DISTINCTIONS IN GLASS Peter Bremers
Schantz Galleries contemporary
glass
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DISTINCTIONS IN GLASS Peter Bremers
DISTINCTION IS DEFINED BOTH AS
a contrast between similar things, and an excellence that sets one thing apart from another. Two discrete meanings for the same word, yet both meanings apply easily to the glass work of the three artists—Peter Bremers, Harue Shimomoto, and Martin Janecký—featured in this exhibition. This gathering of three unique artists highlights the diversity of technique, form, and aesthetic which glass allows the maker. Bremers creates monumental cast glass sculptures—
FRONT COVER: Honey-Sweet Space, 2017 Cast glass | 25 x 8 x 8 inches
abstract, monochrome references to landscape and space. Shimomoto weaves glass threads into sculptural tapestries, employing clean lines to capture the essence of nature. Janecký is a modernday Augustus Saint-Gaudens who sculpts molten glass into naturalistic, emotive busts and figures. Their commonality—a gift for manipulating this malleable material into astonishing works of art that elevate the viewer beyond the banal of the everyday.
OPPOSITE PAGE: Convoluted Space, 2017 Cast glass | 17 x 14 x 6.2 inches
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BREMERS WAS AN ESTABLISHED light sculptor when he stumbled upon a glassblowing workshop in his native Netherlands, inspiring a journey of discovery in using glass to capture and bend light. The artist sculpts a model out of a dense foam block. By using the kiln cast method, the model is transformed into glass. He is well known for his awesome glass icebergs, inspired by a voyage to Antarctica in 2001, which bridge the psychic gap between humans and the natural world. He masterfully captures nature’s magnificence OPPOSITE PAGE: Optical Space II, 2017 Cast glass | 25.8 x 14 x 6 inches
in flawless glass microcosms, bringing us intimately in tune with nature by kindling our sense of wonder and smallness around her majesty. THE WORK IN THIS EXHIBITION turns the journey inward with metaphysical cogitations on space that offer a healing salve in a disconnected and anxious world. Bremers takes the interplay of positive and negative space—an element inherent in our physical experience of three-dimensional sculpture—and extends it in a metaphoric THIS PAGE: Eye Space II, 2018 Cast glass | 19 x 25.8 x 3.2 inches
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direction. He brings negative space into the sculpture in the form of holes and hollow sections; visible through an outer transparent shell of glass, their volume constantly shifts as the light flows through. These studies of space are monochromatic meditations on form and light—at times intricately faceted, gracefully arched, softly geometric, languidly amorphous. Eloquent descriptors such as Circumscribed, Honey Sweet, Illusional, Optical, Sensuous, and Connected title these “spaces,” signposts OPPOSITE PAGE: Connected Space, 2017 Cast glass | 26 x 14.3 x 7.8 inches
that encourage our understanding of Bremer’s artistic intention. Of this series, the artist has written, “Finding ourselves in a time of increasingly negative perception of everyday news events and an overall rising feeling of being unsafe in a world of religious, political, and social divisiveness, we may forget to focus on the possibilities and comfort offered by positive action and attitude. Positive space symbolizes tolerance, appreciation, hope, and opportunity.”
THIS PAGE: Not so Rectangle Space, 2017 Cast glass | 12.6 x 18.8 x 5.8 inches
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Hot Tear Space, 2018 Cast glass | 26 x 5.2 x 6 inches
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Sensuous Space, 2017 Cast glass | 23.8 x 14 x 6 inches
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OPPOSITE PAGE: Liquid Space II, 2018 Cast glass | 14 x 23.8 x 5.8 inches
THIS PAGE Circumscribed Space, 2017 Cast glass | 16.8 x 16.8 x 16.8 inches
Blue Space, 2017 Cast glass | 12.8 x 12 x 4.3 inches
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Liquid Space II, 2017 Cast glass | 16 x 8 x 5 inches
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Oval Space II, 2018 Cast glass | 17 x 12.5 x 5.8 inches
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OPPOSITE PAGE: Bi-Optical Space II, 2018 Cast glass | 25 x 16 x 5.8 inches
THIS PAGE: Inverted Space, 2017 Cast glass | 16.8 x 19.8 x 13 inches BACK COVER: Ilusional Space I, 2017 Cast glass | 19.8 x 11.8 x 5.2 inches
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PETER BREMERS Born Maastricht in the Netherlands in 1957, Peter Bremers was a celebrated light sculptor when he stumbled into a glassblowing workshop. Mesmerized, he learned as much about the medium as he could. In 1989, Peter participated in a Lino Tagliapietra workshop; two of Peter`s designs that Lino executed were purchased by the Municipal Museum of The City of the Hague. He has also worked with Neil Wilkin in England. Significant moments for his work include an inspiring voyage to the Antarctic in 2001 and a visit to Arizona in 2008.
Schantz Galleries contemporary
DISTINCTIONS IN GLASS On view August 2 to 26, 2018
glass
3 Elm Street, Stockbridge MA (413) 298-3044 schantzgalleries.com 16