Fantasy Plants: A Solo Exhibition by Michèle Oberdieck

Vessel Gallery presents Fantasy Plants, a solo exhibition by the contemporary glass artist, Michèle Oberdieck.

Exploring balance and asymmetry through colour, form and surface decoration, Oberdieck presents her sculptural works as a gesture, an expressive mark, often composing individual elements together, she is fascinated in the narratives that can be created.

Drawn to biomorphic structures found in plant growth, life cycles and decay, such as the delicately aging silhouettes of tulip petals, it is these twisted yet beautiful organic shapes, that she aims to capture in her glass.

With a background in printmaking and textiles, involving hand dying and screen-printing fine silks, Oberdieck understands the relationship between colour and light, a relationship that is perfect to further explore with her glass.

Oberdieck’s surfaces are achieved by using the classic Swedish technique of Graal; pre-made glass ‘cups’ are externally cut with motifs and patterns. These ‘cups of colour’ are then re-heated and re-blown, as the form evolves and enlarges, these incised marks blend, soften and distort, creating ethereal watery effects.

Michèle Oberdieck has been working with blown glass since her MA at the Royal College of Art in 2016. This shift of material was the result of a significant commission involving the development of a new technique of fusing printed fabrics between sheets of glass. A moment that sparked curiosity in this new medium, paving the way for a new creative direction. Previously Oberdieck studied textile design at Glasgow School of Art and ran a successful printed textile practice for several years based at the Oxo Tower, London.

She has exhibited and sold work in Italy, France, Japan, Lebanon, USA, South Korea, Canada, as well as in the UK. Her work was selected for the European Prize for Applied Art Exhibition 2022 in Belgium, as well as the Ireland Glass Biennale 2019, being one of just 50 international artists on show.

For the last three years she been invited to exhibit at Venice Glass Week. In March 2023, she was chosen as just one of only 14 artists by the Crafts Council to exhibit at Collect Open, held at the prestigious Somerset House. Most recently, Oberdieck was awarded a QEST Scholarship, allowing continued training in blown and sculpted glass.