Czech Next Wave

Pavel Fuksa is a highly successful graphic designer, illustrator and creative director. His client list is like a who’s who of top international brands and includes such names as Nike, Facebook, Lego and Google.

Prague-born Martha Issová was the female lead in Zátopek, a biopic of running legend Emil Zátopek that was one of the Czech Republic’s biggest films of recent years. She is also known for many other screen roles and is a member of the hugely popular theatre company Dejvické divadlo.

Young duo Herrmann & Coufal are the most recent absolute winners of the Grand Designer of the Year award, the Czech Republic’s top honour in the field. In recent years Eduard Herrmann and Matěj Coufal have shot to attention with everyday objects such as lamps and coat stands that involve the customer, DIY-style, in their manufacture, as well as pieces for eminent Czech design companies and even street furniture.

Adam Plachetka is one of the country’s most in-demand opera singers. He is the only Czech to have sung at the Met in New York before the age of 30, has been a member of the Vienna State Opera for over a decade and has appeared at many of the globe’s other great venues.

Screenwriter Štěpán Hulík shot to attention almost a decade ago when, still in his 20s, he wrote Burning Bush, a big-budget mini-series helmed by no less a name than the great European director Agnieszka Holland. Since then he has notched up further successes and his latest project, Suspicion, is just about to launch at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

Lucie Koldová is one of the Czech Republic’s greatest designers and is a two-time overall winner of the Czech Grand Design awards, most recently last year. She is perhaps best-known for her beautiful lights and as well as running her own studio is art director with the top Czech lighting brand Brokis.

Dancer, choreographer and teacher Tereza Ondrová is a leading figure in Czech contemporary dance. Ondrová is a frequent collaborator with both domestic and international artists, working with such names as director Petra Tejnorová, dancers Peter Šavel (with whom she created the acclaimed duet Boys Who Like To Play With Dolls) and Silvia Gribaudi, and conceptual artist Kateřina Šedá.

Jakub Gemrot heads Charles Games, the studio affiliated with Prague’s Charles University that produced Attentat 1942, a “WWII game through the eyes of survivors” that won many admirers around the world. Gemrot and his team are hoping to do at least as well with the follow-up Svoboda 1945: Liberation, which is due for release later this year.

Jiří Havelka is one of the Czech Republic’s most exciting theatre directors, as well as being an actor, playwright and teacher. In addition Havelka scored a huge critical and commercial success with his debut film Owners, a work that he also performed on stage with the acclaimed theatre company Vosto5.

Czech illustrator and comics artist Lenka Šimečková has established herself as one of the most exciting names in her field over the last decade. Her striking work – frequently characterised by a macabre, dreamlike atmosphere – appears in comics, books and games, and even on tarot cards, and has earned her tens of thousands of social media followers around the globe.