Barbara Nanning

Made with intuition and imagination

• Barbara expresses herself through clay and glass
• Researching materials is at the heart of her work
• She seeks a balance between the static and the dynamic

Barbara Nanning is a Dutch ceramicist and glass artist. “I learned to throw on a wheel when I was eight years old. I had a wheel in my bedroom, right beside my bed, and later a small electric kiln. All my free time during my teenage years was spent happily practising throwing.” The invitation in 1995 from Royal Leerdam to make a series of unique pieces brought a great change in her career. In Leerdam she mostly made dishes and objects of colourless glass, in which she played with the thickness of the glass and its distorting effects. “The forms were a continuation of my ceramic idiom. Since then I have worked alternately in ceramics and glass, following my intuition and imagination.”

Interview

©Barbara Nanning

©Barbara Nanning

How would you define what you do?

I am not interested in categorising my work. I see myself above all as a sculptor. I am always highly conscious of the materials I use, and carry out extensive research before embarking on a project, in order to achieve the optimal results.

What inspires your work?

Nature intrigues me, whether organic or inorganic. I work in what one may call groups or families; it is in constant evolution, and one set of forms gives way to the next. Galaxy, Terra, Botanica, Hydras, Transmutations, Coloured Shadows are some of the names of my series.

In what way do you unfold your creativity?

I strive for the same feeling embodied by the forms and places that inspire me: a perfect finish, the omission of the superfluous, and the peace that enables me to work in the right spirit. I always begin my work with a circle, an archetype. At the centre is the fulcrum from which the movement flows.

What do you want to convey through your objects?

My objects are earthy and stand on their own, they rise up from the earth. There must, I believe, be a balance, a harmony, between the static and the dynamic, between growth and gravity.

Barbara Nanning is a master artisan: she began her career in 1974 and she started teaching in 1974

Works

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