Erika Remencová: Améba eyewear collection

^{*cover photo: portrait of Erika Remencová + Améba, media author: Erik Vrábel}

---

Where?                               

• IOKO

  • Bernolákova 9, 811 07 Bratislava

When?

• Opening: March 31, 2025, at 18:00

 

---

Curator: Damián Cehlárik

 

---

Améba

Améba is a collection of eyewear where design meets contemplation and craftsmanship blends with personal expression. Erika Remencová transforms the frame into a layering object — a piece of jewelry, a tool of expression, and a playful detail of identity. Each piece embodies a dialogue between body and material, form and mood. The eyewear is handcrafted, slowly, with respect for both process and wearer. Améba is not a trend but a space — for touch, transformation, and perspective.

Erika Remencová presents the Améba eyewear collection: a personal statement on craftsmanship, identity, and layering

Young Slovak designer Erika Remencová, based in Bratislava's IOKO, introduces her signature eyewear collection, Améba. This meticulously crafted design set consists of four basic frames with numerous color and shape variations, utilizing layering principles, magnetic connections, and subtle humorous personalization. These glasses are not just vision tools; they are instruments of play, expression, and mood. They resemble jewelry, makeup, or a mask, chosen based on one's current version of self.

The collection was developed over nearly two years during the artist's work at IOKO studio, where she deeply immersed herself in the world of handmade optics. "During that time, I made about 60 pieces. Today, I know I have the skill — and the courage to say that what I do has value," says Remencová. She describes her collaboration with mentor Danka Prekopová from IOKO as an "apprenticeship," where she not only learns technological processes but also how to converse with material, customers, and herself. Her first internship came as a result of her diploma work at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, within the Experimental Design studio led by this year's Tatra Banka Foundation Prize laureate, Sylvia Jokelová.

Handcrafting, which IOKO exclusively practices in Slovakia, belongs to the segment of luxury craftsmanship — akin to jewelry-making, watchmaking, or couture. "Glasses are not showcase objects. They move with the body. They touch the face, and every face is different — different ears, eyes, contours, expressions. A frame must be sensitive, not just functional," the artist explains. Here, material is not just a tool; it is a partner. "Some types of acetate remember. If you touch them imprecisely, they retain it like a scar."

Erika Remencová reminds us that glasses are everyday jewelry — and choosing the right frame can change your entire day. "A well-known jeweler gave her mother red glasses. From then on, she didn't need lipstick. Just putting them on brought confidence."

The Améba collection is subtly contemplative, inspired by nature and the intimacy of home. "Physically, it is made in Bratislava, but in reality, it exists in my mind — in Kunerad, among beetles, in the green cellar of our village home," says Erika. The frames are designed as a base onto which additional parts can be layered — whether magnetic accessories, decorative elements, or small "signs" as personal messages. They are an experiment with the face — in both design and literal terms.

For the first few weeks, the collection will be available at IOKO, where the artist continues to work. Later, the glasses will move into the world: online, at events, into the hands and onto the noses of more people who will discover something of their own expression within them.

"I don’t want to make glasses that just sit on a shelf. I want them to live — and to help us be who we are in the moment. I think through material, craftsmanship, and the body. And this is just the beginning," concludes Erika Remencová.

 

---

Erika Remencová

Erika Remencová is a young Slovak designer based at IOKO Studio in Bratislava. Her work merges handcraft with an original approach and experimentation. She specializes in eyewear design, viewing glasses as everyday jewelry — objects of identity, touch, and expression. She studied in the Experimental Design studio at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava.

Damián Cehlárik

Damián Cehlárik is a designer, curator, and educator based in Bratislava. He leads the Space Object platform, which connects design, art, and contemporary material and identity discourse. He teaches at AFAD and is a graduate of the Design Academy Eindhoven. His curatorial work focuses on young artists, craftsmanship, and design as a cultural statement.

 

---

The Améba project is supported by public funding from the Slovak Arts Council.