Royal Leerdam Crystal

1994-2020

In 1994 Barbara Nanning worked with glass for the first time, at the invitation of the National Glass Museum Leerdam and the Royal Leerdam Crystal glassworks Leerdam in The Netherlands. In the glassworks, under the tutelage of master glass-blower Henk Verweij and the head of the Finishing Department, Eddy Bek, she got to know the material.

Eternal Spring

2010-2021

The installation Eternal Spring consists of glass-blown and hand-formed, snow-white branches that protrude from wall, table and floor objects, from knots of pollard willows or corals. With the gilded bouquets, I want to translate the baroque design of the 18th century into a 21st century contemporary form language.

Monochrome

2001-2023

Motivated by the desire to take on new challenges, Barbara has journeyed every year since 2001 to Novy Bor in the Czech Republic. The possibilities as regards finishing, such as grinding, polishing and gilding offer a great challenge in Novy Bor, a bulwark of glass decoration.

Classical Bohemian glass cutting, decorative Japanese flower motifs inspired by kimonos, the world of modern optical glass, but also nature and crystallography turn up in surprising combinations. Elements include the sparkling prisms adorning the inner surfaces of objects – as if jewels that have sprouted spontaneously, grown from the crystalline structure of the glass.

Verre églomisé

2002-2023

Motivated by the desire to take on new challenges, Barbara has journeyed every year since 2001 to Novy Bor in the Czech Republic. The possibilities as regards finishing, such as grinding, polishing and gilding offer a great challenge in Novy Bor, a bulwark of glass decoration.

She also brings vigorously the gilding of glass into play, a totally forgotten decorative technique that literally and figuratively enriches the sensual inner surfaces of her dishes.

Chimaera

I created the Chimaera series in close collaboration with the Czech grinder Aleš Zvěřina. The sawn and cut facets in the crystal provide countless optical effects and add depth to the work. The spirit of the Bauhaus, where intensive interaction between artists of different disciplines in their studios and craftsmen in their workshops served the end product, continues in this collaboration.

Anna-green Glass

Crystal

Coloured shadows

2015-2023

Recently, I started “painting” with glass, where the drawing follows the form.
Colours repose as thin layers over each other, folding into the blown curves;
they appear as Coloured Shadows coming loose from each other.
My aim is to transform shape and colour into a still life.

Byzantium

2021-2023

For her latest work, Barbara Nanning drew inspiration from the beautiful colors of the Byzantine mosaics. Byzantium flourished in the east of the former Roman Empire from the sixth century to the early Middle Ages. Culturally, this period is known for figurative decorations in churches. Monarchs had mosaics applied, such as in the basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna, by making representations of colored and gilded ceramic tiles. The painter Gustav Klimt gave it a new twist at the beginning of the 20th century by making large friezes in the dining room of Palais Stoclet in Brussels. Barbara translates the reinterpretation of the Byzantine mosaics by gilding the open spaces between the glass canes with 23.5 carat gold leaf, giving her shapes an unprecedented richness.