Simon Berger

Switzerland • 1976 76 followers

Biography

Contemporary glass artist Simon Berger's unique sculptural language explores the depth of his material through striking and cracking the glass he works on with a hammer. The pane of glass is both the supportive structure of his artwork, as well as the visualization of his artistic handwriting, playing with transparency of the material. The closer and briefer the blows, the stronger the contrasts and the shades. In his hands, the hammer is not a tool of destruction, but rather an amplifier of effects. .

Simon Berger began his artistic explorations by painting portraits with spray cans before turning to other mediums. A carpenter by training, his natural attraction to wood inspired his first artistic creations within his studio.

A lover of mechanics, he also spent plenty of time working with used car bodies to create assemblages. It was while pondering what to do with a car windshield that his idea for working with glass was born. “Human faces have always fascinated me", explained Simon. “On safety glass, these motifs come into their own and magically attract the viewer. It is a process of discovery from abstract fogging to figurative perception."

In 2023, his work was presented at the Museo del Vetro in Murano, Venice, an iconic venue dedicated to the history and experimentation of glass. As part of the exhibition Shattering Beauty, the artist unveiled portraits created through his process of controlled fracturing of safety glass, placing his practice in direct dialogue with the Venetian glassmaking tradition while reinterpreting it through a distinctly contemporary approach.

In 2024, Simon Berger continued his international development with several major projects. In Lisbon, the Underdogs Gallery dedicated the exhibition Monuments to him, where he presented a series of works exploring the relationship between memory, architecture, and material fragility. Through his portraits and shattered-glass compositions, he questions the notion of monument and trace, transforming destruction into a visual language.

The same year, his work was also featured in Switzerland in the group exhibition Fragile, alongside artist Vierwind. This dialogue highlighted two contemporary approaches to fragility: one based on fractured glass, the other on gestural painting. The exhibition emphasized the conceptual dimension of his work, centered on the balance between control and chance, destruction and creation.

Between 2023 and 2024, he also participated in the exhibition Facing Grace at the Museo Civico di Treviso (Casa Robegan, Italy). This project draws inspiration from Canova’s neoclassical works and reinterprets the figure of the Three Graces through his artistic language. Classical sculpture is reimagined as fragmented portraits, where light and cracks become structural elements of the image.

In 2025, Simon Berger continued this trajectory with the exhibition A Matter of Metamorphosis in Italy, a highly conceptual project exploring transformation, rupture, and formal mutation. The exhibition engages in a dialogue between contemporary art and literary references, particularly around notions of metamorphosis and fragmented identity.

Nationality

Swiss