Michal Cimala

Michal Cimala (*23 January 1975, Havířov) is a Czech sculptor, designer and artist. He studied at the Secondary School of Applied Arts in Turnov (1989–1993, goldsmithing and jewellery) and at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague (1994–2000), in Professor Vratislav Karel Novák’s metal and jewellery studio. Since 2006 he has worked as an assistant in the sculpture studios of the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague — first with Jaroslav Róna (2006–2013) and then with Lukáš Rittstein (since 2014).

His work moves between sculpture, painting, light installation, conceptual and street art and interior design; he also designs fully functional musical instruments on the border of design and sculpture — with Petr Voříšek he co-founded the band Roxor, for which he made original instruments.

He works with metal and sheet steel, crystal glass, neon and mixed techniques. For the past ten years or so he has used thermoplastic masks from oncological radiotherapy carrying the imprint of a human face; he flattens their originally three-dimensional shapes into planes and assembles them into new constellations. Thematically he is interested in both fascination with and anxiety about the present.

He has exhibited solo since 2004 (among others All My Hoodies, 2009; Cityscape, 2009; Trash Time (Don’t Run!), 2017; an exhibition of black paintings, neons and rap at the Villa Pellé in Prague), and in group shows since 1997 — over twenty exhibitions in Prague, Berlin, Bratislava and other cities.

He is represented by Trafo Gallery in Prague (Trafo Art Salon 2024 and 2025, Anima Materia 2023). He has repeatedly taken part in Art Basel in Miami. He has held scholarship residencies in Milan, Berlin, San Francisco and Spain.

For the Art in the City festival he made the sculpture Persona (2025, sheet steel, náměstí Přemysla Otakara II by the Black Tower, České Budějovice), produced together with David Přikryl and the company Witkowitz a.s. in Ostrava-Vítkovice.