The Glass Gallery

THE GLASS GALLERY RICHARD LANDERS

Artist Statement // Profile

Established in 1987 to fulfill a fascination with form and light through my lifelong medium of glass.

The Glass Gallery started from my small studio space at our home in Hāwera – fast-forward more than 30 years and we’ve created not only a larger studio and gallery featuring award-winning works, but with the help of my gardening guru wife, a sculptural trail within our beautiful garden and homestead in New Plymouth.

From concept through to finished piece, each step is done by hand with meticulous attention to quality and detail, with influences drawn from the lifestyle and tastes of each client, the architectural space and important personal details that make my works special and individual to you. Each commission brings its own challenge – one that drives my passion for art and design. And, while the scale of my projects may shift, from residential to corporate facilities, churches to maraes, galleries and public spaces, each is bound by unwavering craftsmanship, thought and considered detail.

I strive to preserve the beauty and traditions of hand craftsmanship in an ever-growing mass-produced world. All of my designs are still hand drawn and constructed by hand with love, elbow grease and some good ol’ kiwi ingenuity.

Artist Statement // Positive and Negative Space

Originally a stained glass artist, the offcuts from lead lighting inspired my interest in the negative and positive space created when cutting shapes and lines. When designing a piece, I’ve learned a habit of reversing, inverting and repeating to see what is hiding in these ‘spaces’ that I have not yet discovered. Each sculpture formulates in my mind from an original idea, which develops into expression, an architectural shape or symmetrical form and with this reveals the potential of both a positive and negative construct. For every negative there has to be a positive. Traditionally, the positive space is the part of the art work where it is all going on, the subject, detail, form, everything. In turn, it is surrounded by negative space – this is where the true interest lies for me. In this circumstance, our brain determines which area to recognise as positive or negative space to then interpret what we are seeing as the recognised form. There’s an Arthur Koestler quote captures my design process, “The more original a discovery, the more obvious it seems afterwards.” I may begin with a project concentrating on the positive shape, but end up developing a sculpture from both the positive and negative. It’s about discovering new forms and shapes throughout the process – new ways of seeing things – ultimately creating things that didn’t exist at first, but so obviously should have once discovered.

Artist Statement // Sustainability and use of recyclable materials

At a time where the increasing need to consider our consumer footprint is ever prevalent, the art industry is no exception – I became an artist to fulfil a fascination with form and light through my lifelong medium of glass – along the way I discovered the potential in the creative and innovative re-cycling of the material itself. As one of the few glass artists in New Zealand, I’m self-taught in recycling window glass into contemporary abstract sculptures that reflect and manipulate light. As an artist, I seek to transform recycled sheet glass into sculptures that are not only visually pleasing, but capture the public's imagination and stimulates contemplation.