wallpaper work.
Limburg Biennale
A two-yearly exhibition that connects professional artists & amateurs in a celebration of the arts.
Six of one, half a dozen the other
The Piet Zwart Institute Master Fine Art Graduation Exhibition 2024 of graduating artists: Marie Caye, Anna Kieblesz, Yezi Lin, Maia Liu, Lilian Ptáček, and Johannes Hugo Stoll.
KAMOULUX
A project with Marie Caye, Anna Kieblesz, Yezi Lin, Maia Liu and Johannes Stoll where we reflected and learnt from one another's research practices. We experimented with sound through vocal exercises and DJing whilst questioning our display methods through explorations in installation and photography. The accumulating results were shared in an open presentation.