Glass art

Glass artists sublimate glass through colour. They play with tones and superimpose nuances to compose precious objects that praise the unique piece. In the creations of Reflections Copenhagen, Boris de Beijer and John Hogan, the play of transparency and reflection highlights the colour that passes through the material as if through a prism with dichroic effects.

Sometimes, colourless glass is enough on its own to create subtly sophisticated worlds. The latest example: the new Sir Bondi flagship designed by the Tamsin Hohnson studio explores spatiality through the spectrum of translucent brick transformed into a wall. Glass bricks are also used in the Aesop shop in Hong Kong and the Geijoeng shop designed by Studio 10 in Shenzhen in a decor of ice bordering on liquefaction.

Invented in the Near East in the 1st century BC, glassblowing continues to fascinate designers. It shapes and deforms itself to suit the desires of new designers. The contemporary queen of glassblowing? Helle Mardahl. The Danish designer creates boxes, cups and bowls that look like tangy, sticky sweets.

When these creations with their rounded, blistered, deformed and wavy shapes do not look like candy boxes, they take on the appearance of soap bubbles at Lauren Manoogian, Petite Friture…

Another fantastic variation is frosted glass. Many artists play with the effects of opacity to create condensation effects on their creations. Among them, there is the Californian artist Larry Bell and his coloured translucent glass boxes inspired by glaciers, or the Chinese design studio Buzao and its progressively coloured glass storage units that seem to diffuse misty halos of light.

Another name in the glass panorama: Chinese artist Jinya Zhao challenges the boundaries of art through the medium of glass and watercolour. She uses blown glass in opaque or translucent layers to blur perceptions of reality.

Unusual material games are improvised on glass art. When the material passes through the hands of the Prague artist Lukáš Novák, the Canadian Jeff Martin or the British Benjamin Hubert, glass is reborn in a completely new register. It plays with trompe-l’oeil and imitates the granular effects of precious stones, or the marbled or glazed effects of ceramics…

Glass is particularly vibrant in lighting. From the traditional Murano glass mushroom lamp to Jochen Holz’s borosilicate glass neon lights, glass re-enchants interior lighting with surreal impressions. Material and colour echo, reflect and combine to create light sculptures that can be displayed and admired as collector’s items.

The delicacy of the work, the finesse of the details… Glass comes in a hyper-fragile version on spoons, mirrors, candleholders of contemporary designers and craftsmen – Gerhardt Kellermann, Mattia Bonetti, Elisa Strozyk – finely woven, braided, turned, or randomly drawn.