Landscape's Imprint
Litvak Gallery, March 2023
Participating artists: Peter Bremers, Jaromir Rybak
Curator and text: Bracha Zilberstein
Catalogue editor: Orit Ephrat-Moscovitz
Design: Inbar Dekel
Text editor: Janet Amitai
Photography: Youval Hai
Measurements for height and length are given in centimeters
Cover Image: Peter Bremers, Icebers & Paraphernalia 116, 2007, Glass, 96 x 91 x 44 cm
Peter Bremers, Jaromir Rybak: Landscape’s Imprint Ma rch 2023
Bracha ZilbersteinThe contemporary glass exhibition “Landscape’s Imprint” is a collaboration between Litvak Gallery and Hamizgaga Museum.
Litvak Gallery – was established in 2008 with a focus on glass art. The gallery has one of the finest glass art collections in the world, and collaborates with museums across the world in various exhibitions. In addition, the gallery works with private collectors, architects, interior designers, and art consultants assisting with piece selection and site-specific projects.
HaMizgaga – The Museum for Regional Archaeology and Glass is housed in a two-story stone structure in the heart of Kibbutz Nahsholim, within a short walking distance from Tel Dor. The building was built in 1891 as an initiative of Baron Rothschild to build a factory for producing glass wine bottles. Meir Dizengoff, who later became the mayor of Tel -Aviv, was appointed the manager of the factory. Due to numerous difficulties – Malaria, the local sand’s unsuitability, and a lack of profitability –the factory was closed and abandoned within a few years of its opening.
In 1980, members of Kibbutz Nahsholim began to restore the structure.
At the same time, archaeological excavations were began at Tel Dor and in nearby bays, and the factory became a charming and unusual museum showcasing contemporary glass and ceramic art, alongside diverse archaelogical artifacts (some dating back to biblical times). The findings tell the story of a once vibrant and prosperous ancient port city.
The contemporary glass exhibition “Landscape’s Imprint” presents two artists:
Peter Bremers
Peter Bremers is a Dutch artist renowned for his ability to express nature’s forces and their encounter with light.
He began experimenting with various materials, later specializing in glassblowing. Following his voyage to Antarctica in a sailing ship, Bremers changed his artistic style to a technique in which he moved from glassblowing to sculpture in molten glass and mold casting, filing and polishing the work in order to create the effect of frozen water.
His wonder at the rugged Arctic scenery with its glacial landscape and the reflection of glistening waves’ light on the endless arctic ice is a source of his creations, inspiring him to create both undulating wavy forms as well as angular, cracked and broken images.
In his journey from the cold to the heat, Bremers traveled to the deserts of the western United States where he came upon the landscape of canyons and red mountains, and the dramatic heat of the rocks. In contrast to the translucent ice sculptures through which light penetrated, here he observed ancient and opaque stone layers from the surface through which no light could enter.
Peter Bremers does not attempt to imitate the power of nature and its wonder, but to express his excitement of these opposing forces.
Jaromir Rybak
Jaromir Rybak is a Czech artist, living and working in Prague. He specializes in melting and casting glass to mold after which he then cuts, sandblasts, and engraves the sculpture. He applies rich technological mastery to his creations, combining glass with other
materials, especially metals, in order to emphasize the glass’ characteristics, accenting the infiltration of light.
The harmony in design, color, and additional embellishments of the image enables Rybak to achieve intense expressiveness. In his abstract creations, we can see that the motifs are related to nature, the main source of inspiration being the underwater world inhabited by dark, deep-water creatures.
Rybak’s imaginary world highlights the strong duality between the virtues of the hard and transparent and the harmonic and lighted material. The pleasant material in contrast to the appearance of dark, repulsive, and aggressive messages is reflected in the figurative fish-like beast with wide-opened jaws showing sharp frightening teeth. The rounded, light blue attractive shapes of the wave also suggest a threat, a terrible moment, a natural disaster that is about to happen, a tsunami.
In his unique way, the artist tries to create a balance between these forces, seeking a harmony of contrasts, which are the basis of our existence.
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Jaromir Rybak
Tee Fish, 2004
Glass
42 x 88 x 17 cm
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Peter Bremers
Icebergs and Paraphernalia 192, 2010
Glass
119.4 x 49.5 x 21.6 cm
Image: Avraham Hay and Yona SchleyInquire
Peter Bremers
Canyons & Deserts 59, Reflections, 2011
Crystal glass
42 x 88 x 17 cm
Peter Bremers
Canyons & Deserts 56, Grand Canyon, 2010
Crystal glass
83.82 x 76.2 x 11.43 cm
Peter Bremers
Icebergs and Paraphernalia 155, 2007
Glass
20 x 47 x 13 cm