After graduating from the Academy of Visual Arts in Maastricht, Michael Behrens started a remarkable career in glass art. His work can now be seen in most major glass art galleries and collections in Europe and North America. His large scale highly polished kiln-cast glass sculpture reflects his fascination with the undersea world.
Experimentation with glass started in 2002. Nature and the surrounding environment, especially the underwater world, inspire his work.The reduction to few colours and the cell structures resulting from the fusion of the utilised glass pieces, are the main characteristics of his works. The relationship between shape and content is of high importance in Behrens' work.The outer shapes of his sculptures appear deliberately random, supported by the fine, relief-like crimped modelling of the edges and the interplay of matt and polished surfaces.
Behrens produces all artworks in his studio in Dusseldorf utilising his custom-built furnaces. Each piece undergoes several complex production phases: The sculptural work on a rigid foam model, the production of the melting moulds, the arrangement of pre-processed glass pieces in the melting mould, the actual melting and cooling processes as well as the finish by grinding, polishing and/or sandblasting. The production of a single sculpture usually takes several months.