adam aaronson glass studio
West Horsley
Adam specialises in free blown glass. His vessels and sculptures are at once a
celebration of the simplicity of pure form, and also an investigation into
layering. His coloured patinas draw on painterly techniques and are
predominately inspired by a love of nature, especially the play of light on
water and the landscape. He is a consummate colourist, and the Impressionist
painters -Turner, Whistler, Monet and others – have been a significant
inspiration for his work. “I think of my work as a story of surface and form.
Each blown glass artwork is a canvas, depicting landscape in a variety of
abstracted ways; a shimmering moment of reflection, capturing river and sea,
coastline, forest and desert, as light passes over and through. Glass contains
its own dynamic of reflection and refraction, and balancing the relationship
between form and surface is often challenging. I explore the organic form of
each sculpture, celebrating the natural flow and force of molten glass,
sometimes leaving behind traditional requirements for functionality. “Sometimes
I start with a defined idea, but the intuitive way in which I work means that on
occasions I’ll notice unexpected aspects of the developing form and how they
relate to the palette I am using. It’s almost as if the evolving piece
influences the way it turns out. People often say that glass has a life of its
own and it is only when you actually make glass that you understand what this
means. I’ve been developing a vocabulary of forms for some years, and these
range from the early simple canvases to the more recent organic surfaces.”
Adam’s work has been exhibited all over the world and can be found in numerous
private collections from royalty to rock stars. Over the years, he has been
commissioned to make work for the Royal Academy of Arts in London, Italy’s
venerable Salviati glass studio, the Museum of Art and Design in New York, the
UK’s National Art Collections Fund and The British Museum, among others. Adam’s
work has been shown at the prestigious Sotheby’s Contemporary Decorative Arts
exhibition in London, and the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, in New
York City. Adam is a Fellow of the Society of Designer Craftsmen (FSDC) and
chair of their Selection Committee. He is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts
(FRSA) and Adam is also a member of many glass related societies and
organisations, including the Contemporary Glass Society, and The Glass Society,
which was formed from the merger of the Glass Association and the Glass Circle.
Adam is also an active member of the Surrey Sculpture Society and the Surrey
Guild of Craftsmen, as well as the Oxford Sculptors Group. Adam has exhibited
and demonstrated at Art in Action, the annual arts and crafts event at
Waterperry Gardens in Oxfordshire.
