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Brian Clarke
Over the last five decades, Brian Clarke has produced radical works that engage with multiple media – including painting, collage, stained glass, ceramic, sculpture, leadwork, mosaic, tapestry and furniture. Widely considered the most important artist working in stained glass today, he has revolutionised the medium, pushing the boundaries of what it can achieve.
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Brian Clarke
Concordia
G7
The Vespers
The Vespers by Brian Clarke is a series of eight limited edition prints after his pivotal Vespers series of watercolours.
Screens
Brian Clarke’s folding screens of stained glass are a radical and historically significant development in the history of the medium and its technology. The intention of the ongoing series, which began in 2015, was to take stained glass out of religious, monumental and institutional sites and bring them into the museum, gallery and, ultimately, the home. Clarke’s choice to produce these pieces as screens rather than windows lightens the medium once again, the artform placed in one’s own space rather than restricted by the rules of architecture.
Collages
Collages by Brian Clarke is a series of 327 unique works created in 2022 and 2023. For this series, Clarke turned to the incredibly intimate format of collage to capture nature around him, using hand-painted paper and scissors.
Vespers
Vespers by Brian Clarke is a series of over 500 vivid watercolour paintings on Velin Arches paper. In a collaboration between HENI and Phillips, the debut exhibition of Clarke’s entire Vesper series went on view at the Phillips' London galleries.
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Concordia: Sir Brian Clarke's Stunning Landmark Installation
Discover Concordia (2025), a landmark instillation by the world's leading stained glass artist, Sir Brian Clarke, at Bahrain International Airport. Spanning 34 metres in width and 17 metres in height, it is one of the largest stained glass installations in the world. From concept to completion, discover how intricate craftsmanship, bold design and centuries-old techniques come together in a one-of-a-kind public art installation. Concordia marks the culmination of Clarke’s decades-long practice, incorporating in its design some of the artist’s most celebrated motifs – including poppies, daffodils and oak leaves – while also referencing his long-established interest in Islamic ornamentation: ‘Everything I have ever learned about stained glass is in some way expressed in this. Concordia integrates multiple cultural influences into its design, creating a harmonious fusion of styles that reflect Bahrain’s role as a meeting point between East and West. The piece blends the mathematical precision of traditional Islamic geometric patterns, inspired by Clarke’s visits to Morocco, with natural elements symbolic of Bahrain’s landscape, such as jasmine flowers, dragonflies, and hawks. Additionally, the work draws from Western artistic traditions, referencing medieval European tapestries and illuminated manuscripts from the Book of Hours.
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Sir Brian Clarke's Concordia at Bahrain International Airport
Discover ‘Concordia’, a landmark installation by Sir Brian Clarke, newly unveiled at Bahrain International Airport. Standing at an impressive 17 metres high and 34 metres wide (578 sqm), Concordia is one of the largest stained-glass artworks in the world, offering an awe-inspiring visual impact. 'Concordia' integrates multiple cultural influences into its design, creating a harmonious fusion of styles that reflect Bahrain’s role as a meeting point between East and West. The piece blends the mathematical precision of traditional Islamic geometric patterns, inspired by Clarke’s visits to Morocco, with natural elements symbolic of Bahrain’s landscape, such as jasmine flowers, dragonflies, and hawks. Additionally, the work draws from Western artistic traditions, referencing medieval European tapestries and illuminated manuscripts from the “Books of Hours.” Watch now to explore this extraordinary stained-glass installation and discover the symbolism that lies at the heart of ‘Concordia’. One of the most celebrated stained-glass artists working today, Sir Brian Clarke has redefined the possibilities of glass in architecture with landmark works across the globe—from the Al Faisaliah Center in Riyadh to Barcelona's historic Exchange Building, and the stunning Stamford Cone in Connecticut.
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A Great Light: Brian Clarke in Conversation with Damien Hirst
Two of Britain’s most prominent contemporary artists, discuss Clarke’s 2023 exhibition: A Great Light.
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Collages: A Discussion Between Brian Clarke and Hans Ulrich Obrist
World-renowned curator Hans Ulrich Obrist talks with British artist Brian Clarke.
About the Artist
Over the last five decades, Brian Clarke has produced radical works that engage with multiple media – including painting, collage, stained glass, ceramic, sculpture, leadwork, mosaic, tapestry and furniture. Widely considered the most important artist working in stained glass today, he has revolutionised the medium, pushing the boundaries of what it can achieve.
Born in 1953 into a working-class family in Oldham, UK, Clarke immersed himself in art from the age of 12, receiving a scholarship to the Oldham School of Arts and Crafts, and later enrolling into the North Devon College of Art and Design. An avid student of design, pictorial composition, drawing, printing and heraldry, he received his first stained glass window commission for a residential home before he was 20. At the same time, he was producing oil paintings, drawings and collages that document the breadth of his artistic interests.
A notable milestone was the 1978 exhibition GLASS/LIGHT, co-curated with stained glass artist John Piper and art historian Martin Harrison, the most extensive exhibition to date of stained glass of the 20th century. In the same period, he created a significant series of paintings, Dangerous Visions, in which the canvas is slashed, evoking a painful bodily wound clumsily stitched back together.
By the 1980s, Clarke began receiving commissions for large scale public projects such as the Royal Mosque of King Khalid International Airport (1982), Stansted Airport in London (1988), the Neue Synagogue in Darmstadt (1988), Al Faisaliyah Centre in Riyadh (1997-2000) and Pfizer World Headquarters in New York (1997-2001). For each of these monumental projects, Clarke drew from the surrounding architectures and cultures to develop a ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’, a total work of art which could harmoniously weave discrete artistic elements into a synergy of spiritual vision.
In his smaller scale projects, Clarke adapts his practice to make equally powerful statements. In 2008, he presented a striking series of leadworks at the exhibition Don't Forget the Lamb at Phillips de Pury, New York. In these works, lead becomes the dominant element, with textured inscriptions evoking the artist’s drawing hand and coloured accents made in stained glass.
Clarke's ongoing series of freestanding stained glass screens, produced with HENI, are some of the clearest expressions of his challenge to the traditional expectations of stained glass. These autonomous screens are awarded the full status of a single artwork, interacting with their architectural environment but not dependent on it.
With his recent series of lyrical mixed media works Vespers (2019-20) and the Collages edition of prints, released in 2023, Clarke continues to demonstrate his commitment to a radically diverse art. Merging tradition and innovation, rejecting conventions and uncovering new potentials, Clarke considers light his primary medium. Through this approach he produces art that is able to freely interrogate transparency, opacity, light, darkness, absence, presence, order and chaos.
By continuing to push boundaries of genres and mediums through his innovative engagement with technologies and poetic concerns, Clarke’s work seems to possess a unique depth, which affects viewers in unique ways, going beyond vision into the realm of the invisible.