Meet the Maker Creating Hypnotic Vessels From Layers of Glass

Maarten Vrolijk likes to say that he’s not a glassmaker, a ceramist, or a textile designer; instead, the Amsterdam artist works in all three mediums. His reluctance to identify as just one is rooted less in his practice and more in his philosophy. “I want to feel the freedom to create what I want and what I need,” he says. “Being open is important to making new languages in art.”

He seems to have done that with his luminous, shard-encrusted glass vessels. These oversized glass-on-glass works are, according to the artist, “a fight with the process, a fight with the fire.” Working with a small team, Vrolijk builds each one through a painstaking process of breaking, heating, and fusing glass fragments onto blown forms. It requires a precise alignment of temperature and timing. “I am bleeding when I work on it,” he says. “But in the process, because of the heat and the fire, all those sharp elements become smooth and they look like diamonds. It was a ‘wow!’ the first time I did it.”

As with any form of making, there is no guarantee of success; a full day in the studio might yield three pieces, or just one. He begins with sketches and color plans but understands the need to occasionally surrender to the unpredictable nature of molten glass. “If I see something happening that is really interesting, we’ll go in that direction,” he acknowledges. “I try not to think too much and let things exist in the moment.” He describes the process as “painting with glass,” and has drawn a range of admirers from Elton John to Christian Louboutin, along with designers Michael S. Smith and Suzanne Kasler.

The penchant to push against the norm has been inside him from a young age. At school, he felt creatively stifled by having to literally and figuratively draw within the lines. “I always wanted to change everything, to make my own version,” he recalls.

With the goal of seeing his work stretched across a department store shelf, he considered the Netherlands art school Design Academy Eindhoven, but a teacher told him he wasn’t creative enough and not to bother applying. Undeterred, he spent a year immersing himself in a variety of mediums—painting, photography, textiles, and ceramics—intent on building a portfolio that would earn him a spot. It worked and he enrolled in Eindhoven in 1985 alongside designers like Hella Jongerius and Piet Hein Eek. By the time he graduated, only four of the original 70 students in his class remained.

Eindhoven taught him how to think in terms of color, material, and mood to create objects that felt current. While still a student, his hand-painted textiles and rugs were picked up by galleries, highlighted in the press, acquired by museums, and featured in exhibitions—including a significant show curated by Paola Antonelli at the Museum of Modern Art.

In the years that followed, he moved between disciplines, creating mass-produced collections for Rosenthal and Royal Leerdam, where he was also an art director. For decades, that kind of work defined his practice until at age 50 he decided to step away.

“I always had a dream that when I get older, I would like to paint,” he says. “I started to make art with no idea how things will go. It was the best present I could have ever given myself.”

Today, Vrolijk crafts his dazzling Sakura glass pieces as well as ceramics, paintings, and textiles carried at Todd Merrill Studio in New York; Vessel Gallery in London; Objects With Narratives in Brussels and Geneva; and Collectional in Dubai. Yet, there may still be more to come. Says the polymathic talent, “I would like to try it all.”