Michal Gabriel

Michal Gabriel (*25 February 1960, Prague) is a Czech sculptor and university teacher. He studied at the Secondary School of Applied Arts in Prague and then sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (1980–1987). In 1987 he was among the founding members of the group Tvrdohlaví (with Jiří David, Petr Nikl, Čestmír Suška, František Skála, Jaroslav Róna and others). In 1995 he won the Jindřich Chalupecký Award. Since 1998 he has headed the sculpture studio at the Faculty of Fine Arts of Brno University of Technology; he was habilitated as associate professor in 2001, served as dean of the faculty from 2007 to 2010 and was appointed professor in 2009. He emerged as a leading figure of postmodern figurative sculpture; from the neo-expressive narrative figure he moved towards calmer, carefully composed wholes in which he confronts organic forms (trees, flowers, animals, human bodies) with geometric or linguistic codes.

His range of materials is exceptionally wide: in the beginning wire, polychrome paper and glass, later wood, ceramics, fibreglass and bronze, and today also found objects, electronics and digital imagery; he uses 3D scanning and 3D printing. Characteristic are monumental figures of people and animals with a distinctively treated, textured surface. Since 1988 he has held over fifty solo exhibitions in the Czech Republic and abroad (Prague, Brno, Kraków, Munich, Bratislava, Paris, Budapest, Vienna, New York).

Works in public space: Pegasus (bronze, Brno, 1988), The Path (bronze, Hadovka park, Prague, 2004), the Otto Wichterle monument “Branching” (Prague-Petřiny, 2006), the Wading Horses fountain (Prague-Dejvice, 2008), Cheetah Herders (Prague Zoo, 2012), Asteroid (steel, 2020), the equestrian statue of Charles IV in Karlovy Vary (2022). He takes part in the Sculpture Line festival.

For the Art in the City festival he made Shark (bronze, 2017), Trinity (fibreglass, 2018), The Apocalyptic Riders (Týn nad Vltavou, 2019), Steel Horse (2022) and Steel Runner (Lannova třída, 2025).