3 SOLO SHOWS
Richard MEITNER - Jamex & Einar DE LA TORRE - Petr STANICKÝ

Catalogue with the same title as the exposition from 31/3 till 15/9

The Belgian glass museum GLAZENHUIS invited four internationally renowned artists for the summer exhibition 2013, entitled: 3 Solo Shows. The brothers Jamex and Einar DE LA TORRE (MX/US), Petr STANICKÝ (CZ) and Richard MEITNER (US/NL) were offered the basement floor, the ground floor and the first floor exhibition space respectively to present a ‘solo show’.

This exhibition resulted in remarkable confrontations of three very different approaches to art, glass and the museum environment. Jamex and Einar DE LA TORRE transformed the grey environment into a colourful and vast spectacle imbued very liberally with references to both Mexican folk art and Flemish folklore. Possibly less zany but equally radical is Petr STANICKÝ’s remarkable artistic action. Through the architectural context he creates in a simple and monumental way a singular intervention with a translucent character. Richard MEITNER creates objects with a soul, like autonomous individuals constructed from line, volume and connections, they grow into characters that seek the spatial balance between the static and the dynamic. Using his own elementary universe of encoded forms, Meitner stimulates an intuitive image transfusion.

Jeroen Maes, artistic coordinator of the museum and curator of the exposition says: “Despite the visual diversity, these artists converge in the respect that they clearly use glass for its almost limitless potential to realize form, but only within the limits of the conviction that the material and its use must remain subordinate to the perception of art. It is clear that they are freed of any obligations with regard to the material, both in choice and in use. Reaching this point it is therefore obviously superfluous to speak about glass art.”

This catalogue in Dutch and English in the shape of a spiral bound book shows the works by the mentioned artists with extra, specially made photos in situ. It is not clear to me on which the choice of these three artists was based on and why was chosen for the graphic catalogue layout by The Second of May with its unstable loose cover and its green hard-to-read text in English.

The texts Unexpected – Ever and Always by Jean-Luc Olivié, Curator and head of the Department Glass of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, France on the work by Richard Meitner is pleasant to read and explains very well the concepts and way of thinking of Meitner with photos of earlier works. Followed with good photos of the works in the exposition, also one in situ and a Curriculum Vitae.

John Drury, artist, author and teacher captures in his text Truth and Dare the works by Einar & Jamex de la Torre by explaining the context of their visual language. With photos of them working during their residency and demonstration at the GlazenHuis glass studio. Ladislav Danek, art historian and curator of the Museum of Art in Olumouc, Czech Republic, takes a meaningful point of view by describing Stanický’s works as ‘door openers’ for deeper perception of space itself. The photos in situ show how virtually the works have to be experienced to understand the meaning and the space and light of the GlazenHuis. Followed by the original essay in Czech, good photos and CV of Stanický.

A catalogue good to have and to study the everlasting discussion ‘is glass art or art of glass or is glass just a medium?’ and to understand the works in this interesting exposition you really must see.
The catalogue is for sale for EUR15.00

HET GLAZEN HUIS
Dorp 14b
B-3920 Lommel
+32 (0)11-541335
info@hetglazenhuis.be
www.hetglazenhuis.be