Synthesizing influences from Venetian glassblowing, Expressionistic painting, Japanese and Korean ceramic design, John de Wit presents works that are a meeting of painting and sculpture. While he revels in the fluid expression made possible by his chosen medium, de Wit’s work distances itself from the fragility and untouchable nature often associated with glass art. For de Wit, each piece unapologetically proclaims its presence as an object to be interacted with and experienced, not simply to be admired from a distance.

Throughout his career, and in his many varied bodies of work, de Wit maintains the visual intrigue and outright physicality of his works through an approbation of the uncommon. Demonstrating de Wit’s unique interpretation of the vessel are his scepters, which combine a myriad of textures and colors in the form of mighty mock-ceremonious objects. Far from being presented as items of preciosity, one is tempted to seize these scepters from the wall in some triumphant proclamation—the unique combination of textural accents on each brilliantly colored staff appeals to each individual’s imagined fantasy of grandeur.

The scepters have been an important part of de Wit’s artistic project for more than a decade—he remains interested in the combination of diverse stylistic elements as a kind of ever-evolving visual language. More than simply aesthetic experimentation, however, the essential element for de Wit is that, “they represent an emblem of use, domestic and otherwise. A vessel that remains as an object, transparent until a very real and compelling use comes to mind. They are cups, they are tools, they represent, they are resolute.”

In contrast to the clear implied use of the scepter pieces, de Wit accesses the many permutations of the vessel form in a playful transgression of the hazy line between pure aesthetics and the distinctly useful object. While much of his vessel work remains recognizable in shape, de Wit pushes the viewer to reassess their assumptions of the vessel through dramatic surface treatments. The gestural surface painting that gives each piece its character is more than simply decoration, however. Bold colors applied liberally to the surface of each work capture an expressive energy that is heightened as their forms expand and distort with the growth of the vessel in progress. De Wit additionally incorporates blown and sculpted objects to many of his works that are part of, yet distinct from the decoration of each vessel. Our relation to these plucky creatures is dynamic as the mind must often reconcile an object that seems to have organically grown several protrusions on its surface.

A grouping of de Wit’s newest vessels is informed by a fascination with the variety of tolerant relationships found in nature, such as the way cocoons, insect egg cases and larvae are often discovered attached to some other leaf, pine cone, or log. He says, “One can say that the original vessel form disappears to allow the inclusion of the attached form, in nature’s context, a vessel.” These objects seen hanging and growing from the vessels are forms de Wit has rehearsed before, but the realization of parallel phenomena in nature has shed new light on the creation of many of these works.

Working with glass since the late 1970s, John de Wit has established his artistic presence through gallery representation across North America. His work is featured in several well-established public and corporate collections, including the Microsoft and Boeing collections in Washington and the di Rosa Preserve in California. His sculpture has been the focus of articles in national publications Glasswork Magazine, Glass Art Magazine, American Craft, and the French Revue Céramique & Verre.