Simon Berger (born 9 April 1976) is a Swiss contemporary visual artist. He is best known for pioneering the art made by breaking glass with a hammer. His work has been widely exhibited around the world.[6]
Berger's glass portraits visualize a tension between strength and fragility through its motif, as well as his handling of the glass. The anonymous female portraits commonly share a powerful expression, their fierce gazes either piercing through the viewer, or fixating on an object beyond the frame. When approaching the artworks closely, these captivating images disintegrate into an amalgamation of cracks and jagged-edged shards of glass. Contrary to expectations of how glass should be handled cautiously to ensure its integrity, Berger makes use of the material's brittleness to develop his artistic language.[8]
Reminiscent of sculptural techniques, a hammer is used to imprint the highlighted facial features into the sheet of glass. An initially transparent support of the image, the pane of glass, becomes partially opaque. The controlled shattering of the glass creates fractures which are subject to the material's physical laws. However, instead of collapsing into itself, the safety glass keeps the shards in place. These artworks fascinate by juxtaposing strength with fragility and expectations towards glass with Berger's approach to the material. The incidence of light is reflected by the fragments and cracks within the glass, making the artworks surface gleam and glisten and depending on the illumination, it seems as if the portrait itself were glowing. Through destruction, Berger allows beauty to emerge.[8]
According to the French magazine RTS, Berger's work was influenced by the pop art movement and neorealism.[5]
Berger made his first works on glass in 2017, in his studio in Niederönz, Switzerland.[7] Soon, the originality of his technique put him in the media spotlight, and he was invited by many institutions or events such as the largest street art festival in Europe, the Street Art Fest Grenoble-Alpes, where he created a live diptych. The work can be seen in Grenoble at 113 cours Berriat in a window provided by the ARaymond company. In March 2021, Berger created a portrait of Kamala Harris, the Vice President of the United States, in partnership with the American National Museum of Women's History.[1] In August 2021, he was associated with the "We are Unbreakable" project,[9] sponsored by MTV Lebanon in tribute to the victims of the Beirut harbour explosion in 2020.
Simon Berger producing a new artwork in a live performance at Aurum Gallery, Bangkok
Exhibitions
Shattering Beauty, solo exhibition at Museo del Vetro Murano, curated by Sandrine Welte and Chiara Squarcina, in collaboration with Berengo Studioc
Selected solo exhibitions:
2023 - Facing Grace, Museo Civico di Treviso, Treviso, Italy
2023 - Echoes, Fabien Castanier Gallery, Miami, United States
2023 - Beauty in Destruction, West Chelsea Contemporary, Austin, United States
2023 - Morphogenesis, Bundesverwaltungsgericht, St. Gallen, Switzerland
L'espoire, permanent installation at a school in Grenoble, in collaboration with Jerome Catz, Street Art Fest GrenobleArtwork Morphogenesis at Sculpture Garden Biennale in Geneva, organized by Art Genève and MAMCO, in collaboration with BVLGARI
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