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| Kari Hakonsen - blown, cut and polished glass |
Earlier this month London’s Satchi Gallery was once again
home to ‘The International Art Fair for Contemporary Objects’, better known to
everyone as ‘Collect’. A weekend trip across the pond to London is a bit of an
extravagance for most at this busy time of year but since I’m now living a
short(ish) train journey away I thought I’d share some of this year’s glassy
highlights with you.
One of the very first exhibits featured Scandinavian glass
work, including this beautiful transparent blown glass by Kari Hakonsen. Glass is never the most represented material at craft shows like this but what
it lacks in quantity it makes up for in quality (then again maybe we’re just
biased).
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| Steffan Damn |
Some familiar names from the UK and elsewhere pop up every
year at collect: Danish artist Steffen Dam and his impossibly realistic hot
sculpted jellyfish jars still fascinate me even more now I know how many stages
and intricate processes creating them requires. Katherine Coleman, one of the
best known glass engravers in the UK had some of her beautiful, optical vases
on display and across the room another big name on in UK glass, Burno Romanelli
showed some super precise and expertly polished kiln work.
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| Katharine Coleman - wheel-engraved crystal |
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| Bruno Romanelli - Kilncast and polished glass |
Unfortunately there wasn’t much in the way of an Irish glass
representation this year. To the best of my knowledge we can only claim
Dubliner Edmond Bryne, who is now based in the UK, as the sole Irish glass
participant. Edmond, represented by the FLOW gallery, displayed a number of his
signature textured mould-blown forms. Inside
the catalogue cover was Scott Benefield’s familiar canework advertising the
Scottish Gallery but the actual work was not on display.
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| Edmond Byrne |
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Scott Benefield occupying the first page of the catalogue
|
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| Pia Raeymaekers |
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| Chantal Delporte |
'The Flanders Gallery' featured some interesting work from Belgian glass artists Pia Raeymaekers and Chantal Delporte. I thought Chantal’s work was particular interesting; she seems to be using pate-de-verre and lost-wax casting to create very detailed, natural looking forms. On some of them the frit seems to blend into the solid cast glass, creating an impressive mix of texture on the one sculpture. I would love to know how she does it.
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| Niyoko Ikuta - cut and laminated sheet glass |
One of my favourite pieces was from Japanese glass
artist Niyoko Ikuta. Made of cut and
laminated sheet glass, it caught the light beautifully and provided an
interesting view from all angles.
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| Niyoko Ikuta (front view) |
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| Some exhibits at 'The Gallery' at London Glassblowing |
The
vast majority of the glassworks on show were shown in special exhibit from The
National Glass Centre and ‘The Gallery’ at London Glassblowing. There were far
more delightful objects on show than I could even photograph. As always there
were some fantastic examples of contemporary jewellery in a huge variety of
materials, ceramics ranging from the sculptural to the functional, metalwork,
finely crafted wood, textiles and so much more. I really recommend a visit next
year for inspiration and visual delights abound and with any luck maybe there’ll
be a few more familiar pieces from our friends and members too!
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| Louis Thompson - DNA Markers: Thermodynamics hot |
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| London Glassblowing's exhibition space |
Written by Meadhbh McIlgorm
GSoI Media Officer
