Alex Arbell Alex Arbell was born in Krakow, Poland in 1933 and later immigrated with his family to Israel where they settled in Haifa. He studied glassblowing for scientific purposes in Cambridge and London from 1955 to 1957, and produced fine scientific glassware for twenty-five years. It was not before midlife that he made a shift towards art. According to Arbell, "making scientific glass and making glass art require the same equipment, material and technique. It's a shift that you have to make inside your head."Arbell's forms are influenced from traditional Middle Eastern vessels and amphora's excavated from the region. He began to realize the source from which he had been drawing from when he started writing about his work. Arbell creates a dialogue with the...Alex Arbell Alex Arbell was born in Krakow, Poland in 1933 and later immigrated with his family to Israel where they settled in Haifa. He studied glassblowing for scientific purposes in Cambridge and London from 1955 to 1957, and produced fine scientific glassware for twenty-five years. It was not before midlife that he made a shift towards art. According to Arbell, "making scientific glass and making glass art require the same equipment, material and technique. It's a shift that you have to make inside your head."
Arbell's forms are influenced from traditional Middle Eastern vessels and amphora's excavated from the region. He began to realize the source from which he had been drawing from when he started writing about his work. Arbell creates a dialogue with the flowing material, which frequently carries him away from or beyond the original idea. His work enables him to examine the main values of the reality in which he lives and serves as a bridge to this reality and away from it. While the basis of Arbell's work is inspired by tradition, the simple anthropomorphic sculptures are playful forms in the vocabulary of modernism.
Arbell has been living in Ein Hod for over 30 years, where he teaches classes in lamp-worked glass blowing and flame-working. His work is exhibited in major galleries throughout the United States, Europe and Japan, as well as museums and private collections in Israel and overseas.