Artistic vision, technical skill and continuous innovation characterise Simon Berger‘s creative practice. Pioneering an improbable method of working glass in a two-dimensional, figurative way, the Swiss artist literally breaks boundaries with a revolutionary approach to his medium of choice, thereby moving beyond the century-old convention of building and modelling vitreous matter. Contrary to this long-standing tradition, his is a form of anti-creation as the destructive gesture of mere blows of a hammer on a glass pane ultimately ‘draws‘ images of great visual intrigue that emerge from the tangle of powerfully orchestrated cracks. By virtue of his unique sculptural language Simon Berger explores the depths of the material, striking the glass to liberate photorealistic ‘paintings‘ from the presumed flatness of the surface. […]

The closer and briefer the blows, the stronger the contrasts and the shades. In his hands, the hammer is no longer a tool of destruction, but rather an amplifier of effects. His lacerated portraits, incised in glass, transport the gaze into the tangles of cracks and creases which he refers to as “morphogenesis”. […]

From the controlled shattering of glass and its resulting fractures, art recalls its power of suscitating wonder and awe since through destruction, Simon Berger allows beauty to emerge.

Text by Sandrine Welte