Max Jacquard

About

Born on the edge of London in 1964 Max Jacquard trained briefly as a furniture designer before switching to the relative freedom of ceramics and glass on the course at High Wycombe liberally run in the late eighties by Sam Herman. After a brief stint as artist in residence and an apprenticeship making optical glass trophies Max returned to London and established his own studios in Brixton and Battersea.
Jacquard’s practice began by producing ranges of loosely functional vessel forms and lit objects for galleries whilst working on larger works to commission. Over time the work began to focus on glass sculpture and architectural projects. This change coincided with a move to the country overlooking the weald of Kent and can be clearly seen in the strong rural feel of much of his work since 2001.
The exhibition ‘Solid Air’ at the Crafts Council in 2002 marked a turning point in his career where he worked with sound and light along with 3 life-size hanging glass figures to create a challenging and moving sensory experience. Since then the V&A Museum and The Shipley Museum of Applied Arts as well as the MAVA Museum in Alcorcon, Madrid, have acquired his work for their collections.
Jacquard has established a strong reputation for innovation both in technique and conception that makes his work distinctive and unique amongst UK Glass Artists.
Narratives are woven in and around objects often transforming the familiar or ‘found’ into strange and unsettling realities using the glassy state as both aesthetic and metaphor. His style combines personal stories with diverse cultural references including archeology, nature, landscape and craft traditions. Kiln forming is employed as the central technique but the results are extensively cold worked and combined with other media in a rich sculptural language. The scale varies from body sized to hand held but even the smallest items retain the distinctive ghostly beauty to be found in the larger pieces.
In 2006 Jacquard was awarded first prize in the UK Glass Biennale for his work “For My Lost Loves” featuring a series of crumpled tissues captured with extraordinary delicacy in clear crystal. Another version of the piece is also included in the Spanish Bienal des Artes Plasticas currently touring Spain

In 1998 Max Jacquard co- founded the artists group, New London Glass and has been pivotal in the organisation of site specific exhibitions in London such as ‘Sub Urban Glass’ at Gloucester Road Underground Station and ‘Transfuse’ at The Great Eastern Hotel. In Liverpool Street.
His role in education is also significant having hosted the 2004 Anglo/Hungarian conference ‘Fragile Cargo’ at the Glass Art Gallery in London Bridge and he lectures regularly in kiln-formed glass at The University College For the Creative Arts (Farnham) and at Richmond College in London.

In his personal work Max continues to innovate with new approaches to technique and scale that retain the distinctive ghostly beauty to be found in the larger body pieces. In the latest works featured in both the British Glass Biennale and the Spanish Bienal des Artes Plasticas he presents groups of crumpled tissues captured with extraordinary delicacy in clear crystal.

This website features a cross section of recent work ranging from the large scale one off installations to smaller scale ‘still -lives’ and even more affordable limited edition design work. It is also kept up to date with news of current projects and exhibitions as they happen.