Architectural.” That’s the adjective Z Folio co-owner Michael Mendizza used to describe the vast collection of colorful glass sculptures that shimmer in the light of the gallery he operates with his wife and co-owner Zdena Jiroutova. He then contrasted the glasswork of the Czech artists who made most of the gallery’s collection with the other European glassmakers famous in the United States, the Italians: “Many people are familiar with Italian glass. It’s called Murano, which is a little place and they do very baroque, opulent, twisty-turny, elegant kinds of pieces,” he said.
In contrast, Mendizza underlined the sleek, clean designs that give the Czech works something of an elegant Scandinavian simplicity, which is fitting, given the gallery’s Solvang location.
“The Czech glass is not baroque,” Mendizza said. “It’s almost architectural, and a lot of what makes the Czech glass unique is its finish work: the way it’s cut and polished and etched and ground and so on and so forth. You might think of the crystal chandeliers, the way that those little things have been faceted. If you take the Czech glass industry and take a little piece of the glass chandelier and make it a gigantic sculpture, you have some idea of what it looks like and why it is different from the Italians’.”
At the same time, the modern forms of the Czech glasswork belie the fact that “the Czechs have been doing glass for seven centuries. They’re known throughout the world for both their artistry and their technique.”
While co-owner Jiroutova is uniquely qualified to run a gallery specializing in Czech glass, given that she’s originally from Pardubice in the Czech Republic, she didn’t always work with glass art. Before she started her current work, she studied philosophy and business in the United States.
“I was born in the Czech Republic and I came to Santa Barbara 12 years ago to go to college,” she explained. “And then I decided to bring the Czech glass and sell it in American galleries because it is very different from what the American glass artists are doing and I thought that people would appreciate it and they do.”
Nine years ago, she began selling the Czech glass wholesale, and six years ago she and Mendizza opened their first gallery in Solvang. In addition to speaking Czech and knowing the country, Mendizza and she take yearly trips back in order to meet with the 25 or so Czech artists whose glasswork fills their gallery.
Along with beautiful glass sculptures, the gallery also carries designer jewelry, wood art, and large photo prints on canvas that Mendizza takes himself for “fun.” Considering their quality and his origins as a documentary filmmaker, such a term must be humility. Referring to the photography, he said, “I couldn’t spell, dyslexic, in the slow group in school kind of thing, common to what everybody calls ADD these days, but it was a different time, so I compensated with the visual. Photography has always been something that came naturally and easily to me, so when we opened up the gallery, I had all these empty walls and didn’t know what to do with them.”
With this combination of art forms, Z Folio has been going from success to success. Three years ago, they opened a second location on Cannery Row in Monterey. Last year, they were voted one of the top five retailers for designer jewelry in the United States. And they have plans to grow more in the future, all while building up a state-of-the-art website to showcase their works. This success can be explained by the confidence Mendizza and Jiroutova show in their decisions.
“We strive to do something that is aesthetically pleasing to us,” Mendizza said. “And that’s all we do. We make all of our choices because we love the artists and we love the pieces. Literally the way everything is placed, the way everything is done, it’s done because we like it this way. This is how we would do our home. And when people walk in they feel that.”
The owners not only think there’s nobody who does exactly what they do, but they also wish there were more who did.
“I wish there were more [galleries], because the more galleries and the more artwork that is available, the more people appreciate it,” Jiroutova said.
Mendizza also stressed their efforts to create a warm and welcoming atmosphere in the gallery for all visitors, while also selling works at diverse price points: “We have an amazing price divergence, price range. We may have pieces for $20,000 or we may have pieces for $25. And the customer that can spend $25 feels welcome and at home and quite comfortable. And the person who can pay $20,000 feels welcome, at home, and quite comfortable.”
The fact that the gallery bakes fresh cookies for its customers lends strong support to this idea. Mendizza summed up what he likes most about running the gallery with Jiroutova, saying, “If [customers] walk through the door and they feel uplifted, surrounded in beauty and have a great time, that’s as good as it gets.”
For more information about Z Folio, at 1685 Copenhagen Drive in Solvang, visit zfolio.com or call 693-8480.
Biz Spotlight was written by Intern Frank Gonzales. Information should be sent to the Sun via fax, e-mail, or mail.
This article appears in Dec 13-20, 2012.