Marta Klonowska: Glass Menagerie

Using an artistic technique Polish artist Marta Klonowska (born 1964) developed, she redefines the idea of sculpture. Her glass animals are inspired by paintings and drawings by old masters or East Asian art. She transforms the painted depictions into three-dimensional sculptures made of countless, sharp-edged glass plates and moves them from the background of the picture to the foreground. This allows a completely new view of the depictions.

Her works fascinate and entice in many ways, for example through the play with light and the iridescence of the material, the desire to touch while at the same time risking injury and through the pointed (or exaggerated) aesthetics. Every creature tells a story, because it already had a previous life. Each work represents an era of (art) history and each of her animals opens up a world of fantasy, fairy tales and childhood memories.

Marta Klonowska's glass work is highly recognized internationally and is represented in all major collections and exhibitions of contemporary glass art. “Glass Menagerie” is her first solo exhibition in southern Germany.