Glass & Ceramics Alumni Represent RCA's Rich Glassmaking Tradition In Rare London Show
5 September 2012 – Glass & Ceramics alumni will show at a rare London exhibition next week bringing together ten of the UK’s leading glassmakers and glass artists.
‘Chime, A Merging Of Talents’, will see three generations of Glass & Ceramics alumni – Bruno Romanelli, Angela Jarman, and Rachael Woodman – represent the RCA’s rich tradition of glassmaking in a dedicated London show outside of the more frequent art fairs. They form part of a wider line-up that includes eminent glassmakers: Adam Aaronson, Crispian Heath, Peter Layton, Charlie Macpherson, Phil Vickery, Neil Wilkin and Wrightson & Platt.
Peter Layton, often regarded as ‘the grand old man of glass’ and the founder of London Glassblowing in Bermondsey where the show will be hosted, initiated the exhibition with curator Cathryn Schilling and gallery manager Alicia Grimes.
London Glassblowing invited each of the artists to participate, many of who regularly work and show together, to exemplify the synergies, and breadth of technique, form and colour across contemporary UK glass.
The exhibition also includes a new collaboration between Bruno, Peter and Wrightson & Platt, bringing together the separate disciplines of cast glass, blown glass and cast bronze.
‘Some old RCA ideas have been revamped for 2012 with the help and support of Peter Layton and the staff at London Glassblowing, in particular, Louis Thompson, also ex-RCA, and Wrightson & Platt,’ explained Bruno.
‘The collaboration is a meld of life casting, glass casting and glass blowing – each of our areas of expertise – to create concepts of mine that I otherwise would not have been able to make,’ he added.
The collaboration features Bruno’s early figurative style. His work has since changed dramatically to explore abstract vessels and striking use of colour.
For Bruno, the exhibition is a rare opportunity to show in London in an environment, completely faithful to the medium, where his work can be ‘really shown and lit to its full advantage’.
'Chime, A Merging Of Talents', runs from 11 September – 6 October at the London Glassblowing Gallery, 62-66 Bermondsey Street, London SE1 3UD.