Archives: Artists
New Artists and reviews
Krista Israel (1975, The Netherlands) is an artist who explores the boundaries between the material and the immaterial through her mixed-media sculptures using glass. Her body of work invites reflection on vulnerability, safety, and transformation within our contemporary society. Israel’s “glass fur” – thousands of thin glass threads that appear sharp but are surprisingly soft – symbolizes this paradoxical interplay of protection and fragility. Her pieces range from playful animals to hybrid beings, intertwining humor with existential themes. Glass serves as a medium to capture the fluidity of experience, memory, and perception. Light, reflection, and refraction open a window to deeper, both personal and collective, truths. Israel’s work not only displays visual power but also the philosophical depth that characterizes her sculptures. She confronts the viewer with the fragility and beauty of existence and challenges us to reconsider the everyday as a living, meaningful experience. Her sculptures offer a perspective on the everyday and create space for dialogue about contemporary life.
Peter has begun to work with glowing powders to add another dimension to his traditional and modern designs.
Recent work, the Morphology collection, is based on the wonder to be found in the extraordinary complexity of life. My ideas and concepts evolved through the investigation of cells as the building blocks which occur in all living organisms. Experimenting with line and form using thermal processes to morph simple shapes enabled me to discover how interactions between light and colour play within and around my glass sculptures.
Recently I have been experimenting with engraving on the surface to add a different dimension and the addition of Gold Leaf to enhance a decorative surface.
My passion is stained glass mosaics of British wildlife and Pet Portraits which I undertake on commission.
I was inspired by the monasteries of Lindisfarne and Jarrow, which were major Christian centres in the 7th and 8th centuries. These communities brought the scriptures to life for devotees through both written Gospels and stained-glass windows.
This project explores the story of glass in the Northeast, as inspired by the Lindisfarne Gospels. The work comprises twelve pages, representing key moments in the history of glass in Sunderland—from its origins to its growth as a local craft, industrialisation, and eventual decline. I combine illumination and stained-glass—two endangered heritage crafts—to celebrate and preserve this rich cultural narrative.
“Embracing the unpredictable nature of glass, Lucy’s current works navigate themes rooted in the fragility of the human condition, and the dynamic between grief and memory. An archive born of the fear of forgetting, her work is a quiet act of preservation.”
A recent project was developed in response to the theme Being Human. I began with the vertebra of a tuna fish, which I cast in glass using the lost wax process. For me, the fish vertebrae acts as a metaphor — a reminder that humans are not more important than animals, nor they than us. We’re part of a shared, interdependent existence. Alongside the glass piece, I created plaster versions of the vertebra and worked with other found objects, exploring material contrast, structure, and transformation. The work grew into an installation titled The Garden of Gethsemane, referencing a place of reflection, betrayal, and moral crisis. In the context of today’s world — fractured by inequality, environmental collapse, and political brutality — it speaks to how far humanity can fall. Though abstract, the forms suggest a deeper tension. The installation invites viewers to reflect on their place within the natural world, and on what it truly means to be human.
The unfolding flower evoked the beauty of silent, organic motion. Like
stills from a video, the flower at various stages of its life represents the constant state of change of emotions we experience in life.