Catching the light. Looking at contemporary Catalan glass

Glass is the only element allowed artists to capture and shape light. Those are the guiding principles of a group of artists that found in glass the right way for creative expression to reflect and project light. The Sitges Museums has brought together 14 of these artists in the exhibition Catch the light.

Atrapar la llum presents around forty works, made with different formats and glass finishes, which have in common, in addition to the material used, the search for light as a conceptual horizon. It brings together works in molded optical glass, float glass, transparent crystal or glass paste, among other expressions. They are carved, polished or 3D digital painted, and in all cases they are recent works (the earliest date is 1999).

The 14 artists participating in the exhibition are: Pilar Aldana, Anna Alsina, Philippa Beveridge, Javier Blanco, Ferran Collado, Joan Crous, Quim Falcó, Lara Fluxà, Xavier Grau, Anna Marco, Stella Rahola, Prosper Riba, Meritxell Tembleque and Javier Vidal. All fourteen are Catalan or have developed part of their work in Catalonia.

The exhibition Catching the Light has been organized by Museus de Sitges and curated by its Head of Collections, Ignasi Domènech. It is one of the activities of the Year of Glass, which is commemorated this 2022 at the initiative of the United Nations and which has also been joined by Sitges Museums with this proposal and different parallel activities.

Glass as a creative element. Glass as a vehicle for creativity and artistic expression dates back to the end of the 19th century, with the emergence of Art Nouveau, when its aesthetic properties attracted artists who explored new languages. Glass acquired new functionalities, which surpassed its, until then, purely decorative status. In this sense, the artists of Modernism rehabilitated the techniques of Antiquity and adapted them to new formats and creative visions, which gave glass a sculptural function.

The evolution of glass as an artistic element took the lead in a leap forward in the 50s of the 20th century, when the Studio Glass movement was born in the United States, in which artists sought new languages ​​far removed from industry, but of which the its technical resources in this matter. In the second half of the century, first in the former Czechoslovakia and later in other European countries, glass was consolidated as a creative material and benefited from various aesthetic innovations.

Catalonia was no stranger to these trends and in the eighties and nineties, glass inspired and captivated new generations of artists, who made it a way of creation and expression. The exhibition Catching the light is the result of this exploration led by a group of artists who have developed their work in the country and who have found in glass the most direct way to reflect and shape light.

The artists participating in Catch the light:

Pilar Aldana
Anna Alsina
Philippa Beveridge
Javier Blanco
Ferran Collado
Joan Crous
Quim Falcó
Lara Fluxà
Xavier Grau
Anna Marco
Stella Rahola
Prosper Riba
Meritxell Tembleque
Javier Vidal