PAD London Highlights British Glasswork
This year’s edition of PAD London marks the first time that a gallery dedicated to contemporary glass art will be featured at the collectible design fair. Bermondsey-based Peter Layton – London Glassblowing––founded in 1976 by Peter Layton, a pioneering figure in the British studio glass movement that saw glassblowing elevated to an art form––will highlight Londoners Tim Rawlinson and Louis Thompson.
Focusing on the primary and essential quality of glass––its transparency––Rawlinson aims to “evoke fascination, pushing boundaries and inviting viewers to contemplate light’s ethereal nature,” says Layton, who praises the innovative artist for his “works that mesmerize with their luminous and transcendent qualities.” Rawlinson recently had a sell-out show in Florida and won the People’s Prize at the British Glass Biennale. He often plays with geometric forms, and his Oculus compositions resemble the uniquely beautiful lenses of eyes, with pupil-like dots surrounded by inky irises. The shape also recalls the circular apex windows in Byzantine and neoclassical domes––a nod to Rawlinson’s background in architecture.
Artist Tim Rawlinson, Fabrica Platter. Photo by Alick Cotterill. Courtesy of London Glassblowing.
Artist Tim Rawlinson. Photo by Sylvain Deleu. Image courtesy of London Glassblowing.
Layton describes Thompson as “undoubtedly one of the very best glassblowers in the U.K.,” noting his “deeply thoughtful and intellectual approach to his art.” Thompson is a winner of the Jerwood Makers Prize and was awarded Best Exhibit at the British Glass Biennale. His artworks, Layton explains, “draw inspiration from taxonomy, scientific research, and medical apparatus. He creates collections of related objects varying in colour, form, and scale, often featuring sequences of free-blown glass vessels in which mysterious forms appear suspended within richly coloured mediums.”
While Layton is careful to say that it’s difficult to choose favourites among the works he brings to PAD London, he points to Thompson’s bottles as standout pieces that should be on the radar of any smart collector. Layton notes the deeply satisfying way that “the colour transitions smoothly from a deep magenta at the base to a clear golden hue at the top” in one of Thompson’s sculptures, and remarks on how the “trapped bubbles create a sense of movement and life within the piece.”
“There are so many stages in the making of the bottles,” Layton explains, “with each internal component made separately and perfectly formed by hand. This meticulous process adds an element of mystery to the creation.”
Archive of Double DNA, Artist Louis Thompson. Photo by Agata Pec. Image courtesy of London Glassblowing.
Artist, Peter Layton. Photo credits, Ester Segarra. Image courtesy of London Glassblowing.
Revealing the secrets of glassmaking, an art form more than 2,500 years old, was once an offence punishable by death––so thought Venetian glass blowers in 16th-century Murano, a place still famous worldwide for its glass sculptures. Modern-day practitioners of the medium are grateful for people such as Layton, who at 87 years old is still actively mentoring younger glass artists in his studio. He calls the people he works with “amongst the very best of British glass artists, each working in their own exclusive idiom. They represent and embody the hugely diverse possibilities of the extraordinary medium of glass.”
There will be 18 glass artists from the U.K. and beyond showcased at this year’s PAD London, with other highlights including “works by David Patchen, optical illusions by Anthony Scala, symbolic compositions by Elliot Walker, and nature-inspired works by Monette Larson and Nina Casson McGarva,” says Layton says. A visit to the gallery’s exhibition will provide a suitable introduction to this extraordinary and captivating category of design for anyone eager to add a prestigious work of glass art to their collection.
From October 8 to 13, design connoisseurs leap to PAD London, the international design fair poised to launch its 16th edition. Over the next 10 weeks, NUVO shines a spotlight on the fair’s roster of talented newcomers, many of whom are local to London, and identifies the artists and exhibitors who should be on every visitor’s radar.
