Peter Kuraj

…I find joy in the transformation of objects – from used to beautiful – and I consider it my life’s challenge ”…
I was born in 1976 in Gelnica. I come from Spiš, which is the gateway to the Slovak Paradise, where I was inspired by the very beauty of our nature. It inspired me so much that I was devoted to protecting it from a young age. This is one of the reasons why my work aims to point out the vulnerability of the fragile natural ecosystem by utilizing waste in the form of artistic design – using various waste materials in art. The accumulation of waste by the consumer society and the environmental consequences of this process caused to afraid and to interest in re-utilizing the materials already used. Waste, remnants, used and discarded things have become extremely interesting and inspiring ”material” for art, craft, and design. In my work, I use mostly used parts of metal and wooden waste materials with high added value – decades-old of mining beech sleepers, four hundred years old wooden larch boards, various forged parts of old agricultural machines and craft tools of our fathers and forefathers, which would be otherwise forgotten.

I do not have art education and do not consider myself an artist in the pure sense of the word. I’m not organized anywhere. I live with my wife and two sons in Spišská Nová Ves, where I also create and work.