Damián Cehlárik (born 24 September 1996) is a designer and artist based in Bratislava, Slovakia. Known for his collaborative and research-driven approach, he explores historical, cultural, political, and economic themes, transforming these insights into visual narratives that encourage dialogue. In 2023, he received the Slovak National Design Award in the New Horizons category. Damian is an Assistant Professor and serves as the curator of Bratislava Design Week. His spatial and product design practice operates through his studio, Space Object, while his research initiatives are developed at Damian Works.

Cake and Cabinet

How is the material legacy of communism perceived in post-socialist Slovakia? The broader populace considers it a symbol of the regime. Architecture built during this period is disregarded, destroyed and replaced with lower-quality buildings; furniture is dumped in trash bins at Slovak panel housing estates. Damian Cehlarik uses in-depth interviews, archival documents, and material ethnographies of domestic interiors to explore communist nostalgia, heritage and erasure. In Housing Society, a standard cabinet model found in almost every living room in panel house apartments is redesigned to represent ordinary things in a broader context, separating the discord for the regime from the rejection of its materiality.

Features

 
Housing Society at NRC.nl, Metropolis M, AD.nl
and ED- Eindhoven Dagsblad on newspaper title 

Screenings

2021 / “The End” / ALCOVA / Milan Design Week 
2021 / “The End” / Spazio Maiocchi / ‘Il Pianeta’
by Terraforma Festival 

Exhibitions

2022 / Housing Society / Dutch Design Week / Graduation Show / Design Academy Eindhoven
2022 /Housing Society / Bratislava Design Week / Curated Selection / Bratislava City Gallery

Awards and Recognitions

2023 / Slovak Design Award - New Horizons / Housing Society 
2022 / Gijs Bakker Award Nomination / Housing Society / Design Academy Eindhoven  

Education

Design Academy Eindhoven
Social Design (MA)
2020 - 2022 / Cum Laude and Gijs Bakker Award nominee

Architectural Association, London
2021 / Visiting School -  The Possibility of an Island 

Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Bratislava
Design (BA)
2016 - 2020 / Minor in Philosophy and Art History

KONSTFACK, Stockholm
Design (BFA, exchange)
2018 - 2019 / with Stockholm School of Enterpreneurship 

Practice

Designer / Space Object
Curator / Bratislava Design Week
Lecturer / Academy of Fine Arts and Design Bratislava
Researcher / Damian Works