In May 2023, artists Jim Schantz and Peter Bremers traveled to Iceland’s Vatnajökull— the second largest glacier in Europe. Witnessing the colossal ice formations up-close, as well as the markers of climate change they carry, inspired the two artists to collaborate on “Homage to the Glacier,” a recent exhibition at the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
Art has a powerful role in conveying the state of our changing planet, as Lydia Pilcher, a filmmaker and adjunct professor at the Columbia Climate School, said in a recent interview: “One of the things that art does really beautifully is to remind us how much we as humans are a part of the natural world.”
Schantz’s and Bremers’ work does just that. Using two different media (glass sculptures and oil paintings), their connection with a distant, threatened region offers the viewer a sense of our place in the world.
Schantz’s perspective encompasses a vast landscape. The geometric forms of the glaciers and icebergs emerge from a body of water, accompanied by looming mountain backdrops and overhanging clouds—all of which coalesce to emphasize the massive glacial forms. Soft blues, white, yellow and purple shades capture the subtleties of light in the region. Schantz is known for his landscape paintings, both of his home region of the Berkshires of western Massachusetts and of other sites around the world.
In contrast, Bremers, a Dutch artist and glass sculptor, focuses specifically on singular glacial forms. His glass shaping technique allows him to convey distinct details of the glacial surfaces with curvatures, ripples and crevices. The varying thickness of the transparent glass results in many changing shades of blue. The sculptures range in size from 20 to 40 inches high—with some weighing over 100 pounds. Bremers is also showing his glass sculptures at a solo exhibition, “Ice and Water,” at the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk, Virginia, marking a return to an earlier Iceberg series he started decades ago.
Together, the artists’ work provides both a broad context and an intimate focus on the southern Icelandic region of Vatnajökull.
In an interview with GlacierHub, Bremers and Schantz discuss their creative processes and where they find inspiration.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
What drew you to base your artworks on the Vatnajökull glacier in Iceland, specifically?
Schantz: Peter had just been there a year prior, and he suggested areas to visit, such as Jökulsárlón, the glacial lake at the southern point of Vatnajökull. As the glacier melts, it has been developing this lake since the 1940s and it’s now the deepest lake in Iceland.
Bremers: I’ve been to Vatnajökull three times, and I see how it contracts every time. I see how the distance from the sea to the actual base of the glacier is still quite far, and yet how the glacier bay is growing into a more expansive lake.
You created your work after returning home and speaking about your shared experience. How do you think this space for reflection influenced your art, as opposed to working on-site in Iceland?
Schantz: After I got back home and started to work in my studio, it became this idea of homage to the glaciers. The ice calves are a monument to the glaciers; they are temporal and only last for a week or two.
Being removed from the location and able to somehow transport myself and capture this place while working in the studio was really a special experience. I didn’t expect this inspiration would all come from one place, which is the glacial lake.
Can you speak about your experience working with glass?
Bremers: Ice and glass are very similar, and yet they contrast. Ice loses its shape when heated, whereas heated glass becomes malleable. For the kiln casting [creating an object out of glass in a kiln], I start with an industrial foam, that’s about as soft as pinewood. It allows me to work precisely and relatively fast.
Then, when the model is ready, the mold which holds the glass is made. The term for it is ‘casting’ but technically you don’t ‘cast’ hot glass. We put cold glass in the open cast mold, heat it in the kiln, and it takes on the shape of the mold. It needs to cool down very slowly, which can take months. Finally, it is completely ground and polished.
How would you describe your work and sources of inspiration?
Schantz: There is a sense of unity between our work, and yet the work itself is very different—as was our inspiration. For myself, it was Jökulsárlón. For Peter, it was Diamond Beach, a spot on the shore near the lake where the glacier fragments return after being carried out to sea.
Bremers: I translate the beauty of ice into sculptures that are abstract. I seek to express the way ice interacts with light, and to capture both the structure of ice and the state of it melting.
When you walk around one of these pieces, suddenly, the structure changes and it looks like a waterfall. The ongoing change is really what makes the piece synonymous with the changes happening to the glaciers.
What message do you hope your work will convey?
Bremers: I sometimes say as artists we are witnesses: we translate the world into our work. It’s a sad idea to say that perhaps people will have to go to a museum to see glass sculptures of icebergs and glaciers as a reminder that we once had them?
Schantz: I was just thinking about the Hudson River painters in the 1850s. They could see that America was changing, whether they set out to document this primarily or to paint the beauty of the landscape. They would have this vast landscape with a small factory and smoke on the horizon. That was a warning about change brought on by human causes. We are also documenting in this way. Ultimately, I think, for me it was an idea of opening up to a new way of working, and painting beauty.
For more information on the exhibitions, visit the Berkshire Museum (closed January 5, 2025) or the Chrysler Museum of Art (closed January 19, 2025). Later this year, Schantz and Bremers will have an exhibit at the Sandra Ainsley Gallery in Toronto.
