Chronology

FALL 2010 We are migratory creatures; the history of our species is about journeys, departures, leaving and arriving, starting over. None more so than ourselves. Our new work is both culturally and personally inclined. An autobiographical touch in a civilizational reflection. Wherever humans go they build, laying down cultural lines which gradually transform into relics and artifacts over times inevitably march. Growth, expansion, deterioration, decay. And on again we move, taking the memories of our exploits with us to use in the next story. Introduction of Boats in USA, SOFA, Chicago with DavidRichardContemporary Release of “Voyages“ Monography published by La Revue de la ceramique et du verre 96 pages. french - english A “Clin d oeil” of a moment in time: the development of our new boat series. Photographed by Gaetane Girard and Christoph Lehmann in Paris and Venice 2009-2010. APRIL 2009 We embarked on two new interrelated bodies of work introduced in May at the Hélène Porée Gallery in Paris (see Events): Urban Landscapes and Migrations JANUARY 2009 Bernadette, had seven puppies right here in the studio, where they spent a snug ten weeks in the dead of Winter before finding their new homes. One puppy, named Watson, is staying on as companion to his mum. FEBRUARY 2008 Studio returned to mint condition in March. After nine and a half months of repairs we finally relit our furnace. In spite of the rather intense distractions, we maintained our commitments, with SOFA in Chicago, Pan in Amsterdam, and wonderful shows in London, Paris, Chicago and Zurich. 2007 Feature length documentary film Fire Glass, by award winning Swiss filmmaker Pierre Kalbfuss. Premier, Swiss television, June 1st, in French with German and Italian subtitles. Original score, Dolby Sound, in color. Filmed in 2005 and 2006, with interviews of galleries (Thomas Riley, Sandra Ainsley) curators (Jean-Luc Olivié, David McFadden and Dan Klein), including extensive footage from Venini, the cold-working shop of Paolo Ferro, his sons Pietro and Riccardo, and our Paris studio hotshop. Not so much a propaganda piece, but the filmmaker's own interpretation of our collaboration. On Sunday evening, May 6th, as a side effect of the French elections, there were several acts of random violence in the 12th arrondisement in Paris. Our studio, whose back entrance conjoins with a public park above the historic railway viaduct in which we are located, was hit with a molotov cocktail, and badly burned. Luckily most of our primary hotshop equipment was not seriously damaged, however a great deal of damage to our stock and the building resulted, including nine months of repairs. 2006 First public installations in North America: Northeast Medical Center, Charlotte, NC and Wells Fargo Bank, Des Moines, Iowa; Dutch Sculpture Park installation, Oisterwijk, Holland 2005 First outdoor installation. Private commission, Canada; installed during a blizzard, and still standing! 2004 The Circus of Spheres: introduction of large scale sculpture with blown glass spheres and metal as part of a themed travelling museum exhibition: MUDAC (Museum of Applied Art) Lausanne, Switzerland, Het Koopmanshuis, Leusden Holland, and the National Glass Center, Sunderland, UK. Catalogue, full color, eighty-eight pages, interview with artists, essays David Revere Mcfadden, Roberto Gasparotto. 5 Continents Publishers, Milan, available at www.amazon.com. 2003 First exhibition with Sandra Ainsley, The Distillery, Toronto; introduction of Circo di Lune for Venini. 2002 Global Art Glass exhibition in Bornholm, Sweden, and our next Museum exhibition Battuto 2002 focussing on our experimentation with Italian "batutto" cutting techniques, Ebeltoft Glass Museum, Denmark.Catalogue, sixty pages, full color, excellent essay on “Battuto” by Louise Berndt. Catalogue available from www.glasmuseet.com. 2001 We move the studio to Paris, 101 Avenue Daumesnil, in the archyway of an old railway viaduct, now a city park. 2000 Major museum exhibition, celebrating twenty years in Switzerland, at the Eretz Israel Museum in Tel Aviv Hot Glass Cold Glass, curated by Henrietta Eliezer Brunner. Catalogue in English and Hebrew, eighty-four pages, full color. 1999 Grand Prize of the Swiss (Vaud) Arts Foundation for the Applied Arts for Creative Achievement. The Nestlé Project, for the renovated landmark Nestlé headquarters in Vevey, Switzerland (Jean Tschumi, architect, 1960). One ton laminated industrial glass, entirely cut in deep "inciso" cutting. Unique example of bringing italian cutting techniques to a large industrial glass installation. 1998 First major museum installation, Kunsthalle, Bern: We Never Promised You a Rose Garden Publication of our first book In Search of Clear Lines, with essays by Susanne K. Frantz and Jean-Luc Olivié. Bentali Verlag, Bern, 178 pages, full color, in English available from www.amazon.com (editions also in French or German, www.benteliverag.ch). 1996 Venezia Aperto Vetro and the introduction of our Guardiani and Cortegiane sculptures, a major innovation in our work, transforming vessel form into free standing sculpture. 1995 Marks the start of our long collaboration with Venini, under the design director Roberto Gasparotto. 1994 We begin experimenting with Italian cold-cutting techniques and working with Muranese cutter Paolo Ferro, later to be joined by his two sons, Riccardo and Pietro. The start of a wonderful and warm friendship. 1993 Final phase of studio "design" work and our own in-house production. 1990 Son Ian Marco is born. 1989 Start of five year design collaboration with Steuben, Corning, NY with design director Chris Hacker. 1987 Daughter Naja is born. Aztec bowls for Rosenthal win German Design Innovation Award 1986 Introduction of Triples our first serious attempt at glass with sculptural content; suprimposed blown glass plates, sandblasted. Much emphasis on graphics and linear content, and the layering of one color over another, but without using blown overlay. 1985 Start of ten year design collaboration with Rosenthal Studio Line, Selb, Germany, under Philip Rosenthal and design director Henk Staal. 1983 Our free-blown hand-made "modern design" functional glassware gets underway in the Nonfoux hot shop. 1982 We open our studio in the French-speaking part of Switzerland 1979-1981 Two magical years in the Swedish forest (Smaland) as the assistants to Ann Wolff (then Wärff) and Wilke Adolfsson. 1979 Monica and Philip - he from Boston, she from Bern,- moves to Sweden to learn glassblowing at the Orrefors Factory Glass School, in Orrefors.

© 2006, BG Nonfoux | Crafted by CHANGE | All Rights Reserved