Exhibitions

Sabbia Gallery is pleased to present this significant solo exhibition by glass artist Nick Wirdnam. Nick is known for his amazingly detailed hot sculpted and realistic forms, which are then assembled into a narrative. They trace ancient stories, superstitions, symbols and each installation will capture your imagination.

Nick Wirdnam is widely respected and has been producing works in glass for over 35 years. He was born in Portsmouth, UK and immigrated to Australia in 1983, after many successful years as a studio glass artist on the Isle of Wight. Nick soon took up a position in teaching at Monash University where he was instrumental in establishing opportunities for the next generation of glass artists. After teaching for almost 20 years, he left in 2007 and has since concentrated on his own exhibition work. He has been featured in several significant glass prizes as well as public and private collections.

Superstition is a credulous and essentially irrational belief or notion. The word is often used pejoratively to refer to folk beliefs. It’s commonly applied to beliefs and practices surrounding luck, prophecy and spiritual beings; particularly that personal well being, security & future events can be foretold by specific or unrelated phenomena, such as certain objects, acts, spoken phrases or a natural occurrence. These phenomena are believed to be capable of altering the course of an individual’s life, whether positively or negatively. It is the power of the object which interests me.

…While I accept these are irrational beliefs, I am willing to harbour them as they may possibly hold some truth and offer some hope and comfort. Therefore I prefer to accumulate as much of this intangible resource as I can, to increase whatever hope these objects as symbols may provide for my future security…

So I present these objects and symbols mostly in groups or multiples which offer choices and emphasise the potency of the object, to increase the chances of attaining the hoped for security, whilst maintaining the fragility relevant both to the material and the poetic nature of the concept .

Nick Wirdnam, 2012