Chronology
2023
“Dans un Labyrinthe : Un Voyage Liminal”, exhibition at the Vitromusée Romont, Switzerland
2022
‘Amphore Metaphore’, exhibition at the Musée du Verre de Conches, France
2020
‘Walking in the Void’, exhibition at the Ebeltoft Glasmuseet, Denmark
2019
‘You, Me and the Rest of Us’, solo exhibition at Galleri Glas in Stockholm, Sweden
2018
'Under an Equal Sky', a series of installations at Canterbury Cathedral, a World Heritage Site
2017
New series of work Species Novae, and an installation at the Palazzo Loredan in Venice to celebrate the Glass in Venice Prize
2016
View of our exhibition at St Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh
2015
New Studio at Hares Green in Wales
2014
Installation in Zürich, Im Brächli
2012
Show at the Museum for Applied Art In Frankfurt: Au-delà du verre / Beyond Glass
2011
Show at the Ariana Museum in Geneva: ‘Au-delà du verre / Beyond Glass’
Accompanying bilingual English/French Book published by 5 Continents Editions
’The Glass Arch, L'Arche de Verre’, published by Editions de La Revue de la céramique et du verre
And more puppies!!
2010
Clin d'oeil to a moment in time: the development of our new Boat Series
Photographed by Gaetane Girard and Christoph Lehmann in Paris and Venice 2009 - 2010
2009
In February, Bernadette had seven puppies right here in the studio, where they spent a snug ten weeks in the dead of winter before finding new homes. One puppy, named Watson, stayed on as companion to his mum.
We embarked on two new interrelated bodies of work introduced in May at the Hélène Porée Gallery in Paris: Urban Landscapes and Migrations
2008
Studio returned to mint condition in March - after nine and a half months of repairs we finally relit our furnace. In spite of the rather intense distractions, we maintained our commitments with SOFA in Chicago, PAN in Amsterdam, and wonderful shows in London, Paris, Chicago and Zurich.
2007
Feature length documentary film Fire Glass, by award winning Swiss filmmaker Pierre Kalbfuss. Premier, Swiss television, June 1st, in French with German and Italian subtitles. Original score, Dolby Sound, in color. Filmed in 2005 and 2006, with interviews of galleries (Thomas Riley, Sandra Ainsley), curators (Jean-Luc Olivié, David McFadden and Dan Klein), including extensive footage from Venini, the cold-working shop of Paolo Ferro, his sons Pietro and Riccardo, and our Paris studio hotshop. Not so much a propaganda piece, as the filmmaker's own interpretation of our collaboration.
On Sunday evening, May 6th, as a side effect of the French elections, there were several acts of random violence in the 12th arrondisement in Paris. Our studio, whose back entrance conjoins with a public park above the historic railway viaduct in which we are located, was hit with a Molotov cocktail, and badly burned. Luckily most of our primary hotshop equipment was not seriously damaged, however it resulted in a great deal of damage to our stock and the building, including nine months of repairs.
2006
First public installations in North America: Northeast Medical Center, Charlotte, NC and Wells Fargo Bank, Des Moines, Iowa; Dutch Sculpture Park installation, Oisterwijk, Holland.
2005
First outdoor installation. Private commission, Canada; installed during a blizzard, and still standing!
2004
The Circus of Spheres: introduction of large scale sculpture with blown glass spheres and metal as part of a themed traveling museum exhibition: MUDAC (Museum of Applied Art) Lausanne, Switzerland, Het Koopmanshuis, Leusden Holland, and the National Glass Center, Sunderland, UK.
2003
First exhibition with Sandra Ainsley, The Distillery, Toronto; introduction of Circo di Lune for Venini.
2002
Global Art Glass exhibition in Bornholm, Sweden, and our next Museum exhibition Battuto 2002 focusing on our experimentation with Italian batutto cutting techniques, Ebeltoft Glass Museum, Denmark.
2001
We move the studio to Paris, 101 Avenue Daumesnil, in the 12th arrondissement, in the archway of an old railway viaduct, now a city park.
2000
Major museum exhibition, celebrating twenty years in Switzerland, at the Eretz Israel Museum in Tel Aviv ‘Hot Glass, Cold Glass’, curated by Henrietta Eliezer Brunner. Catalogue in English and Hebrew, eighty-four pages, full color.
1999
Grand Prize of the Swiss (Vaud) Arts Foundation for the Applied Arts for Creative Achievement.
The Nestlé Project, for the renovated landmark Nestlé headquarters in Vevey, Switzerland (Jean Tschumi, architect, 1960). One ton of laminated industrial glass, entirely cut in deep "inciso" cutting. Unique example of bringing Italian cutting techniques to a large-scale industrial glass installation.
1998
First major museum installation, Kunsthalle, Bern: We Never Promised You a Rose Garden.
Publication of our first book, In Search of Clear Lines, with essays by Susanne K. Frantz and Jean-Luc Olivié.
1996
Venezia Aperto Vetro and the introduction of our Guardiani & Cortigiane sculptures, a major innovation in our work, transforming the vessel form into free standing sculpture.
1995
Marks the start of our long collaboration with Venini, under the design director Roberto Gasparotto.
1994
We begin experimenting with Italian cold-cutting techniques and working with Muranese cutter Paolo Ferro, later to be joined by his two sons, Riccardo and Pietro. The start of a wonderful and warm friendship.
1993
Final phase of Nonfoux Collection studio design work and our own in-house production.
1990
Son Ian Marco is born.
1989
Start of five year design collaboration with Steuben, Corning, NY with design director Chris Hacker.
1987
Daughter Naja is born.
Aztec bowls for Rosenthal win German Design Innovation Award.
1986
Introduction of ‘Triples’ our first serious attempt at glass with sculptural content; superimposed blown glass plates, sandblasted. Much emphasis on graphics and linear content, and the layering of one color over another, but without using blown overlay.
1985
Start of ten year design collaboration with Rosenthal Studio Line, Selb, Germany, under Philip Rosenthal and design director Henk Staal.
1983
Our free-blown hand-made "modern design" functional glassware gets underway in the Nonfoux hot shop.
1982
We open our studio in the French-speaking part of Switzerland.
Monica Guggisberg - Prix de la Fondation de la Vocation, Genève
1980
Philip Baldwin - National Endowment for the Arts, Washington DC
Monica Guggisberg - Study Grant, Canton of Bern
1979 - 1981
Two magical years in the Swedish forest (Smäland) as the assistants to Ann Wolff (then Wärff) and Wilke Adolfsson.
1979
Monica and Philip (he from Boston, she from Bern) move to Sweden to learn glassblowing at the Orrefors Factory Glass School, in Orrefors.
Philip - Grants of Ludwig K. Vogelstein Foundation and Ella Lyman Cabot Trust, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
1978 - 1979
Monica - Own studio in Bern
1974 - 1977
Monica Guggisberg - Apprenticeship in lamp-working, Zofingen
1970
Philip Baldwin - Bachelor of Arts, American University, Washington DC
1955
Monica Guggisberg born in Bern, Switzerland
1947
Philip Baldwin born in New York, USA