Galleria Abscondita presents Chromagnetic, the first solo show in Rome by contemporary glass artist Jonas Noël
Niedermann, a new-generation glassmaster whose aesthetics draw inspiration from physics and marine biology.
A blown glass body acting as an attractor, and a series of glass applications that solidify on its surface in anthozoan forms: this is the essential concept of the works by Niedermann.
Like corals reproducing through fragmentation and budding, crystallizations proliferate
on the surface of the artist’s works. Just as clusters of small magnets are drawn toward a larger one, masses of colored glass collide with the surface of the supporting structure, shatter, and reorganize themselves into renewed harmony.
Niedermann’s works are ideal explorations and material abstractions of the underwater life
of a cosmic sea – asymmetrical and organic by nature, distant from the rigid geometries of design, yet close to the physiology of matter and the material essence of glass.
The creative process begins with the blowing of a central colored glass body (opaque
or transparent), onto which multiple layers of different colors are applied.
These fuse with each other and with the core itself, creating ever-changing landscapes and constellations.
Glass ferrofluids, symbiotic and magmatic concretions, magnetic interactions of forms and colors – the works of Jonas Noël Niedermann renew tradition and transcend the conventions of blown artistic glass, exploring its boundaries and extreme potential through the aesthetic development of the vase-sculpture surface as a space for experimentation and expression.
Chromagnetic continues the research of the gallery into contemporary artistic glass, broadening its perspective to the wider European art scene.
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Jonas Noël Niedermann (St. Gallen, Switzerland, 1990) lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark. He began working with glass at the age of fourteen, when he started his first internship at the Glasfachschule in Zwiesel, Germany, where he learned from the Bavarian masters.
At sixteen, he became an apprentice glassblower before going on to work in studios in Italy, Germany, Austria, Denmark, and the United States.
Learning from those who devoted their entire lives to the craft, he developed a unique appreciation for the intricacies of glass, studying everything from the broad vision to the smallest details. As a result, his artistic voice is strongly individual while resonating with the legacy of historical tradition.
He studied in Murano, Italy, at Studio Berengo; Pilchuck Glass School, Washington, USA, with Ned Cantrell, Michael Schunke, Mlasowsky & Szösz; Corning Museum of Glass, New York, USA, with Sugiki & Zerkowitz and Mel Douglas; Penland School of Crafts, North Carolina, USA, with Devin Burgess; and Bildwerk, Frauenau, Germany, with Franz-Xaver Höller. He has been an artist-in-residence at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Bornholm, Denmark.
His works have been exhibited at MK&G Messe, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, Germany (2024); and Modern Glass Denmark, European Glass Museum, Coburg, Germany (2023).
He has received several awards, including the Justus Brinckmann Förderpreis, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, Germany (2024); the Bavarian State Prize, Munich, Germany (2022); Milano Vetro Under 35 – Enrico Bersellini Prize (residency in Murano, Italy, 2022); the BKV Prize for Young Applied Arts – 1st Prize, Bavarian Craft Council, Germany (2021); Finn Lynggaards Legat, Glasmuseet Ebeltoft, Denmark (2020); Bündner Kunsthandwerkspreis, Switzerland (2019); and the Cultural Promotion Award, Canton of Graubünden, Switzerland (2016).
