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Dr Heike Brachlow

Info

  • Heike Brachlow is glass Tutor and Research Student Coordinator in Ceramics and Glass at the Royal College of Art. She is an internationally recognised glass artist specialising in cast glass sculpture. Her research focuses on the interaction of colour, form and light in transparent solids. 

  • Biography

  • Born and raised in Munich, Germany, Heike Brachlow received her BA in Glass in 2004 from the University of Wolverhampton, her MA in 2006 and her PhD in 2012 from the Royal College of Art in London. She works as a self-employed artist from her studio at Parndon Mill. Her work is represented in public and private collections in Europe, the USA, China, Australia and India.  She regularly teaches glass casting courses at institutions such as Pilchuck Glass School and the Studio of the Corning Museum of Glass.

  • Practice

  • Heike’s often precariously balanced sculptures aim to physically engage: the viewer becomes toucher – invited by words or form, boldly or guiltily. Colour is an important part of her work: the exploration of the interaction of colour, form and light in solid transparent glass during her PhD research has led her to producing her own glass colours, adding metal oxides to the glass batch during the melting process. This enables her to create a personal palette, which consists mostly of subtle tones and polychromatic colours, that is colours that change in different types of light. Her work reflects her attraction to movement and transformation, both in colour and form.  

  • Publications, exhibitions and other outcomes

  • Selected Exhibitions

    2016 Solo Show Chaos Theory, The Gallery at Parndon Mill, Harlow

    2016 Connections, Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh

    2015 Solo Show Colour through Form, Traver Gallery, Seattle, USA

    2015 Objects in Flux, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA

    2015 British Glass Biennale, Stourbridge, UK (2006, 2010, 2012)

    2015 Visiting Artist Showcase, ANU Gallery, Canberra, Australia

    2014 International Contemporary Glass Art Exhibition, Hangzhou, China

    2013 SOFA Chicago (Bullseye Gallery, Portland, Oregon)(2008)

    2013 COLLECT (The Gallery at London Glassblowing)

    2012 Solo Show Six Impossible Things, Bullseye Gallery, Portland, Oregon

    2012 Solo Show, The Gallery at Parndon Mill, Harlow, UK

    2011 Pilchuck Glass School Annual Auction, Seattle (2005, 2006, 2007)

    2011 Jerwood Makers Open exhibition, Jerwood Space, London

    2010 Art Miami (Bullseye Gallery, Portland, Oregon)

    2010 COLLECT (Bullseye Gallery, Portland, Oregon), Saatchi Gallery, London

    2010 Master der Moderne, Handwerksmesse, Munich

    2009 Filling the Void, Bullseye Gallery, Portland, Oregon

    2009 SOFA Santa Fe (Bullseye Gallery, Portland, Oregon)

    2009 Space – Time, National Glass Centre, Sunderland, UK

    2009 Bonhams Modern And Contemporary Glass Auction, London

    2008 Autumn Show, Cowdy Gallery, Gloucestershire, UK

    2008 e-merge 2008, Bullseye Resource Center Gallery, Portland, Oregon

    2007 100% Glass, Three White Walls Gallery, Birmingham, UK

    2007 Barrier, installation at Moorhouse and One London Wall, London

    2007 Rachael Barraclough at 242 Brompton Road, London

    2007 New Faces – Crafts Council Showcase, Victoria & Albert Museum, London

    2007 London Art Fair 2007, modernground

    2006 Generation – The Show One, Royal College of Art, London

    2006 Discovery, Kullo Children's Gallery, Tallinn, Estonia

    2005 Kyoto Art Center, Japan

    Selected Collections

    Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA, USA

    Ernsting Foundation, Glasmuseum Alter Hof Herding, Coesfeld, Germany

    China Academy of Art, Hangzhou

    Barbara-Achilles Foundation, Hamburg, Gemany

    European Museum of Modern Glass, Art Collection of the Veste Coburg,

    Rodental, Germany

    Dan Klein & Alan J. Poole (Private Collection) @ The National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh, UK

    Show more

Selected work

  • Orillia, 2016

    Orillia, 2016, Heike Brachlow
    Cast glass
    H36cm W38cm D31cm

    Orillia, 2016, Heike Brachlow
    Cast glass
    H36cm W38cm D31cm

  • Anima, 2016

    Anima, 2016, Heike Brachlow
    Cast glass
    H40cm W43cm D31cm

    Anima, 2016, Heike Brachlow
    Cast glass
    H40cm W43cm D31cm

  • Epyllion, 2016

    Epyllion, 2016, Heike Brachlow
    Cast glass
    H30cm W31cm D27cm

    Epyllion, 2016, Heike Brachlow
    Cast glass
    H30cm W31cm D27cm

  • Theme and Variations III, 2010

    Theme and Variations III, 2010, Heike Brachlow
    Cast glass
    Dimensions variable; each element 6x6x6cm. Shown in incandescent light.

    Theme and Variations III, 2010, Heike Brachlow
    Cast glass
    Dimensions variable; each element 6x6x6cm. Shown in incandescent light.

  • Theme and Variations III, 2010

    Theme and Variations III, 2010, Heike Brachlow
    Cast glass
    Dimensions variable; each element 6x6x6cm. Shown in fluorescent light

    Theme and Variations III, 2010, Heike Brachlow
    Cast glass
    Dimensions variable; each element 6x6x6cm. Shown in fluorescent light

Research

Research students