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Arts & Communication Contemporary Portuguese glass art

accessible. His pieces have a characteristic architectural Inside Glass, in Palazzo Loredan, 2015, was the outcome
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configuration, where different shapes emerge in the of this project. The exhibition explores the relationship
vertical structures. Volumes and cavities interact with the between science and art through the interaction with
different forms of the glass composition. He created effects light and glass. The curator of this exhibition, Francesca
of superimposition, transparency, opacity, permeability, Giubilei, says that glass is one of the most interesting
occlusion, and repetition, among others, staging surfaces materials for interaction with light, as it can increase and
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and spaces in the architectural pieces elaborated. Color is distort vision. The artists who participated in the project
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an important factor for this artist. In the pieces illuminated – Teresa and Fernando – made a piece for the exhibition.
by daylight, we can visualize an abstract expressionist Teresa made Dendrogyra cylindricus, 100×45×45 cm and
painting. When illuminated with UV light, the luminescent 100 × 45 × 60 cm, 2015. In this work, the light that was
painting can be seen in other parts of the piece. The once omnipresent appears beneath the piece, and the
fascination of lights, of luminescence, is recreated in the viewer interacting with the piece may decide when to
nocturnal darkness of the city. The pieces are made using light it up. Fernando made Biblioteca Specularis, 45 × 45 ×
several techniques, such as painting, fusing, slumping, and 45 cm, 2014 – a cubic shape where several materials such
gluing. His pieces are also related to monochromatic and as glass ceramic and stones were combined. Robert Wiley
polychromatic aspects, what we can see at night is different (American-born, but now with Portuguese nationality)
from those at daytime. This architectural structure is a also participated in the project and made a piece for the
constant in Fernando Quintas works; from drawing to exhibition, and Robert’s work Questioning the Answers, 42
painting, we can visualize its forms and shapes. In 2017, × 150 × 50 cm, 2015, through the use of borosilicate glass
Fernando authored the sculpture trophy APOM 17 for combined with UV leads in the piece, with a luminescent
Portuguese Best Museum of 2017 entitled Opus Musivum piece with this feature: “An indispensable duality emerges
(four pieces of 20 × 20 × 50 cm each), which was made using from the work as the summary of emotion and thought,
21,p.102
a mixing technique with float glass and float luminescent between with is natural and that which artificial”
glass (using enamels, frits, fusing, casting, slumping and The exhibition was also exhibited in 2016 in Galeria
gluing) (Figure 2). In this piece, luminescent glass from his Millennium, Lisbon in 2016.
PhD research was used. With the intention of obtaining products that are more
VICARTE research unit had several funded projects ecological, VICARTE is also using other elements that
related to the development of new material, “Glass in Art: are more accessible and sustainable than rare earths, such
Light and Colour” (POCI/EAT/60496/2004), “Glass Art as sodalite zeolites. Ana Margarida Rocha applied these
elements in her PhD research. In her work Luminescence
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and 2D and 3D printing” (PTDC/EAT/67354/2006), and from the Red Planet, 35 × 35 × 35 cm (Figure 3), she
“Development of Luminescent Glass for Art and Industry addresses themes such as camera obscura in which she
Utilizing UV LED’s and Solar Energy Capture” (PYDC/EAT- combines images from Mars. According to the author,
AVP/118520/2010). The exhibition in Venice Within Light/ “This piece aims to highlight the way to Modernity,” as
Jonathan Crary refers to “a neutral transmission device,

Figure 2. Fernando Quintas, Sculpture Trophy APOM 17, Opus Musivum, Figure 3. Ana Margarida Rocha, Luminescence from the Red Planet, 35 ×
20 × 20 × 50 cm, 2017. Photo credit: Fernando Quintas. Copyright © 2017 35 × 35 cm, 2018. Photo credit: Author- Copyright @ 2018 Teresa Almeida.
Fernando Quintas. Reprinted with permission of Fernando Quintas. Reprinted with the permission of the artist Ana Margarida Rocha.

Volume 2 Issue 3 (2024) 4 doi: 10.36922/ac.2777