About Gaby

After some years of experimenting with sculptures in ceramics, Gaby Berger wanted to explore a more challenging material and enrolled in the glass department of the IKA (Instituut voor Kunst en Ambacht in Mechelen).
The combination of glass and ceramics offered an attractive possibility to create unique pieces. Each work is the result of an exploration into grace, design, and authenticity.

During her education at the IKA, she focused on the craft of glass, and glassblowing became a passion. The main theme during her training was the handbag. One of her first pieces was a handbag made of window glass and copper plating. Later she used other techniques such as slumping, fusing, sandblasting, form melting, sand casting, pâte-de-verre, and glassblowing to execute her work.
Handbags have a rich history and are influenced by trends in art, design, fashion, and sociocultural developments. Although they have a practical side, they allow unlimited imagination and are a source of dreams and secrets.
She exhibited an installation with closets full of old handbags and a series of handbags and purses in glass: “A Handbag for Every Occasion.”

A few years later followed a large-scale installation “Searching Snow White's Apple.” It was a large black table with many white sandblasted glass objects representing contaminated food.
The installation symbolizes the influence of humankind on life, as well as its powerlessness and mortality.
This work was nominated for the Stanislav Libensky Award 2018.

Nominations / Grants

• 2024: Scholarship from the Stichting Modern Glas

  Stichting Modern Glas, founded by glass art enthusiasts Sam Jonker and Valentine Zaremba, aims to inspire as wide an audience as possible about modern glass art. They manage an extensive collection that has been carefully gathered over the past 45 years.This scholarship will be used to participate in the 'Kiln Formed Glass' workshop by Helen Slater Stokes at Bild-Werk Frauenau in Germany.

• 2022: Scholarship from The Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung

  The board of The Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung has granted me a scholarship for participation in a workshop at the International Summer Academy Bild-Werk Frauenau.
  The Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung promotes art and science. It was established in 2000 by the entrepreneur Alexander Tutsek and his wife Dr. Eva-Maria Fahrner-Tutsek as a non-profit foundation. With the scholarships the foundation aims to support emerging artists who work with the medium glass, and to make it easier for them to start their careers.

• 2018: The Stanislav Libensky Award

  The Stanislav Libenský Award is an international competitive glassmaking exhibition that every autumn in Prague presents the best work of graduates of art colleges from around the world who used glass in their degree projects.

Art Education

• 2025: Glassblowing at the National Glass School of Sweden
  Riksglasskolan Nybro - Sweden
• 2024: Kiln-formed glass by Helen Slater Stokes
  Bild-Werk Frauenau - Germany
• 2023-2026: Digital fabrication
  Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten - Brussels (B)
• 2022: Interdisciplinary Special - Hot Glass, Clay and Glass Casting
  Bild-Werk Frauenau - Germany
  with Carolin Andrin, Andrea Viebach & Torsten Rötzsch
• 2015-2018: Specialisation in Glass Art
  Instituut voor Kunst en Ambacht (IKA) - Mechelen (B)
• 2009-2015: Course ‘Glass Art’
  Instituut voor Kunst en Ambacht (IKA) - Mechelen (B)
• 2017: Workshop Soufflage de Verre
  Glassfarm - Lier (B) with Patrick Van Tilburg
• 2016: Workshop Core Casting - Max Jacquard - Stipglas Tilburg (NL)
• 2015: Masterclass with Philippa Beveridge (UK/ES) at l'Atelier du Musée du Verre in Sars-Poteries (FR)
• 2014: Workshop Glassblowing with Zdenic Kunc at the hotshop of Marcel Vlamynck in Brugge (B)
• 2013: Workshop 'Forging with Iron and Fire' at La Fonderie in Molenbeek (B)
• 2012: Workshop Glassblowing with Giampaolo Amoruso at l'Atelier du Musée du Verre in Sars-Poteries (FR)

Studies

Master in Electronics & Automation

Press Releases

• 2018: Article in Glas, the quarterly magazine of the Association of Friends of Modern Glass
• 2015: Article in Glass is more by Dirk Schrijvers
• 2015: Article in Fjoezzz 2015 no. 3 by Dirk Schrijvers

Exposities

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