DON WREFORD

AKA: Don Wreford

• Abstract
• Sculptor

World-renowned glass artist Don Wreford works with the many aesthetic qualities of glass. Using layered and contrasting design elements, Don focuses on texture, lustre, colour intensity and transmission of light to create depth and luminescence within the work.

Each piece is unique and treated individually. This allows Don to react spontaneously to random occurrences inspired by the nature of glass. For the artist, it is a quest to find balance between harmony and chance that may lead to unknown territory, arriving at a different destination each time through a combination of experience and intuition.

In 1964 Don Wreford completed a Diploma in Design at Hornsey College of Art in London. He then travelled through Africa, Cyprus, Turkey, Syria, Mexico, USA, India and much of Europe, studying cultures and indigenous art forms. In the early seventies he taught himself the medium of stained glass and in 1977 he established a stained glass workshop in Sydney. Following this he was introduced to working with hot glass, which he went on to study at the Jam Factory in Adelaide. Working under the instruction of Stanislav Mellis, Julio Santas, Richard Morell and Dennis O’Conner, Don learnt the tricks of this trade. He was awarded an artist-in-residency at the Phillip Institute of Technology in Melbourne before setting up his first hot glass studio in Malmsbury in 1988. He moved the studio to Gisborne in 1990 before settling permanently in Daylesford in 1993. He began exhibiting glass work in 1980 and has since been involved in countless group and solo shows throughout Australia, notably Art of Glass in 1998 at the National Gallery of Victoria. He has also been invited to show work in Germany, Japan and Singapore. His work has been acquired by several national and international collections, both public and private.