February 5 – 28 2026
BARBARA NANNING
WHEN LIGHT SURROUNDS US
David Gill Gallery
2-4 King Street
St. James’s
London SW1Y 6QP
David Gill Gallery is delighted to announce ‘When Light Surrounds Us’, the debut design exhibition by renowned Dutch glass artist Barbara Nanning.
“Experimentation allows truly new outcomes to arise. It is a continuous collaboration between mind and hand,” Barbara Nanning
From the beginning of her career in 1995 as a ceramicist, and more recent years working in glass, Barbara Nanning has always pushed boundaries within the manipulation of materials. For Nanning, nature with its manifold and widespread world of shapes and colours, is an almost inexhaustible source of inspiration. The artists’ new work fuses glass panels within furniture, comprising eight mirrors, seven side tables, three vases, two table lamps, and a coffee table, combining forms that celebrate both the decorative and the functional. The contrast between glass and other materials, such as bronze, adds a new dimension to Nanning’s work, uniting opposing elements seamlessly so that the unusual combination appears natural, with colour playing an essential role; complementary hues and the interplay of warm and cool tones that both enhance and enrich one another.
Since 2015, Nanning has been painting with glass, transforming it into a form of still life. Each glass panel centres on the theme of cellular division, using a multitude of coloured glass canes, drawn by the artist, that vary in pattern, hue, and scale. These canes are then blown and manipulated into an organic play of colour that spreads across the surfaces in unique prismatic sheens, where both the exterior and interior are essential. Transparency, reflection and layering all play a key role as the four main techniques, blowing, fusing, slumping, and sculpting, come together, resulting in a distinctive signature. Much of Nanning’s practice is shaped by her drive to explore and perfect unconventional techniques and finishes.