“Where is my paradise?”
That is the question posed by Japanese object artist Shige Fujishiro not only to himself but also to the viewer of his whimsical series of works assembled under this title. These objects and installations, at once filigree and spectacular, have an ambiguous and irritating air that transports familiar everyday things to the realm of the surreal. Since 2015, Shige Fujishiro has been producing works made from innumerable colourful Japanese glass Toho beads, which he threads onto safety pins and sews together, often in the course of months of meticulous precision work. We are delighted to have discovered Shige Fujishiro and to have been able to acquire one of his magnificent objects for our collection: “Badminton Racket and Insect Net”.
In our quest for new and exciting glass art, we turned our attention in 2025 to the British glass scene. Peter Layton’s London Glassblowing, one of the most successful glassblowing studios in Europe, proved to be a real treasure trove. It was founded 50 years ago by the artist and mentor Peter Layton, who is not only among the seminal figures in British studio glass but at the age of 88 is also one of the oldest actively practising glass artists in the world. His studio is dedicated to bringing the best of contemporary glass art to a wider audience by showcasing emerging talents alongside established, internationally renowned glass artists.
We were able to acquire some exceptional works by artists from the studio such as Harry Morgan, Tim Rawlinson, Layne Rowe and Louis Thompson, as well as two new pieces by the old master Peter Layton: “Storm Cloud” and “Rainbow Cloud”. For Peter Layton, clouds are one of the most beautiful phenomena of nature with their infinite variety of multilayered metamorphic forms and movements, their colours by turns delicate, magnificent or even threatening. This makes capturing their essence in glass a considerable challenge.
As we travelled to various exhibitions and galleries and visited artists in Germany and abroad, we encountered glass art that displays astonishing creativity and professionalism. You can look forward to marvelling at some extraordinary new acquisitions, comprising a wide-ranging palette of the most diverse works, from colourful to purist, fragile to compact, poetic to refreshingly fanciful.
Lilly Ernsting belonged to the first generation of collectors of European studio glass, so that the history of her collection also traces the development that genre. Her motto was: Never look to the past! And thus she always directed her attention ahead to the latest trends on the glass scene, a strategy that has given her collection an independent and distinctive profile. As a collector, she had her own personal relationship with the works from the outset, often associating them with cherished memories. Each piece was for her a fresh discovery.