Over the last five decades, Brian Clarke has produced radical works that engage with multiple media – including painting, collage, stained glass, ceramic, sculpture, leadwork, mosaic, tapestry and furniture. Widely considered the most important artist working in stained glass today, he has revolutionised the medium, pushing the boundaries of what it can achieve.
Born in 1953 into a working-class family in Oldham, UK, Clarke immersed himself in art from the age of 12, receiving a scholarship to the Oldham School of Arts and Crafts, and later enrolling into the North Devon College of Art and Design. An avid student of design, pictorial composition, drawing, printing and heraldry, he received his first stained glass window commission for a residential home before he was 20. At the same time, he was producing oil paintings, drawings and collages that document the breadth of his artistic interests.
A notable milestone was the 1978 exhibition GLASS/LIGHT, co-curated with stained glass artist John Piper and art historian Martin Harrison, the most extensive exhibition to date of stained glass of the 20th century. In the same period, he created a significant series of paintings, Dangerous Visions, in which the canvas is slashed, evoking a painful bodily wound clumsily stitched back together.
By the 1980s, Clarke began receiving commissions for large scale public projects such as the Royal Mosque of King Khalid International Airport (1982), Stansted Airport in London (1988), the Neue Synagogue in Darmstadt (1988), Al Faisaliyah Centre in Riyadh (1997-2000) and Pfizer World Headquarters in New York (1997-2001). For each of these monumental projects, Clarke drew from the surrounding architectures and cultures to develop a ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’, a total work of art which could harmoniously weave discrete artistic elements into a synergy of spiritual vision.
In his smaller scale endeavors, Clarke adeptly transforms his practice to convey equally impactful messages. In 2008, he unveiled a stunning series of leadworks at the Don’t Forget the Lamb exhibition at Phillips de Pury in New York. These works exalt lead as the dominant element, with textured engravings evoking the artist’s skilled hand and vibrant accents crafted from stained glass.
Clarke’s ongoing collection of independent stained glass screens, created in collaboration with HENI, are the clearest manifestation of his defiance against the conventional expectations of stained glass. These autonomous screens are elevated to the status of singular artworks, engaging with their architectural surroundings while remaining independent from them.
Through his recent series of stirring multimedia works, Vespers (2019-20), and the Collages edition of prints, set to be released in 2023, Clarke continues to exemplify his dedication to a radically diverse art form. By merging tradition and innovation, rejecting norms and uncovering new potentials, Clarke embraces light as his primary medium. Through this approach, he produces art that boldly delves into concepts of transparency, opacity, light, darkness, absence, presence, order, and chaos.
By persistently pushing the boundaries of genres and mediums, utilizing innovative technologies and addressing poetic concerns, Clarke’s work holds a unique depth that resonates with viewers in profound ways, transcending vision and delving into the realm of the invisible.
