DAVID REEKIE

Drummers 1.
Kiln cast glass, wood and metal
46cm x 55cm x 25cm

Although glass is my main medium, I do not glorify it as a material. In fact, I manipulate it in a way that almost destroys its beauty to create a much darker feel to my ideas. I also like to use other materials and found objects in my work that fit the narrative I am trying to form.

I am driven by a desire to make things and during this making process I have the effects and qualities that glass can give me at the back of my mind. There are elements of both design and decoration in my work and because I use the human figure, I find it relatively simple to introduce a narrative which suggests particular themes or ideas I am working on. Politics and how society affects our lives is always a constant influence. I combine all these influences in my drawings and these eventually filter through to the work.

Casting and lost wax casting are my main techniques and I find these processes allow me to explore and develop my ideas even before I touch the glass. By modelling in clay and wax I have the freedom to gradually build my ideas and change things as I go along. I have also developed the use of ceramic enamel colours that I can use both in the glass itself and on the mould surface to create effects that mirror those in my drawings.

I work in a very sculptural way and this can be traced right back to my time at Stourbridge College of Art, where the influences of artists and teachers such as Harry Seager and Keith Cummings were a strong guiding force in the development of my work.

Biography pdf

David Reekie filler

Selected Biography

EMPLOYMENT
2007: Invited to speak at CGS conference ‘Looking into Glass’.
2004: Invited to attend a reception given at Buckingham Palace to celebrate British Design.
2002: Appointed a member of the Advisory Council for Northlands Creative Glass, Scotland.
1998: Work selected for exhibition at the G8 Summit in Birmingham.
1994 - 1997: Appointed International Council Member to Pilchuck Glass.
1986: Full time working artist based in Norwich.
1976 - 1986: Taught glass at North Staffordshire.
1967 - 1970: Studied glass at Stourbridge College of Art & Design.

INTERNATIONAL TEACHING
Australia, Canada, France, Japan, New Zealand, USA.

EXHIBITIONS
Collect 2005, Crafts Council, V&A Museum, London.
21st Century British Glass, Daniel Katz Gallery, London.
DUAL VISION, The Simona and Jerome Chazen Collection, Museum of Arts & Design, New York.
SOFA New York, Thomas R Riley Galleries.
Verriales 2005. Galerie Internationale du Verre, Biot, France.
Talking to Strangers, One man show at Thomas R Riley galleries, Ohio USA.
The Human Condition, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh.

COLLECTIONS
Glasmuseum Ebletoft, Denmark.
Crafts Council Collection, London.
Victoria & Albert Museum, Contemporary Glass Collection, London.
Musee-Atelier du Verre de Sars Poteries, France.
The Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, USA.
Liberty Museum, Philadelphia, USA.
Tutsek Foundation, Munich, Germany.
Glass Art Fund, Strasbourg, France.