JURO KRALIK

Slovakian artist Juro Kralik spent many hours as a young boy in his father’s sculpting studio in former Czechoslovakia. Between 1978 and 1982 he studied at the School of Decorative Arts in Bratislava and graduated at the Academy of Musician Arts in Prague in 1988.

He worked for many years as a freelance photographer and once served as the President of the Union of Slovak Professional Photographers. In the early 1990’s, he founded Rabbit & Solution Creative Studio in Bratislava and became active in graphic design. Fun fact: “Kralik” means “rabbit” in Czech.

When Slovakia became a Eurozone member its currency ceased to exist and coins that people had not managed to exchange in banks for the Euro became insignificant pieces of metal, thus the National Bank of Slovakia began to melt them down.

Juraj Kralik decided to buy all the remaining coins and save their “lives” as each coin had its own history/story. Kralik gave them the chance to re-invent themselves as elements of color and shape in his widely received works. When the Slovak coins were all gone, Kralik worked with various European and with British currency and began minting his own currency emblazoned with “One Juro.”

Juro currently works in London and Bratislava, where he resides.