Philip Baldwin and Monica Guggisberg
Working as an artistic team for over thirty years, Philip Baldwin and Monica Guggisberg have developed an expansive body of glass work that integrates the material as well as pattern in order to successfully explore line, space, and form.
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Philip Baldwin, born in 1949 in New York , and Monica Guggisberg, born in 1955 in Bern, crossed paths when they attended the Orrefors Glass School in Sweden. Both worked as assistants to Ann Wolff and Wilke Adolfsson from 1979 to 1981, which marked the beginning of an ongoing artistic collaboration in glassmaking. Philip and Monica have been working together for over thirty years, constantly working to expand and develop their engagement with glass. Their early work focused on basic forms and shapes, clean functional design, gradually transitioning to using glass as a form of artistic expression, focusing on line, shape, depth, and space. Keen on pattern and the material itself, they successfully integrate the Scandinavian "hot" overlay technique with the Venetian "cold" techniques of battuto and inciso. Balance and harmony between complexity and simplicity are overarching themes for their broad body of work.
Over the years, these two artists have worked in partnership with other glassmaking studios and designers, while also maintaining their independent studio for 20 years in Switzerland and since 2001 in Paris. They have collaborated with Rosenthal Studio Line, Selb, Germany, under Philip Rosenthal and design director Henk Staal; Steuben, Corning, NY with design director Chris Hacker; and for the last fifteen years with Venini, under the design director Roberto Gasparotto. In addition, their personal work, using Italian cutting techniques, has engendered a fifteen year partnership with Muranese master cutter Paolo Ferro and his two sons Pietro and Riccardo.
They have published several books (two new ones are coming out in 2011) and have received numerous awards for their designs, dedication, and artistic expression from institutions such as the National Endowment for the Arts, US, Commission for Applied Art, Canton of Bern; Prix "Jeunes Créateurs" de la Fondation vaudoise pour la promotion et la création artistique, Lausanne; IKEA Foundation (Schweiz); Federal Commission for Applied Art, Switzerland; and "Grand Prix des arts Appliquées 1999", de la Fondation vaudoise pour la promotion et la crèation artistique, Lausanne.
Philip and Monica's work has been included in collections around the world including thirty museums, such as Museum of Arts and Design, New York; Denver Art Museum; Musée Ariana, Genève, Switzerland; MUDAC (Museum of Applied Art) Lausanne, Switzerland; National Glass Center, Sunderland, UK; Musée des arts décoratifs, Paris; Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv; Museum Bellerive, Zürich; Museo del Vetro di Murano; Carnegie Museum of Art, PA, among many others.
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