Over the last five decades, architectural artist Brian Clarke has produced works that expand and redefine our understanding of stained glass. His practice is dedicated to liberating the medium both from its relegation to the side-lines of art history and the confines of architecture, bringing it into new contexts. He is the leading voice championing the expressive capacity of glass and is responsible for some of the most radical technological innovations in the modern era of stained glass production.

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 to the North Devon College of Art and Design at 15. He received his first stained glass window commission for a residential home before he was 20, the start of dozens of projects that would take him around the world. A notable milestone was the 1978 exhibition, ‘GLASS/LIGHT’, co-curated with fellow stained glass artist John Piper and art historian Martin Harrison, the most extensive exhibition to date of stained glass of the 20th century.

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). In creating these huge projects, Clarke drew from the surrounding architectures and cultures to create truly bespoke installations that became a defining part of the structure, rather than solely ornamental features.

Through these monumental commissions, Clarke has brought much-deserved attention to the visionary skill required to transform the highly sensitive material of glass into vibrant, expressive and modern artworks. In his smaller scale projects, Clarke adapts his practice to make equally powerful statements. Indeed, Clarke's series of freestanding stained glass screens produced with HENI are some of the clearest expressions of his commitment to challenging the traditional expectations of stained glass. Displayed in this way, the screens are awarded the full status of a single artwork, modified by their architectural surroundings but not dependent on it.

In his smaller scale works, Clarke’s original experimentation with the material can be intimately appreciated. For instance, in his ‘Summer Solstice Spitfires’ (2016) series of window panels, Clarke plays with degrees of opacity and transparency to regulate the brightness of the window, allowing only a few glimmering shadows of colourful light to be cast through it. Similarly, Clarke’s ‘Screens’ (begun in 2016) exhibit the vast range of techniques, forms and colour he has mastered, as well as his technological achievement of liberating the medium from the need for lead. As single pieces, they bring celebrations of light and colour into people’s homes.

With a mastery of glass and the ease with which he moves across scale and site, Clarke has produced a portfolio of radically diverse works. He continues to push the boundaries of stained glass as a medium, both in terms of technology and poetic potential, promoting a greater appreciation of the artform. Clarke’s art seems to possess a peculiar intellectual and visual depth, which affects viewers in unique ways, going beyond vision into the realm of the invisible.

Brian Clarke

Over the last five decades, architectural artist Brian Clarke has produced works that expand and redefine our understanding of stained glass. His practice is dedicated to liberating the medium both from its relegation to the side-lines of art history and the confines of architecture, bringing it into new contexts. He is the leading voice championing the expressive capacity of glass and is responsible for some of the most radical technological innovations in the modern era of stained glass production.