Hendrik van Vuuren

Hendrik van Vuuren is a native of South Africa, and has lived in the United States since 2001. His glass work is inspired by both his African roots and his Dutch ancestry. The son of a builder, Hendrik is entirely self-taught and began developing his technique in 2011 after purchasing a beat-up ceramics kiln that was being discarded from a Raleigh art school. His work, process and style evolve with every sculpture and experiment. Each piece is handmade, and begins as an original design in clay. Hendrik currently lives in Charlotte, N.C., with his wife and two small children.

Transparent glass has no internal shadows -- what we see on the photographic print as shadow or darkness is only a light vacuum where the light ray has been absorbed by the material itself. This phenomenon underlies the optical paradox of glass. In a uniformly colored mass with interior modeling and a smooth exterior surface, the light and shade produce a multitude of hues, light or dark, which underscore the actual depth of the negative plasticity. Through "negative modeling" the real plastic work becomes the matrix and the former mold the object.

"William Warmus - The Art of Libensky and Brychtova"