Artist Focus: Adam Aaronson

Adam Aaronson has been at the heart of British studio glass for more than 25 years, first as a gallery owner discovering and promoting new glass talent and subsequently as an artist in his own right. In 1986, Adam opened his own glass blowing studio in the City of London and embarked on his personal journey as a glass artist. More than 20 years later, Adam’s work has developed and matured and he is now exploring several new bodies of work at his west London studio.

Landscape series. These free blown-vessels are created using the “late colouring” techniques Adam has been developing, where powdered and granulated glass colours are applied once the piece has reached full size. The original inspiration for these works came from impressionist painters such as Monet, and influences from Turner and Whistler also surface from time to time.

Miro series.  Inspired by the abstract paintings of Spanish artist Joan Miro, these pieces are free-blown in a jewel-like palette of transparent glass colours, fired with pure silver leaf and overlaid with multi-coloured glass canes.

Poppy series.  Summer meadows strewn with wild poppies swaying in the breeze is the image Adam had in mind when creating this body of work. These pieces are free-blown in opaque colours and fired with pure silver leaf onto which powdered and granulated glass colours are fused.

“Even after more than 20 years, I am still captivated by the fluidity and movement of a mass of molten glass suspended on the end of a blowing iron. It is almost as if it has a life of its own, floating, ever changing; a life that requires nurturing and taming.  The transition from this amorphous state to the final static form never fails to fascinate me. I always try to create a feeling of continual movement and to embody in the finished piece some of the qualities that are inherent in the beauty of the process so that the purchaser can share in the sheer indulgence of this phenomenal medium." Adam Aaronson.

Adam’s work has been exhibited all over the world and can be found in numerous private collections from royalty to rock stars. Major commissions include the Royal Academy of Arts in London, Italy’s venerable Salviati glass studio, and the UK’s National Art Collections Fund. His work has been selected for the prestigious Sotheby’s Contemporary Decorative Arts exhibition in London, and for a mixed media exhibition at New York’s Cooper Hewitt design museum. More recently, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts for his contribution to glass art.