'What interests me in the glass is its plasticity. It allows me to imitate any material.'
Xavier le Normand
Xavier le Normand blows glass and extracts from the burning mass of organic forms. He focuses the light, grabs it on the surface of the glass. The sculptor then cuts the glass cold and reveals the different colored layers (overlays) or creates a network of repetitive patterns. Static landscapes appear on the surface of the glass. Xavier plays with the translucency of glass often hidden from view. It is only observed at the limits of volume: between two layers of glass or on the surface of silver. The artist often gives his material a deep opacity that invites touch.
First trained in jewelry at Font Blanche workshops in Nîmes, Xavier le Normand joined CERFAV near Annecy where he became a European glassmaker. He obtained a scholarship from the City of Paris in 2004, and studied under Maestro Lino Tagliapietra at Pilchuck in the United States in 2008. He has also trained with highly respected glassblowers Monica Guggisberg and Philippe Baldwin. In 2009, he taught in Tokyo, Japan; that same year received the Liliane Bettencourt prize for the Intelligence of the Hand. In 2015, exhibited at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris and at the Palais de Tokyo and is part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Decorative Arts of Paris. In 2016, he collaborated with Cartier and Fred Jewelry. Xavier shows in Belgium, France and the Netherlands and in July 2019 will have his first gallery exhibition in the United States at Echt Gallery in Chicago.
