Iva Hladis was born in Czechoslovakia in 1965.

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Her exposure to art began early in life; both her father and mother were artists. At fifteen, after being denied studying art, she became associated with  “Charter 77 “, an underground political group that championed human rights in the then Russian occupied Czechoslovakia.

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In the summer of 1985 Iva escaped over the Dolomite Alps and after months in immigration camp in Latina made her home in Rome, Italy. A year later she was granted political asylum in the United States. Upon her arrival she began pursuing her passion as an artist, the reason behind leaving her country.

In more than 3 decades her art went through many phases. Early on in her career paintings of abstracted figures dominated with an intense symbolism of her past and later on, figures became recognizably human.

 

In 2005 her attention turned to the issue of global warming and world destruction with a new series of artworks titled “Origins Extinct”; assemblages of used computer motherboards, real botanicals, bugs, Czech glass beads, found objects, wires and pearls. As a devoted environmentalist,Iva continued with the series for the next decade.

  

Through another series of architectural renderings titled "Timeless Treasures" Iva was focusing on Los Angeles’ history, where she resided until 2014. After moving to the Bay Area, she continues this series with a relevant imagery.

 

Currently, Iva continues to work on her art and needle felted jewelry in Occidental, Sonoma County, California. She is represented by the Calabi Gallery in Santa Rosa (info@calabigallery.com ,707.781.7070).  

 

CV available upon request.