Bibi Smit

Fluid Form, Green-21st Century Blown Glass Object

2021

Bibi Smit (b. 1965, Son en Breugel) is a glass artist and designer. She feels the need to control all the processes, from the idea and the design to the blowing, to the cutting and polishing of the glass. Mastering all these techniques gives her the freedom she needs to create her unique glass pieces. Smit graduated with a Bachelor of Art (honours) from the West Surrey College of Art and Design in Farnham, England. After initially setting up her glass studio in the Scottish Borders, she has now settled in Loosdrecht, The Netherlands, where she has her own glassblowing workshop. There she creates unique pieces for exhibitions, and also functional pieces. Her glass art has been included public and private collections. Since 2006, she lives and works in the Netherlands. ARTIST STATEMENT As a child I was always drawing, and from the age of ten onwards, I was really drawn to watercolour. Looking back, I think watercolour has something innate that glass also has: a kind of transparency, immediacy and spontaneity. Hot glass for me seems to be alive, the way that it flows and moves and radiates light, it totally fascinates me. I take photographs of things that interest me, sometimes not knowing why, and it may take five or ten years before a piece develops from a series of photographs or sketches or ideas that I have had. The piece needs to have a movement in it. It needs to be alive; it needs to convey a message or a thought or feeling to another person. And glass to me is the perfect material to express movement. It is like wind; you don’t see wind, but you see trees moving, waves flowing. Everything is moving, nothing is static. And that is, for me, the essence of life. Life doesn’t stand still; it is always moving. I find really exciting. SELECTED EXHIBITIONS 2016-2019 Salone del Mobile, Milano, Palazzo Francesco Turati, Italy 2018 “Glas en Keramiekbeurs” Leerdam, NL, “Copier Unveiled” 2011-18 “Meesterlijk”, Amsterdam, NL 2010 “Future Memories”, Galerie Broft, Leerdam, NL 2006 “Fragile Connections”, (with Elizabeth Swinburne), Gallery Leon Salet, Maastricht, NL 2001 Glass Gallery Leerdam, Leerdam (with Floris Meydam), NL SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2020 PAN Amsterdam, Galerie Wilms, NL 2019 Gallery Bonnard, NL 2018-2019 Masterly The Hague, NL 2018 “TRANS-FORM”, London Design Festival, Mint, London, UK 2015-2016 “Royal Showpieces”, Paleis Het Loo, Apeldoorn, NL 2016 “11th Biennial International Glass Art”, Roermond, NL 2016 “A Vases is a Vase is a Vase”, AD Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium 2015 Maison Objet, Paris, France PUBLIC and PRIVATE COLLECTIONS National Museums of Scotland, Great Britain Nationaal Glasmuseum Leerdam, NL Museum Jan (formally named Museum Jan van der Togt), Amstelveen, NL NN Group Art Collection, The Netherlands L.R. Crystal, Glassmuseum, Lednické Rovne, Slovak Republic Dan Klein Alan J. Poole (Private Collection of Glass) Collection North Lands Creative Glass, Lybster, Scotland Museum für Glaskunst, Lauscha, Germany Glasmuseum Alter Hof Herding, Ernsting-Stiftung, Coesfeld, Germany