English glass artist Ned Cantrell is
always good for a surprise. He loves his workshop, his tools and the
hot glow of his kiln – the movement choreographed by the rythm of
the glass. His objects are created when he lets it run its course.
There is no possibility of correction or change of mind. Everything
has to be planned very carefully beforehand. One thing finishes in
order to let another begin. But Ned Cantrell is a perfectionist.
His unique objects and small runs live
by subtle contrasts. Ned Cantrell combines tradition and modern
ideas, high culture and the taste of the masses, beauty and banality,
functionality and incapability. All gets blown and shaped with the
same intensity and care for quality in the glass kiln of his workshop
because he is keen to always show his impressive mastership.
Ned Cantrell together with his Danish
partner Karen Nyholm founded a glass studio in 2004 in Aarhus. Both
are internationally known admired and successful, especially in the
United States. He complemented his education at the Surrey Institute of Art and Design, Farnham, UK with a year of study at the Glass & Ceramics School on Bornholm, DK. He was also assistant to many renowned colleagues in Sweden and Denmark, e.g. Tobias Mohl in Ebeltoft, the centre of Danish glass artists where "NyholmCantrell" now also successfully runs their glass studio.