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Julius Weiland

Julius Weiland was born in Lübeck in 1971. From 1995 to 2000 he studied industrial design under Katsuhito Nishikawa and Ann Wolff at the Hamburg Art Academy, attended the Pilchuck Glass School at Stanwood, near Seattle, and completed periods of practical training in Swedish glass factories. He finished his studies in 2001 with a diploma from the Hamburg Academy and then set up as an independent artist in Berlin, establishing a studio in an abandoned factory.Weiland sees himself as a sculptor. Mechanically manufactured glass tubing used for making laboratory appliances forms his raw material, which he cuts by hand and then fuses in fire-resistant molds of his own making. He controls the fusing process by reducing the heat in the furnace, or turning it off altogether, when the... Julius Weiland was born in Lübeck in 1971. From 1995 to 2000 he studied industrial design under Katsuhito Nishikawa and Ann Wolff at the Hamburg Art Academy, attended the Pilchuck Glass School at Stanwood, near Seattle, and completed periods of practical training in Swedish glass factories. He finished his studies in 2001 with a diploma from the Hamburg Academy and then set up as an independent artist in Berlin, establishing a studio in an abandoned factory.

Weiland sees himself as a sculptor. Mechanically manufactured glass tubing used for making laboratory appliances forms his raw material, which he cuts by hand and then fuses in fire-resistant molds of his own making. He controls the fusing process by reducing the heat in the furnace, or turning it off altogether, when the individual tubes are still just about upright or have partly collapsed. This is a similar kind of action to that carried out by glassblowers at the furnace. Yet the activity embodied in Weiland's objects and sculptures seems to continue after they have cooled and solidified, for light striking them gives them a life of their own, as though they were performing on a stage. Their component parts - the tubes - appear to twist and turn, pointing this way and that, collapsing together, emitting reflections or emerging from darkness as though picked out by a searchlight.

In the short time since Julius Weiland established his studio, he has received notable international recognition, including the 2011 Jutta Cuny-Franz Award; the 2007 Jutta Cuny-Franz Award Supporting Prize; honorable mention at the prestigious 2006 Coburger Glas Preis and Gold Medal at the 2004 International Exhibition of Glass in Kanazawa, Japan. Weiland's work is featured in many European public collections including Cisternerne Museum for Modern Glass Art in Copenhagen, Denmark; Glasmuseet Ebeltoft in Ebeltoft, Denmark; museum kunst palast, Glasmuseum Hentrich in D?sseldorf, Germany and Museum f?r Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg, Germany.

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Find Julius Weiland in the following exhibitions and art fairs:

Julius Weiland: Flux

January 19, 2012 - March 22, 2012

Glass: Trends in Contemporary Glass Sculpture

December 12, 2009 - June 5, 2010

SOFA New York 2012

April 20, 2012 - April 23, 2012

SOFA Chicago 2011

November 4, 2011 - November 6, 2011

GlassWeekend 2011

June 10, 2011 - June 12, 2011

SOFA New York 2011